Top AAU Basketball Coach's Arrest Shakes Up New England Basketball

Top AAU Basketball Coach's Arrest Shakes Up New England Basketball

The arrest of one of New England's best known AAU Coaches has sent shock waves through the regional basketball scene.

Jay Elliott, the founder and top coach of the Rhode Island Hawks has been a major player in the development of top college bound basketball talent for ten years in New England. He was arrested on child porn charges.

The stars who played for him are spread throughout Division I basketball and include Michael Marra who played at Louisville, Steve Mello at URI, Tucker Halpern, Mark McAndrew and Andrew McCarthy at Brown University and Ben Crenca at Vermont.

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Hundreds of youth players in southern New England who are wanna-be college players have participated on Elliot's Rhode Island Hawks teams.

In the past few years, the program has emerged as one of the elite programs behind BABC of Boston.

Elliott One of a Growing Trend? Other Youth Coaches Charged

- In 2012, according to a report by Channel 6 in Providence, Anthony DeSilva, a 41 year old New Bedford youth hockey coach, was arrested, accused of trying to have sex with two teens that DeSilva met online. "DeSilva has been teaching kids the basics of hockey for more than 15 years. He's led the Massachusetts Maple Leafs as head coach, a junior hockey league made up of players 16 to 20 years old. Police down in Florida say he used that passion for sports to try and have sex with two 16 year old boys he met online,"  re ported WLNE.

- In February of 2013, GoLocal reported a former Chariho High School assistant soccer coach had been sentenced to federal prison on child pornography charges.

Glen Matteson, 52, will serve 60 months behind bars, and will be under supervised release for 10 years after his release and will be required to register as a sex offender.

Matteson had pled guilty in November to one count each of receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography following a complaint in February of last year that a Richmond resident had found sexually graphic text messages from Matteson on the cell phone of his 15-year-old son.

“With the father’s consent, Richmond Police engaged in a series of text message exchanges with Matteson over four days, assuming the identity of the boy,” United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha’s office said in a statement. “In the context of the sexually explicit texts, Matteson invited the boy to accompany him to a soccer event and offered to transport him. On February 22, 2012, the morning of the planned meeting, Matteson was arrested by Richmond Police.”

After Matteson reportedly admitted viewing, storing and distributing child pornography images and videos, Richard Police and law enforcement officers and agents from the Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force executed a court authorized search of Matteson’s cell phone, two home computers, a digital storage device, and his work computer at the ACI.

According to Neronha, they reportedly found “numerous text messages and emails containing sexually explicit messages,” and a forensic examination of the equipment by the ICAC Task Force “resulted in the discovery of 898 images and 73 videos depicting child pornography.”

Matteson was ordered by the court to self-surrender to begin serving his prison sentence on March 12 and is still awaiting trial in state court on a charge of indecent solicitation of a child.