Volunteer Coaches

Coaching a youth sport is a great way to spend quality time with your child and give back to the community. No coaching experience is necessary. We will give you all of the tools to be a successful coach! Interested? Give Parks and Recreation a call at 515-963-3570 to get started.

Benefits of Coaching

• If your child is participating in the program you are coaching, you can choose the night their team would practice.
• Volunteer coaches receive a 50% off registration credit that can be used toward any future Parks and Recreation program.

Background Check Required

The City of Ankeny has put in place the following guidelines regarding background checks for all volunteer coaches for youth and adult sports programs. This process helps to ensure the integrity of our programs and the safety of all participants, to the best of our ability. All offers to coach youth and adult sports teams with Ankeny Parks and Recreation are contingent upon clear results of a thorough background check. Any PENDING cases involving the offenses described below shall disqualify an individual from volunteer coaching.

Background checks include:

• SSN Verification and address history
• National criminal database search
• National sex offender search
• Re-verification of criminal records
• Alias names

Disqualifying Criteria

A person will be disqualified and prohibited from serving as a volunteer if the person has been found guilty of the following crimes.

• All sex offenses
  Examples include, but are not limited to child molestation, rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sodomy, prostitution, solicitation, indecent exposure, etc.
• All Felony violence offenses
  Examples include, but are not limited to murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated burglary, etc.
• All Felony offenses other than violence or sex within the past ten years.
  Examples include, but are not limited to: drug offenses, theft, embezzlement, fraud, child endangerment, etc.
• All Misdemeanor violence offenses within the past five years.
  Examples include, but are not limited to simple assault, battery, domestic violence, hit and run, etc.
• All Misdemeanor Drug offenses within the past five years.
  Examples include, but are not limited to simple drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, etc.
• Any Two or more Misdemeanor Alcohol offenses within the past five years.
  Examples include, but are not limited to driving under the influence, drunk and disorderly, public intoxication, etc.
• Any other Misdemeanor within the last five years that would be considered a potential danger to children or is directly related to the functions of that volunteer.
  Examples include, but are not limited to contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing alcohol to a minor, theft-if person is handling monies, etc.

To protect the privacy of the person, all information obtained in the course of conducting this background check is treated as confidential and will only be shared within the organization on a "need to know" basis and only disclosed to third parties outside the organization when required by law. The City of Ankeny reserves the right to modify this policy at any time without notice. Volunteer coaches shall complete a background check once per City of Ankeny fiscal year (July 1 - June 30). Any person who provides inaccurate and/or falsified information or who refuses to complete the background check process will be disqualified.