Following a lifetime ban by USA Volleyball, at least three sports groups have announced they would cancel events at facilities that Rick Butler owned and operated.
Both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University announced that they would be moving their spring matches at Butler’s Great Lakes Volleyball Center following the ban, according to the Chicago Tribune. These cancellations come after USA Badminton decided to move a national tournament away from his Aurora gym.
It was officially announced on January 10, 2018, that USAV would issue their second-lifetime ban on Butler. The Chicago Sun-Times said that Butler was officially banned after a hearing that took place on December 11, 2017 – a hearing not on the validity of the accusations made against him, but rather a hearing on whether he violated the organization’s rules by revealing the identities of his accusers in public.
Their first crackdown on Butler came in 1995 over allegations of inappropriate sexual relationships with players but it was overturned in 2000. Though he was reinstated, the lift of the ban came with the stipulation that he never coach junior girls in any of the organization’s events. The second ban on Butler came after three players came back forward to have him fully banned from the organization for the relationships he had with them while they were under 18.
Despite the ban from USAV, Butler found a way around the rule, coaching for the AAU all of these years – allowing him to continue coaching youth players.
Leave a Reply