RISING SUN, Md. — 32-year-old Eric Starkey was the face of Rising Sun Junior Football and Cheer for two years as a coach and the program’s president.
“He played football himself. I mean we trusted him,” said Morgan Kessler who replaced Starkey as president after any trust was shattered with the discovery that he allegedly stole more than $46 from the organization.
“Our whole community is impacted,” Kessler told us, “We have sponsors that trusted our program and we have parents.”
Ripping off youth sports in Rising Sun
As the vice president of the club, Kessler became suspicious of Starkey when the organization didn’t have the funds needed to pay an upcoming bill.
After notifying the Maryland State Police, according to court documents, investigators turned up evidence that Starkey had never deposited the bulk of the cash the program brought in, using it instead for everything from mortgage payments and utility bills to lavish Amazon purchases including sex toys, women’s lingerie and even a seductive cheerleader costume---all while serving as a volunteer over sports programs for children ages five to 14.
“We have 235 kids in the program last year---a hundred cheerleaders and then the rest were football players,” said Kessler, “It’s awful. It’s literally awful. I mean we do background checks on everybody.”
Since taking over, Kessler has used registration fees, fundraisers and sponsors’ contributions to pay the nonprofit’s outstanding bills, and the young athletes even went without trophies last season to help keep it afloat, but regaining trust in the program is still a work in progress.
“I had a grandparent come to me and say that she was just diagnosed with a severe disease, and she came to me crying saying that she barely could afford registration,” said Kessler, “and then come to find out that it wasn’t being properly used. I mean it’s devastating.”
