The assistant bowling coach, Steve Lemke, at Stephen F. Austin State University, had an affair with one of the student-athletes on the bowling team. The big part of this story is that the head coach of the bowling team is Steve Lemke's wife, Amber Lemke! Amber has recently filed for divorce and Steve Lemke has since resigned from his position. Although not breaking any laws, most universities have policies in place that prohibit a coach-athlete intimate relationship.
Steve Lemke's reason for the affair is that he was undervalued by Amber as a house-husband! “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,” Steve Lemke said to the Lufkin Daily News. “…I felt like I was doing too much for what I was being valued at.” Steve sure has a strange way of asking for a raise.
Be the First to Rate Amber Lemke, SFA Bowling Head Coach
“I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there's not a rule saying it can't happen, there's not a law saying I'm going to go to jail for doing something like this.”
The lufkin daily news
Occurrences like these disrupt the team tremendously. Stephen F. Austin State University is an NCAA DI school in the Southland Conference. The SFA Bowling team ranked #5 in the division RPI (rating percentage index). The bowling season typically starts in late October to March.
The two good things about this news breaking now are:
- The public is now aware that college bowling is a sport.
- The team will have the summer to recover from this loss. The guessing game of who was involved and why this happened could break the morale of the team.
In addition, Steve Lemke has not shown any remorse for how this may have affected the team. A good assistant coach should put the team before his own feelings. Perhaps there is no law against this but there is the impact on the team that should always be considered.
Be the First to Rate Steve Lemke, SFA Bowling Assistant Coach
Despite Lemke losing his job, his marriage, and the ability to easily find another coaching job, he does not seem all too fazed. “I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there's not a rule saying it can't happen, there's not a law saying I'm going to go to jail for doing something like this. There's nothing [written] 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,” Lemke was quoted saying to The Lufkin Daily News.
This news is shocking to many people and it might seem very out of the ordinary, but as it turns out, this type of coach-athlete relationship is not as rare as we might think. Here are 3 others that have happened in the past.
1. Mary Willingham and Julius Peppers (Late 1990s)
Mary Willingham, an academic tutor at the University of North Carolina, had a romantic relationship with football player Julius Peppers in the late 1990s. This case brought attention to academic misconduct and unethical behavior within the university's athletics program.
In 2014, Willingham sued UNC for a “hostile work environment and infringing on her first amendment rights.” This lawsuit was eventually settled, but this scandal became more popular due to the lawsuit and Julius Peppers becoming a famous NFL player.
Peppers has retired from the NFL after 2018 season. He was the defensive end for Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, and Green Bay Packers.
2. Billy Gillispie and Lauren Watson (2009)
In 2009, it was reported that Billy Gillispie, the former head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, had a romantic relationship with Lauren Watson, one of his former players at Texas A&M University. This relationship led to Gillispie's resignation from Kentucky.
Gillispie has not had a college coaching job since 2012 and has since stayed out of the public eye.
3. Karen Moe and Mark Schubert (1970s)
Karen Moe, an Olympic swimmer, had a relationship with her coach, Mark Schubert, during her time at the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1970s. They eventually got married and divorced years later.
Mark Schubert went on to coach multiple USA Olympic teams until 2010 when he was terminated for “erratic behavior.” Karen Patricia Moe went on to compete in the 1972 Olympics and won the 200-meter butterfly gold medal. Cheers to Karen for recovering from this event and how she continued to excel in her career.
If we have any piece of advice for recruits out there who are scared this might happen to their college team, read the current ratings on coaches, and to current players: rate your coaches! You have the ability to anonymously tell people who your coach really is…take advantage!
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* Originally published on June 21, 2023, by 2aDays Staff
