A former Brock University men’s volleyball coach has been suspended for a year and banned indefinitely from coaching minors after an investigation determined he inappropriately took a teenage athlete into the bedroom of his home, where he straddled him on his bed and tickled him.
Matt Ragogna engaged in grooming a minor, but his behaviour did not constitute sexual misconduct, wrote Dasha Peregoudova, director of sanctions and outcomes for Abuse-Free Sport, a federally funded program that investigates allegations of misconduct in Canadian amateur sports, in a Sept. 30 sanction decision obtained by TSN.
Ragogna did not respond to a request for comment.
The report marks at least the second time since 2023 that Peregoudova has weighed in on an investigation concluding Ragogna acted inappropriately when he took a teenager into the bedroom of his home.
According to Peregoudova’s 16-page report, investigator Brenda Culbert determined that on July 11, 2022, Ragogna received the permission of a teenage boy’s parent to take their son to Brock on the same day so he could take part in a research project. Peregoudova refers to the boy the “impacted person” in her report.
The report said that after a tour of Brock’s athletic department, Ragogna took the young athlete to his home near the St. Catharines, Ont., school, and into his bedroom.
Ragogna placed a phone or a GoPro camera on a tripod in the bedroom and told the athlete that he would record the application of athletic tape on him, according to Peregoudova’s report. Culbert could not determine whether Ragogna actually made a recording.
“[Ragogna] directed the Impacted Person into his bedroom so that he could apply tape or other supportive material to the Impacted Person’s body,” Peregoudova’s report said. “[Ragogna] was found to have applied supportive material to the Impacted Person’s lower body while the Impacted Person was situated on the bed, and [Ragogna] administered the tape by standing, and then kneeling in front of the Impacted Person.”
Culbert determined that Ragogna then removed the tape and directed the athlete to lay back on his bed.
“In the course of removing the tape, [Ragogna] held the Impacted Person’s feet and tickled him,” Peregoudova’s report said. “[Ragogna] said something along the lines of ‘now it’s my turn to have some fun.’ [Ragogna] held the Impacted Person in place, which included straddling the Impacted Person so he could tickle him for a period of time. The tickling lasted for about one minute, and it was not painful, although the Impacted Person did ask several times [Ragogna] to stop.”
Culbert concluded the entire interaction in Ragogna’s bedroom lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.
Peregoudova described Ragogna’s behaviour as “concerning.” She wrote that while Ragogna is “suspended from participating in any sport in any capacity... for a period of a year,” Ragogna can reapply to national sport organizations (Volleyball Canada for volleyball-related activities) in five years to resume coaching athletes under the age of 19.
“The Investigator made no findings of fact which support that [Ragogna’s] conduct was sexual in nature,” Peregoudova wrote. “While the inappropriateness and deeply concerning nature of [Ragogna’s] conduct are noted, I am not prepared to make the finding that [Ragogna’s] conduct was sexual in nature in the absence of additional evidence… I find that in totality, [Ragogna] engaged in physical maltreatment due to his holding down the Impacted Person, getting on top of the Impacted Person, and tickling him, despite the Impacted Person’s protests.”
Volleyball Canada spokeswoman Jackie Skender wrote in an Oct. 17 email to TSN that the organization was aware of the Ragogna case.
“After the five years is served, Volleyball Canada and its provincial and territorial associations will assess whether further bans or restrictions will be imposed according to our policies and regulations at that time, with the priority being the safety of all participants,” Skender wrote.
Skender wrote that Volleyball Canada “supports publicizing the results of the investigation” and is working to create a volleyball-specific registry of people who have been suspended or banned for misconduct. That registry “will be in place well before there is any chance of the subject in this case applying to coach or participate in volleyball activities anywhere in Canada,” Skender wrote.
In a statement to TSN, the Ontario Volleyball Association (OVA) wrote the organization supports the public disclosure of disciplinary decisions. In Ragogna’s case, however, Peregoudova did not permit public disclosure of the decision. Peregoudova declined to comment.
Peregoudova’s report documented that a family member of the teenager made a complaint to the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) on Nov. 21, 2023, and that three other families had also filed complaints about Ragogna.
On Oct, 17, 2024, the OSIC hired Culbert to test the allegations against Ragogna. Culbert filed her investigation report to the OSIC on May 19, 2025, about four months before Peregoudova’s report was completed.
In April 2025, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport took over the role of receiving and investigating complaints of abuse and misconduct from the OSIC, mostly involving national team-level athletes, coaches and staff. OSIC staff are completing case work for complaints that were active at the time of that transition.
Ragogna is the former technical director at the Niagara Rapids Volleyball Club, one of Ontario’s largest clubs, with programs for children from 11 to 17 years old. He coached a number of Rapids teams and also began to coach Brock’s men’s team in 2019-20. After he was suspended in September 2022 by the OSIC pending an investigation, Ragogna continued to coach at Brock.
Ragogna was a rising star in volleyball coaching before the first misconduct complaint was filed against him in September of 2022.
As a Brock University student and volleyball team captain, Ragogna was an Academic All-Canadian, won a school award for leadership in the community, and worked from 2012-15 as an assistant coach with Brock’s women’s volleyball team, according to his profile on Brock’s website.
He began to coach Brock’s men’s team in 2019-20. According to his LinkedIn profile, Ragogna runs his own “youth life coaching” company, marketing himself as a “certified life coach” for children as young as eight.
Following a September 2022 complaint made by a different family that also involved Ragogna allegedly taking a teenaged into his bedroom and tickling him, Peregoudova wrote a November 2023 report that cited Ragogna’s “strong record of leadership and professionalism both in his coaching activities and in his community” and wrote she did not believe Ragogna posed a threat to the safety of others.
Peregoudova wrote in her 2023 report, which was previously reported on by TSN, that Ragogna acted inappropriately. She wrote Ragogna would be warned about the seriousness of his boundary violations and ordered to provide a written apology to the boy and to his parents.
He was also directed to take a course on the “Rule of Two” – a policy adopted by a number of amateur sports organizations that calls for at least two adults to be present in any situation where an athlete may be vulnerable.
While Ragogna was then cleared to return to coaching by the OSIC, the OVA suspended Ragogna in 2023 and said he was the subject of a police investigation.
The OVA has now published Ragogna’s latest sanction. While details of the suspension were briefly published on a national registry maintained by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, that information was deleted because Ragogna’s case does not involve national team-level athletes, coaches, or staff, a CCES staff member said.
