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A bowling coach at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tex., resigned this spring after it was discovered he had an affair with a student athlete on the team, The Daily Sentinel reported.
Assistant coach Steve Lemke said his relationship with the female bowler was consensual.
“I knew it was kind of a no-no but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” Lemke 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.”
Athletic director Ryan Ivey, who confirmed Lemke’s resignation, said that even if the relationship was consensual, it violated university policy.
Lemke was hired as assistant coach in 2019 after serving as a volunteer assistant for the team, which his wife, Amber Lemke, has coached since 2011. (Steve Lemke reported directly to the assistant athletic director for administration to avoid violating state nepotism laws.)
Amber Lemke uncovered the affair after seeing a text on her husband’s phone.
“It didn’t have anything in detail,” Steve Lemke said of the text. “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.”
The student athlete, who was not named, is no longer eligible and is not returning to the team.
According to court records, the Lemkes have since filed for divorce, the Sentinel reported.
