A college bowling coach has tendered his resignation after beginning an affair with a student-athlete and being found out by his wife, who remains a coach with the program.
Steve Lemke will not be returning as an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin next season as he has opted to resign as opposed to waiting around to get fired.
Lemke is married to the program’s head coach, Amber Lemke, who has reportedly filed for divorce in the wake of the aforementioned revelation.
“He’s not working here anymore,” SFA athletic director Ryan Ivey said to the Daily Sentinel (H/T the Lufkin Daily News). “From a departmental standpoint, he had a choice and he chose to resign.”
Steve Lemke Explains His Actions
Lemke has defended his actions, claiming the relationship was consensual while pointing out that he hasn’t broken any laws.
“I knew it was kind of a no-no but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” he said. “There’s not a law saying I’m going to go to jail for doing something like this. There’s nothing in stone. I guess it’s just an ethics code, like we frown upon it, but there’s no rule, there’s no law broken.
“I was the stay-at-home dad for five years with the kids while Amber got to go off and coach the team, and when she’d get back, I’d run practices on top of taking care of the kids while she was back.
“When they’d travel again, I would sit back and take care of the kids. Then when I got hired on, she almost forced me to run practices. I was a volunteer the entire time before that trying to help out Amber. Once I got hired on, one thing stemmed from another. I felt like I was doing too much for what I was being valued at.”
The Daily Sentinel opted to keep the student’s identity under wraps.
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While consensual sexual relationships between college coaches and students are not prohibited under state law, many universities have policies set to prevent such occurrences.
How He Got Caught
Steve’s affair was discovered when his wife saw a text message from the student on his phone.
“It didn’t have anything in detail,” he explained. “It was just about how amazing I am, basically, in general perspective. Amber saw that and questioned me, and I got to the point where it just built up so much that I basically told her the truth after she dug through my phone.”
As noted above, Amber will continue on as the head coach. The student, meanwhile, has no more eligibility.
