Wynnewood basketball coach charged with sexually abusing minors in Chester County

A Wynnewood basketball coach is accused of sexually abusing multiple underage girls during private training sessions, the Chester County District Attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Zachary Ray, 31, abused four children over a period spanning nearly a decade, prosecutors said, assaulting them at schools, parks, and in their homes, and filming the abuse on his cell phone.

Chester County detectives arrested Ray on Monday, charging him with aggravated indecent assault, child pornography, indecent assault, unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, and related offenses — 222 counts in total.

Ray faces similar charges in Philadelphia over abuse of an underage girl in 2021.

He was the head coach of the girl’s varsity basketball team at Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown from 2017 to 2019, prosecutors said. Ray was also an assistant women’s basketball coach at Eastern University in St. Davids in 2016 and 2017, and coached four summer AAU travel basketball leagues between 2016 and 2023.

The minors, who were between 10 and 16 years old during the abuse, told police the acts occurred in Philadelphia, Chester and Delaware Counties, areas where he held school coaching positions.

All four girls described similar scenarios, in which Ray would remove their clothing to conduct a “core check” and touch their genitals.

A Philadelphia investigation this spring led a special-victims unit to search Ray’s cell phone, revealing photos and images of multiple abuse acts, authorities said. Some occurred in public parks around West Chester, spurring action from county investigators.

Chester County prosecutors said that Ray met one of the girls when she was 10 years old, while coaching her youth basketball league in West Chester.

After the girls’ parents hired Ray for personal training sessions, Ray began training with the girl and her brother in public parks. Afterward, he would touch the girl inappropriately, but never her brother, she told police.

That eventually escalated into abusing the girl inside her home, prosecutors said.

A second girl, who resided in Schuylkill Township, told police Ray abused her at a park in West Chester, her home, and in Ray’s car in 2019.

One episode occurred in the parking lot of East High School in West Chester, prosecutors said. They did not indicate which girl made that report.

Ray’s crimes spanned county lines, prosecutors said. In May, a 15-year-old girl reported Ray to Radnor Township police, saying that he abused her in the weight room of the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr in late 2022 while class was not in session.

“The defendant preyed on the innocence of these child victims,” said Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan in a statement. “These kids and their families trusted him as a coach, a guide, and an instructor so they could grow as athletes, but instead, he violated them and altered the course of their lives with this horrible betrayal.”

Investigators believe there may be more unidentified victims, Ryan said.

Ray posted bail Monday after he was taken to the Chester County Prison. He is expected to appear in court in early October. He is awaiting trial for his Philadelphia charges.

Authorities ask that anyone with further information contact Chester County Detective Ben Martin at 610-344-6866.