Can a swim coach be sued?

You definitely may have a safety issue. You only need to worry about a suit if you or the governing body is worth a boat-load of money or if you are insured with a high dollar amount, as a lawyer's feigned altruism can only go so far to paying the billS:D. I'm busy researching whether it is slanderous to use "altruism" in the same sentence as "lawyer", even if it is qualified with "feigned." Good stuff, Kurt. :D

This thread gives me the willies. I'm currently assisting with our summer league team. There are NO lifeguards on deck during our practices with sometimes up to 85 kids in the pool at one time. AND some of the younger ones start off barely knowing how to swim. The strange thing is that our summer league governing body (whose leadership thinks it rules the swimming universe) doesn't require lifeguards or ANY certifications for its coaches. I think I will be investigating both my coverage and the implementation of certified lifeguards on the deck during practices. This surprises me. Even if the league doesn't require any certifications I'm surprised the pool owners don't require the coaches to at least have a valid lifesaving certification. The swimming activity is occuring on their facilities and I can't believe their insurance coverage allows this to continue. Many years ago I was a summer league coach and I was required to have a lifesaving certification. Some pools even required the WSI certification. But it was the pool, not the league, that required certifications.

Sweet - this will mark the annual beginning of "Toss 'Em All" Wolf versus "Kind and Gentle" Geek for Summer League officiating. I bet Wolf already has a few 5-6 year old shrimps crying themselves to sleep after a DQ. Nope, not this year. :blah: :blah: I'm the referee for all our meets. :angel: So it's all up to those evil S&Ts to make the call. I leave it to you to encourage swimmers to think they're swimming butterfly correctly with a flutter kick. :applaud:

In honor of your ascencion on the Summer League corporate ladder, I will DQ one 4 year old this Summer for a violation, my gift to you, Paul.

In honor of your ascencion on the Summer League corporate ladder, I will DQ one 4 year old this Summer for a violation, my gift to you, Paul. Puh-leeze. Make it a 9yo Butterflier and your sacrifice will be well received.

Geek encourages them to swim butterfly this way because that's the only way he is able to swim fly. That's pretty funny, although not as funny as a grown man swimming the 200 ***, but funny nonetheless! Now, go shave your ears.

I leave it to you to encourage swimmers to think they're swimming butterfly correctly with a flutter kick. :applaud: Geek encourages them to swim butterfly this way because that's the only way he is able to swim fly.

That's pretty funny, although not as funny as a grown man swimming the 200 ***, but funny nonetheless! Now, go shave your ears. Your just prissy because both wolf and i can beat you so badly in this event, that your own teammates wouldn't even claim you as one of their own.

Indeed, this would be a tragedy. I think the issue, however, is how concerned should any coach be about getting sued. For outright negligence, a coach needs to be the one to suck it up. The problem is that even if the coach has done absolutely nothing wrong, he can still get sued and it can take getting far into the lawsuit (summary judgment stage or even well into the trial) before the coach is out of the case. In the meantime, the poor coach has had to go through a lengthy deposition, lost time from work to be prepared for depositions and trial, has lost sleep, and is filled with anxiety. Makes people like myself who just want to help out my kid's summer swim team a little reluctant, no matter how well I might be insured. So, each time I want to help out in something and am fully insured, is it fair that I should just be prepared to be sued at any moment? Instead of this being the "cost of doing business" situation, is this not a cost of being a volunteer situation? Is it o.k. that the cost of being a volunteer is that I risk getting sued? I don't think so. It is, however, a reality. I guess I'm willing to take the risk instead of living my life in fear. Coaching kids is very rewarding to me and I suppose worth the slight risk that I might have to be a party to a lawsuit. That's kind of how I'm looking at it. However, I did mention this thread to the head coach and we discussed lifeguards for next year. Think our team pres. should have no problem with that. Bill S--I don't think any of us are trying to avoid legal action if we are negligent. I work very hard to prevent problems before they happen at our facility. However, the way my situation has been set up is dangerous. And I'm concerned that I could be sued even when I'm doing all I can to keep the swimmers safe. The Head Coach is currently lifeguard certified because she coached for a USAS team for a little while. I am current in First Aid and CPR. I have previously been lifeguard certified but courses are TOO FREAKING LONG and expensive for me to want to re-certify when it's not required. Even if we had three lifeguard certified coaches on deck the sheer numbers of kids both in the pool and on the deck (not to mention the lower level ability levels of some of the swimmers at the beginning of the season) makes having at least one (probably more) dedicated lifeguard a great idea.

Elise, Amy, thanks for the responses. I am glad you are thinking the situation through, and deciding that the rewards of coaching far outweigh the very slight risk of being sued. One way to look at your responses, and particularly Amy's comment about talking to the head coach about the situation at her pool, is that the mere idea of a lawsuit has people discussing and taking steps to improve a potentially dangerous situation. The result is that kids -- mine, yours, and everyone's -- will be a little safer. I'm OK with that result. And to that extent, have not lawyers and the legal system helped to effect a positive social change? I'll leave this here now for the next guy: :soapbox: