BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      Former Boardman High School boys bowling coach, Kevin Randolph, 70, of 336 Stadium Dr., will have to register as a sex offender every six months for the next 25 years after he entered guilty pleas to charges of felonious assault and sexual battery last week in a Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas.
      Randolph was secretly indicted by the Mahoning County Grand Jury on Feb. 13, 2025 according to documents filed with the Mahoning County Clerk of Courts.
      The four-count indictment included a felony-2 felonious assault/sexual motivation specification, strangulation, a felony-3; as well as two counts of endangering children.
      According to the indictment, on or about Aug. 1, 2019 through June 26, 2024 Randolph caused serious harm [to a teenage boy] with a sexual motivation; and between Apr. 4. 2023 through June 16, 2024 created a substantial risk of physical harm to a [teenage boy] by means of strangulation or suffocation.
      As for the two counts of endangering children, the indictment cites Aug. 1, 2019 through Feb. 1, 2023; and Apr. 4, 2023 through June 26, 2024 as time frames for incidents of abuse of a child under 18-years-old.
      Records of the Boardman Police Department include an incident involving Randolph and a 15-year-old boy, who was a sophomore member of the Boardman High School bowling team during the 21-22 academic year.
      School Resource Officer Ptl. Paul Poulos was told on Dec. 10, 2021 the sophomore was at bowling practice when he was choked by his coach, Randolph, who took him into the ‘party room’ at Boardman Lanes.
      Poulos was told the teen said his coach was ‘talking to him about life’ when the coach put his hands around his neck, applied pressure to each side of the lad’s neck with his thumbs until he became light-headed and passed out.
      The boy’s mother told police when she went to the bowling alley to get her son after practice on Dec. 10, 2021 she did not see her son waiting outside, as usual.
      “She went inside to find him,” SRO Poulos said noting the boy’s belonging were “unattended” and only one person was bowling in the entire building.
      “[She] began walking around the facility when she saw [her son] and Randolph emerge from the party room,” Officer Poulos said, adding later the lad told his mother he had been choked.
      On Nov. 17, 2022, Randolph pled guilty in Boardman Court to a reduced charge of endangering children related to the Dec. 10 incident. Judge Joseph Houser suspended 90 days of a 180 day jail sentence, ruling “in lieu of incarceration or in addition to incarceration, Randolph shall be required to serve 40 hours of community service as determined by the probation department.”
      Additionally, Judge Houser said instead of serving time in jail, Randolph would be placed under electronically-monitored house arrest “except work release Christmas Eve and Christmas Day” and that Randolph “shall not be employed or permitted to supervise minors.”
      Randolph resigned on Jan. 21, 2022 as high school bowling coach after initial allegations about him were first reported to school authorities in late 2021.
      As the indictment issued in Feb., 2025 says “Kevin Charles Randolph was previously convicted of, or pled guilty to [endangering children] on Nov. 17, 2022.”
      A criminal complaint filed with the Boardman Police Department on July 7, 2024 said another boy was assaulted at Boardman Lanes on June 16, 2024 “and this has been occurring since he was a freshman” at Boardman High School where he was a member of the Spartans bowling team from 2019-2023.
      Police were told Randolph was a “second father figure” to the boy and “after forming this relationship when he was 14 or 15-years-old he remembered going into the ‘party room’ where he was choked until he would either pass out or get close to passing out,” perhaps as many as 100 times while he was a member of the bowling team.
      The lad who called Randolph a ‘second father figure’ said he lied to school authorities when questioned about the coach’s actions “because he saw [him] as a friend and did not believe at the time his intentions were to harm him,” Boardman PD Ptl. Angelo Pasquale was told. After graduation, the boy and Randolph had some occasional contact, but that ended after June 26, 2024 when during a visit to Randolph’s home, he was strangled and claimed other advances had been made towards him.
      The lad, now 19-years-old, told Officer Pasquale he spoke to police because he “wanted to insure that this did not continue to happen to any other children.”
      Under a plea agreement announced last week, the sexual motivation specification and two counts of endangering children were dismissed in the common pleas courtroom of Judge Anthony Donofrio.
      Randolph stipulated he was satisfied with his legal counsel, Atty. J. Gerald Ingram, and signed a document saying he understands he could face up to some 13 years in jail and fines totaling upwards of $20,000. He checked a box on the plea agreement that says that prison is presumed necessary, but not mandatory for the felonious assault conviction.
      The plea agreement also says the prosecution will recommend jail time of two to three years, and Randolph is “free to argue for probation, county jail placement and/or judicial release, if appropriate,” and says the prosecution will oppose judicial release.
      A sentencing hearing has been set for Aug. 13.
      Assistant Prosecutors Kyle Hilles and Caitlin Andrews say the plea agreement was reached with the approval of the victim and his family. In addition to being labeled a Tier II Sex Offender when he is sentenced in August, the prosecution will recommend Randolph be sentenced to prison.