If ever there was a thankless job, it was Gary Losh’s post as president of the South Jeffco Sports Association.
For more than 20 years, until Tuesday night, he had volunteered thousands of hours coaching young athletes, finding vacant practice fields and organizing nearly 4,000 athletes ages 6 to 14 into hundreds of teams every year.
In 2000, he complained that some of the playing fields weren’t in good condition, so he took over the program by resodding and repairing the fields, building storage sheds and remodeling the association’s offices.
Predictably, he did such a good job that he was elected president of the 2,800-member, nonprofit organization in early 2005. He had never been paid a dime, volunteering some weeks up to 50 hours, all the while keeping his day job as student advocate within the Denver Public Schools.
Last month, Losh spotted the first clues of what turned out to be a $100,000 embezzling scheme. He stopped it cold, fired the culprit who admitted the embezzlement, he said, and turned everything over to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for possible criminal charges.
On Tuesday night, parents and board members who want more accountability voted him out of office.
“I’m tired,” said the unassuming 47-year-old in a telephone interview today. “I’m devastated by this, but I take responsibility for it. While I was out painting the barn, the house caught fire.”
Losh said the nonprofit association has a difficult accounting system because of the constant flow of membership dues, which range from $140 to $220 a student per sport. There are 700 to 900 students per sport, including baseball, softball, basketball and football. It’s the largest sports organization in the metro area, he said.
“We have money coming in for basketball while money is going out for football,” said the professional educator and father of two boys. “I have a kid background, not a financial background. It’s a pretty easy system to manipulate if you’re inclined to do it.”
Gale McGee, a coach and umpire for the Jeffco Midget Football Association, said he never had any problems with the association or with Losh. “They’re cheap, they pay the minimum, but they’re OK,” he said.
Exactly a month ago, Losh spotted a forged signature on a payroll check. He spotted it because the treasurer’s signature had been misspelled. A secretary helped him find more bogus checks, all of which had been deposited.
Digging deeper, he found automatic withdrawals from the association’s accounts for about $67,000 that had been sent electronically into an employee’s personal American Express account.
The association guesses that about $100,000 was stolen. About $7,000 was spent on accountants, auditors and lawyers investigating the loss.
On Sept. 17, Losh fired the employee and called the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which today said its investigation would take several more weeks. He held a meeting that night to inform the board about the problem.
Losh has been negotiating with American Express, which has shown some willingness to reimburse the $67,000. An insurance policy against employee dishonesty may cover another $25,000.
But the damage was done. On Tuesday night, at the annual elections, Losh was voted out of office 32-22, in favor of Jeff Wahl, whom Losh calls “a good guy.”
Is he bitter? “No, I can empathize with them. It doesn’t look good. I just feel bad about having to deal with this kind of garbage,” Losh said.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
