New sports heroes are a joy to find. There is a new one from Boston, the Bruins’ Sheldon Kennedy. His sad and tormented story of sexual abuse by a junior hockey coach is unfolding, as is his courage in speaking out to end his own pain and those of others similarly suffering.

Kennedy is the Martin Luther King of this injustice. He is marching publicly, with grace and dignity, against the deafening silence that marks the public reaction, and the sports world’s greater silence, in not dealing with such abuse.

Kennedy’s abuser, hockey coach Graham James, has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. Kennedy was not the only player assaulted. For years in junior hockey, Kennedy suffered the indescribable abuse of a coach who used his control over Kennedy’s hockey future for his own gross conduct.

Kennedy says he felt alone with no one and nowhere to turn. If he told anyone, he saw his dream of an NHL future gone. He was 14 when the abuse started.

There is a huge lesson here. If you think this is a unique occurrence, open your eyes. The macho world of sports offers the perfect setting for abusers to work their evil.

Athletes pushed to believe success is only winning and moving up are so vulnerable to coaches who want to control players’ lives and, God forbid, abuse them. For some reason, coaches are set on pedestals just because they’re coaches. Danger.

Coaches perpetuate the closed locker room mentality from youth sports through the pros. Keep all problems in the team “family,” don’t “tell” on a teammate, “obey” the coach always – such are the rules of sports. The rules foster a breeding ground for lies, coverups, and much worse.

College sports are the worst of all. Heightened by the dollars, publicity, and pressure to win, college athletes are at the complete mercy of coaches. Where would an abused player turn? To family, if fortunate enough, otherwise, it’s a vast wasteland.

The NCAA, or every university on its own, should require a completely independent committee or person be available to any athlete for any reason. Such a resource cannot be remotely related to the athletic department. The role would be that of an ombudsman, trained to deal with and understand the special problems of the student-athlete.

Persons qualified to be such a resource are available on every campus. They are professors, administrators, and employees. They can be the people who weren’t available to Kennedy.