# Unchecking the Box: Inside ProPublica's High-Stakes Youth Sports Investigations

**By Hank Morrow**  \nPublished September 18, 2026  \nUpdated September 18, 2026

> A joint investigation by ProPublica and The Washington Post revealed how the Amateur Athletic Union failed to implement pledged abuse prevention measures while leveraging arbitration clauses and legal loopholes to shield itself from accountability.

When hundreds of thousands of young athletes gathered for major summer competitions across Florida and Iowa—100,000 at the world's largest volleyball championship in Orlando, 8,000 at storied basketball tournaments inside Disney World, and over 15,000 at the Junior Olympics in Iowa—their parents relied on the trusted red, white, and blue badge of the Amateur Athletic Union. However, an exhaustive investigation by ProPublica and The Washington Post revealed that beneath the massive footprint of the 760,000-member organization lies a persistent operational failure to protect children from sexual abuse, marked by misleading safety claims, unfulfilled reform pledges, and institutional secrecy.

## Institutional Immunity Outside Federal Oversight

A central vulnerability uncovered in the investigation is how the AAU operates completely outside the national oversight framework. In 2018, following revelations surrounding USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and systemic abuse in Olympic sports, Congress established the U.S. Center for SafeSport to investigate allegations and enforce strict safety mandates across national sports governing bodies under the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Because the AAU is not a sanctioned national governing body, it is exempt from SafeSport oversight, does not have to follow its safety laws, and does not mandate SafeSport training for its personnel.

This structural gap has turned the AAU into a refuge for disciplined figures. A review of public disciplinary records and interviews with executives across six national sports governing bodies revealed that the AAU has earned a reputation as an outlet where coaches can escape discipline. ProPublica and The Post identified eight coaches who continued working with children under the AAU over the past five years despite being suspended or banned by other youth sports organizations—directly violating a pledge the AAU made in 2012 to ban such individuals.

## Unfulfilled Reform Pledges and Internal Secrecy

The investigation documented that the AAU broke the majority of the safety commitments it made following a 2011 abuse scandal involving former president Bobby Dodd, who stepped down with a $1.5 million payout after being accused of molesting two former youth basketball players in the 1980s. While current AAU leaders promised a *new culture in which the overarching priority* was protecting young athletes, the mechanisms to enforce that mandate were routinely neglected:

- **Abuse Prevention Training:** The AAU does not offer child abuse prevention training. Although its website previously told parents that training was *mandatory* for coaches, the AAU never verified compliance. After reporters questioned the policy, the organization quietly edited its website to state that training was merely *encouraged*.
- **Reporting Hotline Deficits:** The dedicated abuse reporting hotline promised during past reform pushes simply redirects callers to the general office line. The automated menu provides no option to report child abuse, though callers can press 5 to reach the medal orders department.
- **Arbitrary Internal Review:** Serious misconduct claims are handled by a Board of Review consisting of four elected members and a chair whose identities are kept secret. A former board member who served for nearly 25 years revealed that the group just decided on our feelings rather than following written disciplinary guidelines.Court records and internal documents showed that the review board exonerated a top AAU executive accused of sexual abuse by a former player without interviewing a single witness or reviewing a previous allegation from a different player. Current AAU official Jim Fox categorized the organization's handling of that case as an effort to cover it up.

Former Florida State Senator Lauren Book, a child abuse survivor who served on the AAU's 2011 reform task force before stepping away in frustration, delivered a stark evaluation of the organization's priorities:

blockquote>What AAU does is protect institution over children. They have never done the right thing when it comes to child protection.

Lauren Book, Child Protection Advocate

## Legal Hurdles and Confidential Arbitration

To shield itself from public court proceedings, the AAU places mandatory arbitration clauses in its athlete registration forms. These agreements force families to resolve claims through private arbitration hearings rather than open jury trials. When Greg Stephen, co-director of the Barnstormers Basketball club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was sentenced to 180 years in prison in 2018 for sexually exploiting more than 400 young basketball players, victims tried to hold the parent AAU liable for failing to enforce safety rules, such as prohibiting coaches from sharing bedrooms with players. A judge ruled that the arbitration clause prevented the victims from suing the wealthier parent body in court.

Legal payouts were further restricted by the Barnstormers' AAU-provided insurance policy, which capped sexual abuse coverage at $1 million—yielding just a few thousand dollars per victim. Guy Cook, an attorney representing the families, noted that the AAU had grown highly sophisticated in suppressing lawsuits, stating that its legal playbook was not unlike what the Catholic Church has done.

Even after a 2022 federal law limited forced arbitration in sex abuse matters, the AAU attempted to force a 2024 lawsuit filed by a Florida teenage volleyball player into confidential arbitration before settling the matter out of court last year. When questioned about its enforcement, training, and legal practices, the AAU declined to answer specific inquiries, citing legal matters. In a public statement, the organization maintained that it is committed to protecting its athletes through comprehensive protection policies overseen by our Compliance Department, pointing to mandatory background screenings, verified identity checks, concussion protocols, and supplemental medical coverage as evidence of a safe environment. However, the organization refused to verify to reporters whether specific active coaches overseeing registered teams had been background-checked.

## ProPublica's Broader Scope in Sports Accountability

The deep dive into the AAU reflects a broader commitment by ProPublica—a non-profit newsroom that has won nine Pulitzer Prizes for exposing institutional corruption—to hold major sports organizations accountable. Beyond youth basketball and volleyball oversight, ProPublica's investigative teams have targeted predatory labor and developmental practices across international sports ecosystems:

Key Focus Areas of ProPublica Sports Investigationsthead>Target AreaPrimary Findings & Operational Impact**Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)**Failure to implement 2011 abuse prevention pledges; lack of SafeSport compliance; use of arbitration clauses to block court scrutiny; refusal to verify background check compliance of specific coaches to reporters.**Major League Baseball (Dominican Republic)**Undocumented handshake deals with international prospects as young as 11 years old; exposure of predatory moneylenders preying on impoverished families.**Dominican Prospect Oversight**Uncovering secret payouts that rescued the career of top prospect Oneil Cruz following a darkened road collision that left three dead.**Regional Coaching Misconduct**Documenting systemic enforcement gaps that allowed Texas girls' volleyball coach Ryan Richardson to continue coaching despite official findings of misconduct with a minor.The historical trajectory of the AAU clarifies how institutional incentives shifted. Founded in the 19th century to govern amateur athletics, the organization lost its official national governing status when Congress reassigned those responsibilities to the USOPC in 1978. Beginning in 1992 under Bobby Dodd, the AAU reshaped itself into a high-volume business, using $16 registration fees, inexpensive liability coverage, and a lucrative headquarters arrangement at Disney World to fuel explosive financial growth. As ProPublica's ongoing reporting demonstrates, that commercial expansion was prioritized over basic safeguard enforcement, leaving young athletes exposed in the absence of external regulatory oversight.

## Sources

- [advocate.com](https://www.advocate.com/news/aau-propublica-sports-investigation) — original
- [projects.propublica.org](https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/civil-rights-violations) — original
- [propublica.org](https://www.propublica.org/topics/sports) — original