This guy was the athletic director when I went to day camp at the JCC, and I didn't like him! Also, Susan Wagner High School is my alma mater! Chat Icon


Youth basketball coach accused of spanking 2 teens
(Staten Island Advance)

Police say the man hit the players because they failed to make shots


By KAREN O’SHEA

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

A high school basketball coach who also serves as assistant director at the Jewish Community Center in Greenridge was arrested last night for allegedly spanking two male basketball players when they failed to make a shot.

The last incident occurred July 4 in the JCC when the coach used a paddle to spank one of the teens, police said.

Drew Sanders, 49, who coaches at Tottenville High School and is an employee of the Department of Education, was arrested yesterday around 9 p.m. after the family of one 15-year-old boy called police.

Sanders was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a minor and third degree sex abuse in connection with the incidents with the teen-ager, which allegedly took place over the course of a year at the JCC at 1297 Arthur Kill Rd., police said. The last incident on Monday involved a paddle and caused minor injury, police said.

Sanders also was charged separately yesterday with forcible touching in connection with another incident, which police said took place at Susan Wagner High School.

According to police, Sanders made a deal with the first teen-ager that if he could make a particular shot while playing basketball he would give the boy $10, but if the boy could not make the shot he would allow Sanders to spank him.

Police said the alleged spanking went on for approximately a year and involved 20 incidents.

"This all had to do with basketball," said Sgt. Michael Wysokowski, a Police Department spokesman.

Advance records show Sanders has been an assistant basketball coach at Tottenville High School for 10 years. He is also an assistant executive director of the JCC. In April, Sanders received the Sal Somma Memorial Award, which is given to coaches who got their start coaching in the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization). Somma was a legendary football coach at New Dorp High School in the 1960s and early ‘70s.

In the course of the investigation yesterday, police said they discovered a second 15-year-old victim who made a separate complaint that Sanders spanked him under similar circumstances at Wagner High School. It was unclear yesterday when that incident took place.