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YOUNGSTOWN -- A former Boardman High School bowling coach was sentenced Tuesday to two to three years in prison for felonious assault and sexual battery involving a minor.
Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio handed down the sentence to Kevin C. Randolph, 70, of Stadium Drive in Boardman. As a Tier II sex offender, he will have to register his address every six months in the county where he lives for 25 years.
Randolph was indicted Feb. 13, 2025, on felony counts of assault, sexual battery and two charges of endangering children. As part of a deal, Randolph on June 12 pleaded guilty to felonious assault and a reduced charge of sexual battery with the two endangering children charges dismissed as well as a sexual motivation specification that was part of the assault count.
The details of the offenses are contained in a July 2024 Boardman police report.
The victim went to the Boardman Police Department July 7, 2024, to report that he was a member of the Boardman High School bowling team from 2019 to 2023, when Randolph was the Boardman bowling coach, and that Randolph assaulted him about 100 times over the past four to five years.
He said the most recent time was after he graduated from high school, on June 26, 2024, when he went to visit Randolph, who the victim said was bowling at the time. Randolph had the victim go into a back room at the bowling alley, where they spoke. Then Randolph "began choking him until his vision became blurry and 'everything felt tingly,'" the report states. Randolph then "began telling (the victim) how much he meant to him as he started to kiss his cheek and forehead," the report states.
The victim went to Boardman police July 7, 2024, to report the June 26, 2024, incident and also to detail years of incidents he experienced with Randolph when the latter was his bowling coach.
In the 2024 incident, the victim said he "immediately went to his car and took a photograph of the redness on his neck," the report states. The victim said that he had never contacted the authorities about Randolph's behavior because when the victim was younger, Randolph "made it seem as though (Randolph) cared about him. However, as he got older and became an adult, he ... started to believe that (Randolph) had sexual motivations behind his behavior due to (Randolph's) actions on June 26, 2024."
The victim said he "wanted to ensure that this did not continue to happen to any other children," the report states.
The victim said he met Randolph prior to his freshman year in high school at Randolph's "place of business," where the boy regularly went. He said his friendship with Randolph grew, and he viewed Randolph as a "second father." He said at age 14 or 15, Randolph took him to the "party" room, where Randolph placed his hands "around his neck and applied slight pressure until either he would pass out or get close to passing out. While he was choking him, he would attempt to comfort (the boy) by stating, "you're okay, look at me," the report states.
The victim said this happened "almost every time he attempted to practice at (the bowling alley) his entire bowling career." He said he did not think Randolph was trying to hurt him. But as he got older, he "was concerned that (Randolph) was engaging in this type of behavior to get some type of sexual gratification."
During the victim's junior year in high school, Randolph was choking the victim's friend, the victim told the Boardman police officer. The victim said his friend's mother noticed red marks on his friend's neck and notified the school, the report states.
Randolph resigned from the bowling program, the report states. The victim said the school principal interviewed him at the time, and he lied and said he was not being choked, the report states.
Randolph became Boardman High School bowling coach in spring 2017, but had been assistant bowling coach eight years before that. The Boardman Local School District Board of Education accepted Randolph's resignation as boys bowling coach at a Jan. 12, 2022, board meeting, according to minutes of the meeting.
A separate Boardman police report from Dec. 22, 2021, states that a Boardman police school resource officer spoke with the mother of a Boardman High School sophomore, who told the officer that her son said that during a bowling practice at Boardman Lanes, the team's home facility, Randolph took the boy to the "party" room off to the side of the bowling lanes, "and was 'talking to him about life'" when he put his hands on his neck and with his thumbs, applied pressure to each side of (blacked out name) neck…until (the boy) became light-headed and then passed out."
His mother told police she went to the bowling alley to pick up her son and saw him and Randolph emerge from the "party" room and saw that his face was red. She said the boy told her later his face was red from being choked, the report states.
Randolph pleaded guilty Nov. 17, 2022, to first-degree misdemeanor child endangering on Nov. 17, 2022, the same day the charge was filed.
Randolph was sentenced to 180 days in the Mahoning County jail with 90 days suspended. Court documents state that "in lieu of" jail, Randolph "shall have" electronically monitored house arrest.
He was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and was placed on probation for two years. Randolph was ordered "not to be employed or permitted to supervise minors" and was ordered to have no contact with the victim or his family.