ArtSports World Sold as Boger Scandal drags Mike Zapp’s History into Unwanted Limelight
The Boger scandal dragged the name of ArtSports World into the accusing glare of the sports community, thus questioning owner Mike Zapp’s integrity and innocence. All the trouble unravelled by the association of the club with Boger since 2010.
After his inclusion on the list of banned coaches, Boger was employed at ArtSports World by Zapp. The two had longstanding friendship and both belonged to the gymnastics community in the capacity of trainers.
The study that exposed Boger as a repeated s*x offender, gave rise to USA Gymnastics’ loophole-tightening in relevant policies.
These policy changes ruled that USAG-sanctioned clubs, or clubs organizing USAG events, are to comply with the rules and regulations issued by the governing body.
In effect, Boger was fired from ArtSports World on October 5, but not before Zapp was brought into the limelight, his character history was dug out to be inspected.
The gymnastics community was also appalled at Zapp’s irresponsible hiring.
Aerials Gymnastics owner, Lori Forster, has been in the industry since 1983. In the context of hiring, she claims that the gymnastics community is “pretty small” which translates into employers already having a fair idea of who they are hiring.
Zapp tried his best to retain his innocence by deflecting the accusations but with failed attempts. In the beginning, he refrained from owning the misdemeanour he was accused of committing in the past.
Talking to TARGET 13 Investigates, he stated that there was ‘never’ any misconduct on his part. He then proceeded to blame a group of parents who owed him money for making a false accusation.
In a later comment, Zapp’s story was altered to accommodate the alibi of a tween crush. He stated that the victim was his 11-year-old trainee who had a crush on him and mistook spotting for inappropriate touching.
Owing to this, he was convicted of second-degree s*x abuse in Oregon 1987. The court’s records pertinent to this case show Zapp to have spent jail time, although it is doubtful whether the tenure was 20 days long or 150.
Records also reveal a violation of the subsequent probation in 1988, and more jail time, this time 45 days long.
The probation prohibited him from having any contact with females under 18 without a parent or an adult’s presence (except for his own children).
October 6 saw Zapp give into to the pressures of USAG and ArtSports’ Head Coach, Richard Womak, to sign off the sale of the club to Womak.
Womak has the achievement of being named to the U.S. national team coaching staff in 2010. Interestingly, he used to be Boger’s roommate at the University of Arizona in the 1970s.
The third statement by Zapp, following the sale, was different still. In an email quoted by the Colorado Springs Gazette, Zapp insisted that “other gyms in the area attacked (his) integrity several times”, implying innocence.
Lori Sloan Martinez and Debbie Jones are two of Zapp’s students who vouched for his innocence on online forums.
“He is one of the best coaches I ever had…Never was there anything inappropriate,” Martinez wrote.
Jones wrote that Zapp was her coach for four years, around ages 11-15, and mostly had private lessons with him but never felt there to be any misconduct on his part.
“It is preposterous to think that in the middle of being spotted in a double-twisting, double-back flip that Mike, or any coach, has time to think about anything other than safe execution of the trick at hand,” Jones defended.
Either way, Zapp is out of the picture, with Womak having taken over ArtSports World, that will soon be renamed to Trampoline World. The 26,000-square-foot facility will also become a USAG member gym.
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