MIDVALE — Konnor Finn knew right away that he was hurt.
The former Ridgeline football player and a teammate had collided, their helmets smashing together, during a 2017 practice. He claims he immediately left the field and told his position coach that he thought he had a concussion. Finn said in a lawsuit filed in October that his coach told him to “man up” and “get back out there” and practice. Doing so, he claims, exacerbated a serious head injury, causing him to suffer a traumatic brain injury that two years later causes pain, blackouts, confusion and seizures.
Like most student athletes, Finn did as he was told that day because nothing matters more to them than being able to play the games they love.
What Finn didn’t know is that since 2011, state law requires all high school coaches — paid employees of the districts as well as unpaid volunteers — to be trained in concussion protocol. In 2017, the year he was injured, that law was augmented with rules from the State Board of Education and Utah High School Activities Association, which require that concussion training be done through the National Federation of High Schools before any sports season starts.
The coach did not take the concussion course in 2017, according to the federation’s database. It lists him as not completing that course until more than a year later on Oct. 23, 2018 — after another high school football season was nearly over.
Cache School District spokesman Tim Smith told the Deseret News that doesn’t necessarily mean the coach didn’t complete a concussion training course in 2017. He might have received training through the district or through Ridgeline High, but that would only satisfy district requirements.
Statewide rules require that concussion and multiple other training courses by coaches be completed before the season starts, and those records must be uploaded to a program called Register My Coach, which is maintained by the Utah High School Activities Association.
That never happened.
And this case is not unique.
The Deseret News has been investigating who is coaching our kids, how high school coaches are properly trained and who makes sure they’re completing the training mandated by state law to deal with the ever-expanding list of issues facing young athletes.
During the past year we’ve conducted dozens of interviews with coaches, trainers, parents, district officials, school board members, superintendents and the Utah High School Activities Association. Many spoke on condition of anonymity.
It reveals a system that is well-intentioned — but largely ineffective.
Some of the conclusions include:
- Most schools do not provide a comprehensive list of coaches, including unpaid or volunteer staff, on their websites so parents can clearly see who is working with their children.
- There is no public database for all of the training requirements, which makes it difficult (if not impossible) for an outside agency or a parent to independently verify whether important training has been completed and filed with the Utah High School Activities Association.
- Hundreds of coaches have not filed a single document with the association to verify that they’ve received proper training.
- Despite very clear State School Board and activities association rules on what it means to be certified as a coach, how coaches are trained, who pays for that training, and who makes sure that untrained coaches aren’t working with student athletes varies wildly from district to district — and sometimes school to school within the same district.
Out of compliance
In trying to determine whether coaches are certified, there is little consistency and almost no transparency. In fact, the only way to independently verify whether or not a coach has completed any training required is the National Federation of High Schools database, which only tracks the courses it offers online, and only one of those is required — the concussion protocol training.
There are eight requirements all high school coaches must meet in order to be certified: Undergo a criminal background check; receive first aid training; CPR training; yearly concussion training; yearly child sexual abuse prevention training; and yearly bullying, cyberbullying, hazing, harassment and retaliation training. They are also required to complete the federation’s Fundamentals of Coaching course, and meet a set of professional standards that are consistent with the Utah Educator Professional Standards.
But if parents want to independently verify whether their son’s football or wrestling coach underwent a background check and has received training on how to prevent sex abuse or bullying, or whether their daughter’s softball coach or drill team instructor is CPR-certified or received training about preventing hazing, those parents are out of luck.
There is no public access to any database listing this information — at any level.
That problem seems to add to the issues of enforcement because every school and district seems to compile and check the requirements differently, and most are not consistently using the database that the state requires them to use — Register My Coach.
The Deseret News conducted a random audit of 100 Utah coaches from all classifications and across all sports using the only public database available — the National Federation of High Schools training portal. That information was cross-referenced with the Utah High School Activities Association records, and not a single school checked was 100% compliant.
“I can understand why the State School Board is wanting this, just to verify that we have good people around our kids. ... But it’s been a problem of being able to get in and work on it.”
In fact, most were massively out of compliance with one large urban school district showing that only a handful of coaches across all of its schools are certified. At one school, which boasts some of the top teams across all sports, there was only one coach who had completed all eight requirements and registered with the association.
In fact, some schools and at least one district didn’t even exist in the Register My Coach database, and quite often the person responsible was either a school or district athletic director.
In an effort to understand how each district approaches coach training — and even whether the districts maintain a public list or an internal database of all their coaches — the Deseret News emailed a list of questions to every superintendent in the state, including how violations are found and how they’re rectified. Only 12 of the 41 districts responded to those questions.
One superintendent, who said his district utilizes Register My Coach according to the rules, said he was certain every coach on every sideline was in compliance with the rules.
“Yes, the rules are working to protect kids,” he said.
Yet when the Deseret News checked several coaches from his district, they were not found in the national federation’s database. Furthermore, according to the Utah High School Activities Association, not a single coach from his district is registered.
That means none of them are certified, according to association and board rules.
When told, the superintendent referred the Deseret News to an athletic director, who said he ran into technical issues in uploading documents and never sought help in rectifying the situation.
“Our concussion training goes through our athletic trainer,” the athletic director said. “We take roll and keep track of everyone in attendance. ... I can understand why the State School Board is wanting this, just to verify that we have good people around our kids. As we get away from people who aren’t teachers as coaches, I understand that concern even more. But it’s been a problem of being able to get in and work on it.”
Yet the association said there is free technical support on the Register My Coach site, and the association has held countless training sessions for coaches and administrators.
There are thousands of coaches statewide, and no district even has a public listing of its coaches — paid and unpaid — listed by sport or school, making it impossible to independently verify whether an administrator’s claims of 100% compliance are even true.
And nearly every school checked had at least one head coach who wasn’t compliant.
“I don’t think the districts feel any accountability to the UHSAA,” said one principal. “There is a disconnect between what the State Board of Education is saying they expect, and (the obligation) school administrators feel to (the association).”
Even knowing there were issues in his own school didn’t surprise him, although he said they’re constantly trying to make sure coaches comply with the rules.
“That’s not surprising,” said the same principal. “All of them are going to do what they have to do in their districts, but this (Register My Coach) is relatively new. And I don’t think the district human resource people ... have all bought into that yet. They need to. But that’s just where the disconnect is.”
The issue may also be a lack of accountability.
Who is doing the checking?
Who is checking to make sure coaches complete the required training? That depends on the school and the district, although the Utah High School Activities Association began working on compliance for state tournaments, which it oversees, a few months ago.
One veteran coach said he hadn’t completed the training, and he felt like it is too much to ask coaches to not only complete the training, but learn a new system of record keeping (Register My Coach), on top of all the other things they’re asked to do for an amount of money that doesn’t even amount to minimum wage.
“I thought, ‘Great, another thing to add to my plate,’” he said, pointing out that in his district, coaches pay between $45 and $90 for the training and background check, and some of them are unpaid volunteers. “It’s not fair to these coaches, and so I try to get permission from my principal to pay for it out of our budget, but that comes from fees and fundraisers, and it’s not even enough money to run the program.”
Enforcement of the requirements is explicitly the responsibility of individual schools and districts, and most schools contacted pass that responsibility to the athletic director or principal. However, the State School Board tasked the activities association with providing a database that would track the eight coaching certification requirements, including a background check and concussion training.
In turn, the association — which is made up of more than 150 member schools and run by staff that does as directed by principals and superintendents — provided Register My Coach to track the requirements, while also providing a number of online courses that ensure every school in every district has access to the necessary training classes.
While most designated someone at each school to check compliance, most gave that responsibility to a district official who oversees athletics. The Canyons School District manages coaches’ training through its human resources department, and the district opened up its records to the Deseret News. The random audit found all 10 of the head coaches that were randomly checked had completed the required training.
But in checking with the association, not all of them had completed the certification process by uploading proof of training to the state database, Register My Coach.
“In my opinion, it should be someone at the school board or state office that follows up with schools and districts that aren’t doing it.”
While that’s left to individual schools, it’s clear after the investigation that many schools don’t strictly enforce these rules. It’s a problem many administrators acknowledged in interviews, and it’s become so problematic that the association is testing its own accountability measures with pilot credentialing for wrestling and drill teams this winter.
“The thing that’s hard for us is that we don’t hire or fire the coaches,” said assistant activities association director Brenan Jackson. “We don’t do the training. We provide opportunities for training, something the (State) School Board has tasked us with. In my opinion, it should be someone at the school board or state office that follows up with schools and districts that aren’t doing it.”
Genesis of coaching certifications
The need for training and certification began when lawmakers got involved in how student athletes can transfer between member schools.
In 2017, the Utah Legislature sought more oversight of the Utah High School Activities Association, a private nonprofit that schools formed nearly a century ago in order to oversee and run high school sports tournaments. The movement to create a high school coach certification process began with concern about how and why students could transfer from one school to another when it came to athletics.
And while the legislation, which passed in March 2017, addressed specific transfer situations and the appeals options for parents dissatisfied with an association decision, an ancillary discussion about the qualifications of coaches began among State School Board members.
What became apparent was that there was no universal certification for coaches. That led to changes to the rules of both the State School Board and the Utah High School Activities Association.
According to association and school board rules, “Coaches’ certification includes eight components and shall be completed prior to the start of any coaching.”
The association bylaws also state that the Fundamentals of Coaching course must be completed prior to coaching, and it exempts those coaches who have a physical education or dance major or minor.
“For me, safety was No. 1.”
“For me, safety was No. 1,” said State School Board member Laura Belnap, who oversaw the committee that worked with association officials on the certification requirements and now sits on the group’s board of trustees. “But not just background checks and if they should be working with kids. Safety, like do they know how to train kids? Are we training them too hard in the heat? When they stretch, is it safe? Safety physically, as well as (emotional).”
She said that from the outside, it looked like a simple issue to address.
“It seemed easy, but it was not,” she said. “It was painful, and it is still an ongoing rolling ball.”
The association’s staff felt like they fulfilled their obligation under the rules immediately when they presented Register My Coach to member schools and they voted to use it. It was a program similar to the one being used for student eligibility called Register My Athlete.
“We’re just providing a system to house information in a central location,” said association assistant director Jon Oglesby. “That’s what we were tasked with as an association.”
One principal said he remembers Register My Coach being billed as a way to make sure problematic coaches didn’t move from one district to another with no paper trail.
“That was the impetus,” the principal said. “We can’t have these people moving from school to school and not giving a complete work history, so we don’t know about the stuff they’ve done. ... I had no idea there was an expectation that it was the database where we’d track all eight things required of coaches.”
Jackson said the lack of compliance worries him for a myriad reasons.
“When we presented this to (the schools), they said they would use it as the program to monitor and follow,” Jackson said. “I’m just worried sick that we have too many coaches that aren’t certified. We have a form that principals fill out and sign at the beginning of the year that they’ll do this training.”
When asked how many principals returned that signed form to association staff promising the training would be done, Rob Cuff, the association’s executive director, said, “Well, we have a hard time collecting those, too.”
At one private school, the athletic director said the school does the required training, but it hasn’t been participating in Register My Coach. Another district official assured the Deseret News that that district uses its own tracking program that ensures that the training is complete for all coaches, but was unaware of the rules requiring the use of Register My Coach.
Random calls to coaches around the state revealed different reasons for avoiding Register My Coach, although all of them admitted they know it’s required by State School Board rule.
The only consistent compliance with the rules that the Deseret News could verify was that those coaches who are also teachers or who are paid by schools do undergo criminal background checks.
Most administrators and district officials pointed to the completion of background checks as proof that their coaches were “cleared” or “qualified” to work with student athletes.
And while several athletic directors said background checks — which reveal any criminal convictions, not all of which are disqualifying — has been effective in screening applicants, it’s also not a predictor of possible problems.
“The background check is a Dumbo’s feather.”
“The background check is a Dumbo’s feather,” said State Board of Education member Carol Lear, an attorney who has dealt with teacher ethics violations for many years.
“Most of the people who misbehave, it’s not because they didn’t have a DUI in their background. Most of the misconduct is spontaneous or a lack of training.”
“Most of the misconduct is spontaneous or a lack of training.”
Another principal said it was virtually impossible to keep track of volunteer coaches because the turnover is so substantial. Another district athletic director said they limit the number of volunteers, and if they’re not listed with the district, they’re not supposed to be working with student athletes.
Again, there is no way to independently verify which coaches are volunteers and no school the Deseret News checked offers a public list of all their coaches and volunteers.
Some coaches see value, others don’t
Even some of the state’s most successful coaches don’t have accounts in Register My Coach, nor do they show up in the national federation’s database. A number of coaches discussed their noncompliance with the Deseret News, and for most of them, the excuse was it was simply an issue of too much to do.
For two state champion coaches at schools in different districts in different classifications, the issue was the same — there isn’t enough time to get everything done and they don’t get paid enough to make it worthwhile. One football coach claimed that if his administration told him he was required to use it, he’d resign. A volleyball coach said she has an account, which catalogues her training records and verifies certification, but that is maintained by her athletic director.
For the football coach who doesn’t participate in Register My Coach, even a conversation with his athletic director didn’t help motivate him.
“I’ve never done it,” he said. “I didn’t do it last year and nobody said anything.”
He said he has taken first aid and CPR classes through his district, and he is a stickler for the background check, even for volunteers.
“I don’t think anybody at my school is on there,” he said of tracking coach training and background checks. His comments echo the sentiment of a number of coaches, school and district officials. “It’s a waste of money. The district is already doing it.”
The Deseret News talked with his district about tracking these issues, and two different officials acknowledged it is almost impossible to keep up with because of turnover and the variety of ways schools are managed.
“The average career for a football coach today is about five years,” he said. “The age of that coach being in the school building (as a teacher or employee) is almost gone,” partly because more and more coaches are being hired who aren’t also teachers.
One volleyball coach said if he was required to participate in Register My Coach, he’d resign because coaches already have too much to do for just a few hundred dollars. Every minute of time spent on something like uploading documents, he said, is time away from coaching kids, “which is the reason we do this.”
But other coaches willingly participate.
“Our school’s athletic director is really good, and you can’t coach until you have it done,” said North Sanpete volleyball coach Rickie Stewart.
She said the training requirements are part of the reason she chose not to have volunteer coaches this season.
“I felt, as a volunteer, I think it’s a fairly unreasonable thing to ask that they do the same thing as teachers do,” Stewart said. “I’m never going to leave a volunteer alone with kids. I don’t even leave my paid assistants to run practices, and that’s not going to change. I understand the liability, and I understand why. We’re really careful with who we let around kids anyway.”
She said she feels fortunate that in her small, close-knit community there is a level of knowledge about potential coaches that may not exist in larger communities.
“We know everybody because we’re a small town,” she said. “We take great pride in hiring the right people. I understand that finding coaches is a struggle in most places.”
Stewart said the training and proving compliance can be an annoyance, but she’s willing to endure it.
“Everything we all do in education, we jump through hoop after hoop so that I can go and do my job,” she said. “I do and deal with all of this stuff and it doesn’t make me any better of a teacher, but I do it so I can teach kids. ... Our athletic department really tries to work with coaches, and yeah, if you have an assistant coach who doesn’t work at the school, it’s probably a little bit of a thorn in your side. But they’ve worked hard to make it as easy as possible.”
When asked if she felt the training made her a better coach, she said some of the training videos have been enlightening.
“The one on child sex trafficking, it was uncomfortable to watch,” she said. “I don’t know that I would ever think about it. ... I’m not sure watching that made me a better coach, but it made me realize it’s more prevalent than you think.”
Farmington High School girls basketball coach Van Price has been coaching for more than three decades, and said he sees value in the training.
“I remember in 2005, when we went to state, I had a girl with a concussion, and not really knowing the protocol, she was playing,” he said. “Then she’s not acting right, but you don’t know. ... We had a player with a concussion last year, and we had to sit her out for two weeks.”
He said he knows of coaches who don’t use Register My Coach, and believes there is only one way to ensure compliance.
“The bottom line, if you don’t do it, you don’t coach,” said Price, who had completed his requirements six weeks before his season started. “That’s probably the biggest thing that would work. Our athletic director requires us to do it before our season starts.”
Enforcement was never part of the activities association’s responsibilities, but the staff and Cuff feel so strongly about the lack of compliance, they’ve been working on ways to enforce the rules. Starting this year, wrestling and drill team coaches will not be given state tournament credentials without being certified through the Register My Coach system.
What does work?
Several factors seemed to indicate better compliance.
Schools with a full-time athletic trainer who is also a teacher at the school, seem to have better compliance. The Canyons and Washington County school districts had the best overall compliance in the random Deseret News sampling. In Washington County, oversight and enforcement comes from the head of risk management, rather than an athletic administrator, as most districts utilize, while Canyons relied on its human resources administrator.
“We view it as a risk issue,” said Michael Lee, who spent several weeks at the beginning of every sports season checking coaches at Washington County high schools when they began using Register My Coach. “The idea being that some of our greatest liability exposure is our volunteer coaches. They’re people who are otherwise not affiliated with the school district, who come in after hours, and have unmitigated access to students.”
How massive is the task of managing a district of eight high schools?
“We have got 622 coaches in our school district, and we’re not even close to being the biggest school district in the state,” he said. “It’s become almost a full-time job to take care of it. And I’m not the one scrambling to take care of it every day. It’s the schools’ individual athletic directors who fill that role.”
In nearly all situations, a more diligent athletic director means better compliance.
“The athletic director is the facilitator of this,” said Jeff Cluff, assistant director of the Utah High School Activities Association. “If he or she does it, it will be done. You can go to the athletic director and see who is doing a good job and who is not.”
Lee said part of their enforcement was him showing up randomly at schools with a clipboard to make sure those coaches on the sidelines were cleared to be there.
“It’s frankly impossible,” he said of trying to have one person make sure schools are compliant. “We have to rely on the head coaches, the athletic directors and the principals at each school.”
At Canyons School District, Jo Jolley, the district’s human resources manager, oversees the background checks and training, and she said her assistant is dogged in making sure coaches are compliant.
Lee said when he took over in 2017, “there was no handle on it. Now, I think we do an excellent job. I can’t tell you for sure we’re 100%, because with turnover and volunteers there may be some issues now and then.”
Lee acknowledge the wisdom in having a database of certified coaches, but said he’s not a fan of Register My Coach.
“I get why some people don’t want to use it,” he said, noting they pay $15 per coach to open an account. “It’s a glorified spreadsheet, and I track all of our stuff using our human resources software.”
But as one district official in northern Utah noted, “We understand that everyone doesn’t have access to the programs we use, so we’re supportive of the association’s use of Register My Coach.”
The real issue with accountability may be that no one outside of designated users can verify whether a coach is certified. Several districts said parents are welcome to ask whether their coach has completed the requirements, but none said they would show parents any proof.
Without a public database, there is no outside accountability.
“How do you make sure schools and districts comply? Right now we don’t have penalties.”
Cuff likes the idea of being more transparent, but said that’s not up to the staff of the association.
“That would be a question for districts and charter and private school governing boards,” he said. “How much can they make personnel things public? Sure, they can’t go into detail, but maybe just disclose if (requirements) are done or not.”
He said sometimes districts add their own coaching certification requirements in addition to what the state requires. All of that can also be tracked in Register My Coach, he said.
“We’ve come up with a system that schools and districts said they’d use,” Cuff said. “Now it’s the enforcement of it that is kind of in limbo. How do you make sure schools and districts comply? Right now we don’t have penalties.”
Cuff said the association hopes to require certification for state tournaments in all sports next year.
“I think the intent (in requiring the training and certifications) has been good,” he said. “I think our step in doing the credentials is a good first step. ... We’re taking extra steps as a result of noncompliance. We’re trying to help the situation, not punish, but help the situation.”