Parents are upset that a registered sex offender is helping to train young soccer players

OMAHA, Nebraska (Nebraska) – When parents send their children out for recreational activities, they expect their children to be in the safe hands of adults they trust.

However, one Omaha family is upset. No one told them that their daughter’s football coach and coach had been convicted of a sex crime.

6 News spoke with his father, who says his trust in the Metro Wolves football club has been damaged.

Between June and July 2022, Josh Monroe’s four-year-old daughter was enrolled in the Metro Wolves Football Club’s football camp in Omaha. Monroe told 6 News that he pulled his daughter out of the team because he said the coach yelled at the kids.

“He yelled at them and it didn’t look like he was yelling at high school students,” Monroe said. “I played sports in high school, so I can understand that. But these were four-, six-, seven-, eight-year-old children, at whom he shouted that they were doing something wrong. So we took our daughter out of this organization.”

Monroe says he would have gotten his daughter out much sooner because now, seven months later, he and his wife have learned that the same man, Jason Dishman, is a registered sex offender.

Jason Dishman (Nebraska Sex Offender Registry)

“I found out about it walking past another parent who was in the same camp as us and said, ‘Hey, by the way, the coach was a sex offender,’” Monroe said. “My daughter called him ‘coach. I viewed him as a coach, just like other parents.”

In 2010, Jason Dishman pleaded no contest to attempted child sexual abuse. He was accused of inappropriate behavior with a 15-year-old football player from the team he was then coaching. Dishman was given a five-year suspended sentence and ordered to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

“It’s disappointing that we trust our kids and we signed up to help our daughter grow in football and we trust her to be around the adults who will take care of her and we’ve been lied to, straight up,” Monroe said. “No one came out and told us about it. For me, as a parent, this is insulting and undermines the trust of society, which probably does not need to be broken.

Two days ago, Josh’s wife emailed David Clements, the club’s administrator, asking what the club was doing to protect the children in his care. In his response, Clements said:

“He (Dishman) admitted his criminal record at the time of filing with the board (the same was true when his son enrolled in our program). Since then, he has had no further offenses, has a stable home life with a 6-year-old son and another baby on the way, and has passed the appropriate background checks and training prescribed by the US Football Federation. At his request, we never did individual training with him, only group training with other employees. Nor will he be a head coach/authority figure on any team with us, only a group coach, again at his request. We did discuss hiring him internally, but felt he was not at risk of becoming a repeat offender.”

Monroe doesn’t understand how a registered sex offender passed the U.S. Football Federation’s background check.

“They believe in a second chance. Great news for them: so does much of America,” Monroe said. “We don’t believe in second chances when you do something inappropriate to a child and you should be placed in the same environment. So, his crime involved a kid he met on the football field. You don’t give the same opportunity again. And it was given to him, and this information was not revealed to us as parents.”

The Monroes are told that their daughter will not be returning to the Metro Wolves football club. They just want other parents to know that a registered sex offender convicted of crimes against a minor is helping educate kids.

6 News received the following statement from the Metro Wolves football club:

“Mr. Dishman is the parent of a young football player of our club. His son has been playing at our club since the spring of 2021.

Mr. Dishman approached us as a parent wanting to help with training – he has never been an official team coach.

All coaches and instructors, with the exception of parents, adhere to the SafeSport standards and practices that the club adheres to. The SafeSport standard states: “All interactions are spectator-observable and can be aborted.” This means that there must be another adult in the immediate vicinity; no one, whether staff or volunteer, is allowed to be alone with the players, and no one-on-one training is allowed.

With each new session, we encourage parents to get involved with their children. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we use and appreciate the help of all volunteers. Especially those with previous professional experience, as in the case of Mr. Dishman.

We are always open to any new volunteers, whether they have any previous football experience or not, and work with many groups in the non-profit community. We recruit volunteers at all levels of the organization and are always available for those who are interested to discuss options and what is best for them.”

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