From the mailbag, regarding Rick Lopez:

My name is Darryl Smith. I was the head coach at Metropolitan State college in Denver from 1989-1998. Rick Lopez was my student volunteer for my first and most of my second season. We were 22-2 with one league game left to play when 3 of my players came to me and said that Rick was running around with one of their teammates, one of our players. I immediately dismissed him but not without a fight. In fact the girl’s father paid me a visit and pleaded for Rick's job. Needless to say, I instructed Rick at the time that that line could never be crossed. He instantly became an enemy of me and my program. I then spoke with his backers about his in appropriate behavior, and they were extremely passive about it and continued to support him. It is a sad story and Rick was a sick individual. However, the people that surrounded the Colorado Hoopsters should be under scrutiny as well.

Agreed. And along those lines, the Denver Post last Sunday published a long article titled "Hard lessons to be learned."

The article is a fascinating examination of how, despite all of the rumors and glimpses of inappropriate behavior, Lopez remained the Hoopsters coach for so many years. Many parents, including Liz Sherwood's, explain why they didn't speak up sooner. As the mother of one victim says, she simply heard what she wanted to hear.

I think more of this sort of examination is needed, especially at the larger institutional level. I am still waiting for some sort of response to this from AAU Girls' Basketball.

Look, the point isn't that we should get all hysterical about this problem. There is no "epidemic" of sexual abuse in girls' basketball or girls' sports generally. But we've heard enough in the last year, both in Colorado and elsewhere, to know that the problem is real.

Moreover, even if the problem is already relatively small, a few simple, common-sense steps could make it smaller.

Right now, AAU Policies state that individuals who have engaged in sexual misconduct may not coach. But those policies are vague, and they do nothing to clarify the line between appropriate and inappropriate relationships between coaches and players. The Coaches Code of Ethics says nothing about sexual misconduct whatsoever.

The Post article suggests a few simple moves that could go a long way. Adult coaches and minor players should not spend time alone together, especially off the court. Coaches shouldn't separate or elevate certain girls from the team. An adult coach shouldn't be a minor player's best friend -- there need to be parameters on what sort of personal relationship is acceptable.

And, as Coach Smith's email suggests, AAU and other programs should take more responsibility for looking into a coach's background.

It would not be hard for AAU or other institutions to turn these lessons into concrete policies, or at an absolute minimum, into hortatory guidelines given to all coaches. It is past time that they did.