You can almost hear a collective groan from the community when each new development emerges in the story of Matt Lindsay’s firing as Bishop Luers’ storied head football coach.
When it was thought to be just a “medical leave” a week ago Thursday, it was at least with the hope, if not expectation, that he would return and resume his winning ways with the Knights.
When it turned into a firing with Sunday’s announcement from Bishop Luers principal Mary Keefer that his employment as coach and athletic director was terminated “as a result of his violations of school and Diocesan policies, and his violations of his employment contract obligations,” well, didn’t we all know it was much, much worse than we thought?
Then there was an August 2011 police incident report about someone an anonymous police source said was Lindsay who was accused by several parents of taking cellphone videos of children at the Glenaqua swimming pool. No charges were filed. There was no clear connection to his firing at that point. And so The News-Sentinel chose not to write a story. But you could still sense the groans of public despair at the implications.
Then when Bishop Kevin Rhoades and the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend released a statement late Wednesday night to elaborate on the reasons for Lindsay’s dismissal, the groaning came from even deeper within us as we saw the connections to troubled conduct and conjured fears that even more lurid details might yet come out to take this scandal to levels requiring a criminal investigation. The statement said “the Diocese learned that a large number of inappropriate video clips, none involving nudity, were discovered on the computer of Mr. Matthew Lindsay … An internal investigation was immediately conducted … and that investigation resulted in the termination of Mr. Lindsay’s employment … We do not know if the actions of Mr. Lindsay constitute a criminal offense. That is for the police to investigate and for law enforcement officials to evaluate.”
Now we learn the Allen County police are, indeed, investigating.
Lindsay was a successful, trusted coach and school administrator representing the Catholic Church, after all. He had been Luers’ head coach for 26 years with a 229-99 record. He had been at Luers for 33 years all told. He had won nine state championships as coach, including the past three years in a row.
How can this be from a trusted community member, husband and father? And what will be the next shoe to drop in this sad story?
We can all just hope that it doesn’t really get worse, that we won’t find any more rumors turning into reality, as some already have.
