Convicted sex offender regains control of Colorado gym

12-10-2011 California:

A convicted sex offender who was forced out of a Colorado Springs gymnastics club during the recent controversy over his hiring of a banned coach has regained control of the gym, illustrating the difficulties the sport's national governing body faces in keeping coaches with a history of abuse out of the sport.

The changes at ArtSports World, the Colorado club, come the same week that USA Gymnastics approved major rule changes designed to protect athletes from sexual and physical abuse.

In October, following an Orange County Register investigation into sexual and physical abuse in top level gymnastics, Michael Zapp, a convicted sex offender, agreed to sell ArtSports to a group of investors headed by U.S. national team coach Tex Womack, according to Womack.

But Womack said he was fired via email last week from his head coaching position at ArtSports World gym while traveling in Europe after coaching at the World Championships in Birmingham, England.

Zapp was convicted in December 1987 of second-degree sexual abuse in Oregon for inappropriately touching the breasts of a 12-year-old girl he was coaching at an Ashland, Oregon gymnastics school, court records show. Zapp did not respond to phone messages left at both ArtSports and his home over a three-day period this week or to emails requesting comment.

The Womack firing comes as USA Gymnastics' board of directors passed rule changes in recent days that expand the scope of misconduct covered by the group's by-laws, make it easier for USAG officials to ban coaches and officials convicted of sexual misconduct and require the publication of greater detail on why coaches and officials are placed on USAG's permanently ineligible list. The rules also streamline the investigative process.

USA Gymnastics' president said the organization's board of directors has also begun discussions on passing rules requiring athletes competing in USAG-sanctioned events, including the U.S. Championships and Olympic Trials, to be affiliated with clubs adhering to the USAG rules that prohibit employment of banned coaches or officials.

This week's round of rule changes follow a USA Gymnastics policy change last month requiring any organization or business hosting or organizing USAG events to be in compliance with the rules prohibiting employment of people on its permanently ineligible list.

The rule change, USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said, "brings a greater sense of trust, a greater sense of responsibility and accountability with the groups we do business with."

While applauding the two rounds of rule changes, some former gymnasts, including Olympians and U.S. national team members, argue that USA Gymnastics still has not gone far enough in preventing coaches and officials with a history of abuse from staying in the sport. Specifically the former gymnasts point out that coaches can continue to remain involved in the sport at a high level by working at clubs like ArtSports World that are not registered with USA Gymnastics.

"I'm disappointed because there's still a loophole and Michael Zapp can still coach," said Amy Moran, one of 10 gymnasts who told the Register they were abused at a Pasadena gymnastics club in the 1970s and 80s.

The USA Gymnastic rule changes are in response to a Register investigation of the sport's long-hidden history of exploitation of young female gymnasts, including more than dozen former athletes who say they were sexually or physically abused by some of the nation's top coaches. Don Peters, coach of the record-setting 1984 U.S. Olympic women's team and the internationally renown SCATS gym in Huntington Beach, was placed on USAG's permanently ineligible list and removed from the sport's Hall of Fame last month following allegations from three women that he sexually abused at least three young gymnasts in the 1980s.

The Register investigation also focused on how former U.S. national team coach Doug Boger, who ran the Pasadena gym, continued to coach young gymnasts more than a year after he was banned from the sport by USAG for sexually and physically abusing underage female athletes.

Boger was able to continue to coach young gymnasts because ArtSports World, run by Boger's long-time friend Zapp, hired him following his 2010 ban by USAG. Because ArtSports World is not a USAG member club it is not subject to restrictions on hiring persons on the banned list. Zapp cannot be banned from USA Gymnastics because he has not been a member of the organization, USAG officials said. Despite ArtSports non-member status it has remained a major player in high level gymnastics. A string of ArtSports athletes have won U.S. titles in recent years. Four ArtSports employees are USA Gymnastics judges.

Boger was fired by Zapp shortly after the Register investigation was published. Zapp was in Oregon at the time of the Register report leaving Womack to deal with angry parents and USAG officials, and television news trucks parked outside the gym for days at a time.

"Their past caught up to my future," Womack said referring to Boger and Zapp. "Crashed into it from behind."

According to Womack, Zapp initially told Womack and others he was going to sell the gym, but he later decided to stay in control and fire Womack.

Boger has not returned to the gym, according to Womack

Former gymnasts maintain the only way to close the loophole that allows sex offenders and others on the permanently ineligible list to stay in the sport is to require athletes competing in USA Gymnastics' sanctioned competitions to be affiliated with USAG member clubs or registered businesses.

Penny said the board of directors has begun looking at such a rule change, acknowledging that there is "nothing legally" from preventing them to do so. Such a rule change could be made as early as next month, Penny said.

"The board has discussed the manners and methods by which only registered businesses (and member clubs) could submit athlete registrations," Penny said. "While it's likely headed in that direction we have to have an awareness on how that effects our community." ..Source.. by SCOTT M. REID / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER