A former volunteer high school football coach in Tennessee received probation after pleading guilty to selling anabolic steroids to a high school football player. The former coach was also granted judicial diversion meaning that the guilty plea will be removed from his record after successfully completing a six-year suspended sentence.
Jim Wilson, a volunteer coach for the Stone Memorial High School (SMHS) Panther football team, admitted to selling 85 tablets of the powerful steroid oxymetholone (Anadrol) to a 17-year old member of the football team in the parking lot of Cumberland County High School (CCHS), a neighboring school in Cumberland County, Tennessee.
The student (Benjamin Dodd) and his mother filed a negligence lawsuit against the Cumberland County Board of Education, volunteer coach, Jim Wilson, Principal Dr. Janet Booker, Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Scott Maddox and School Resource Officer Tony Atkins. All of the individuals named in the original lawsuit met with Dodd and Wilson after Dodd was caught with steroids. Dodd’s mother was allegedly never notified of the meeting.
The Cumberland County Circuit Court eventually dismissed charges against Tony Akins, Scott Maddox and Dr. Janet Brooker in late 2010. This week, the court issued a summary judgment in favor of the Cumberland County Board of Education.
The former assistant high school coach is off the hook with a slap on the wrist and the school system is absolved from any blame in the steroid case.
About Millard Baker