40 year Old Track Coach Marries his 16 Year old Student Athl

[Opal storm]

Ok shoot me now...

The Hagers are trying to figure out how life went off track for their teenage daughter, Windy.

They envisioned that life for the good student and promising athlete would be filled with dreams of the prom and college, but that all changed this week when Windy, 16, married her high school track coach.

"She was a dream kid," said her mother, Betty Hager. "We'd never have to worry about Windy trying to get by with something."

At South Brunswick High School in North Carolina, Windy's greatest passion was track and field.

"She just always was outside, always running, and her name's Windy — I guess she was predestined to do love to do that," Betty said.

But that passion led her down a troubling path.


Special Attention From Coach
During Windy's freshman year, her 38-year-old track coach, Brenton Wuchae, began taking a more active interest in her, offering to give the 14-year-old rides home from practice.

"He just seemed like a genuine guy, like he was there for the kids," said Windy's father, Dennis Hager.

But the Hagers eventually grew uneasy. Their phone bills showed text messages between Wuchae and Windy as late as 2 a.m.

They also discovered worrying e-mails. In one, Windy wrote to a friend, "I don't care to look at anyone other than him. He is the apple of my eye, I've never felt this way for someone, but I just don't want to lose him because of my parents' power trips."

The Hagers confronted Wuchae.

"He assured me there was nothing like that going on, [and that] they were just friends. His intentions were purely appropriate," Dennis said.

Not satisfied with that answer, the Hagers turned to the school district, which spoke to the coach.

The principal of the high school wrote to the Hagers, "I have seen nothing but a cooperative attitude from the teacher, and to the best of my knowledge, he has not had any contact with Windy since then."

"School officials can't be responsible for what happens the other hours of the day, and I would think the relationship developed much more outside of school," said Brian Shaw, an attorney for the school district.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3305 ... NHeadlines

[Chacor]

[olddude]

Glad it's not one of my daughters.

Scott

[Category 5]

How is that legal?

[Shelby6977]

The parents signed the consent for her to marry!

[TexasStooge]

I only got one thing to say about this...

[Shelby6977]

Well put.......

[Brent]

I only got one thing to say about this...

Me too.

[DanKellFla]

The only thing I want from a 16 year old girl is cheap babysitting.

[MusicCityMan]

Ok.. why the parents claim they had no other choice is beyond me. She's only 16.. not 30.. You have the choice to tell ur daughter.. "U can't marry him.. u can't even date him"..

This story just kinda reminds me a bit of Mary Kay Letorneau or Deborah Lafave.. the 2 female teachers that well.. u know the story lol..

Other than that, Nothing else 2 say from me on this matter..

[tropicana]

this is totally wrong! Who will end up paying the price in the end is the girl though, and i'm not even being biased because i'm a guy, but statisically, this does not stand a chance in hell of lasting. That coach needs to have his head examined.

-justin-

[x-y-no]

this is totally wrong! Who will end up paying the price in the end is the girl though, and i'm not even being biased because i'm a guy, but statisically, this does not stand a chance in hell of lasting. That coach needs to have his head examined.

-justin-

I don't believe he's thinking with that head.

[CajunMama]

Ok.. why the parents claim they had no other choice is beyond me. She's only 16.. not 30.. You have the choice to tell ur daughter.. "U can't marry him.. u can't even date him"..

This story just kinda reminds me a bit of Mary Kay Letorneau or Deborah Lafave.. the 2 female teachers that well.. u know the story lol..

Other than that, Nothing else 2 say from me on this matter..

The parents could have said no and alienated their daughter for life. Their daughter could have run away and they possibly would never see her again. As a parent, I don't know what i would have done in this situation. You try to raise your children the best you can.

[O Town]

Ok.. why the parents claim they had no other choice is beyond me. She's only 16.. not 30.. You have the choice to tell ur daughter.. "U can't marry him.. u can't even date him"..

This story just kinda reminds me a bit of Mary Kay Letorneau or Deborah Lafave.. the 2 female teachers that well.. u know the story lol..

Other than that, Nothing else 2 say from me on this matter..

The parents could have said no and alienated their daughter for life. Their daughter could have run away and they possibly would never see her again. As a parent, I don't know what i would have done in this situation. You try to raise your children the best you can.

Amen sister!

[abajan]

The parents could have said no and alienated their daughter for life. Their daughter could have run away and they possibly would never see her again. As a parent, I don't know what i would have done in this situation. You try to raise your children the best you can.

I don't have children but I agree with you.

This way the daughter will simply have to learn her lesson the hard way, assuming the marriage won't work. Girls that age get starstruck quite easily and (sadly) some men take advantage of that.

We had a similar situation with a relative who ran off to Canada with a much older man but she didn't marry him. Fortunately, she's now happily married to someone much closer to her age.

One never really knows what the future holds. For all we know, this unlikely match of a 40 year old and 16 year old may actually succeed. Remember, there are some places - mostly in the "Old World" where this sort of union is quite commonplace.

[MusicCityMan]

By the way.. U were probably right about the coach not thinking with his "head"..

Sadly this seemingly pretty, innocent, 16 yr old will learn her lesson the hard way, and when she does.. it'll hit her like a ton of bricks probably..

It just appals me that she's married at 16 to someone 2 1/2 x her age!

[wxmann_91]

My question echoes others': why in the world would the parents let the girl marry the coach? There are things that are permissible; that is not one of them.

[TreasureIslandFLGal]

I hope that when this girl wakes up there's a huge "Shark" of a lawyer right on spot to take the idiot coach for every penny he's got! This is the type of guy that would deserve to get screwed! He should totally know how wrong this is on so many levels!!

The parents need to be taken into their backyard and have some sense beaten into their tiny pea-brains!! There is such a thing as statutory rape!! My folks would have never let go of me that easy, even if I did threaten to never speak to them again or if I did the runaway thing! Both of which I actually did but, those adolescent angst things passed, we muddled through and now we're all on the same page with one another and I'm glad they put their foot down with me. Yeah, I thought my parents sucked at the times when they told me "No" but, that's what GOOD parents do!! At least I didn't marry some 40 year old PERV when I was 16!!!

[superg77]

Windy (really spelled with no e?) used the old silent treatment on her pathetic-sounding parents.

Meanwhile, the Hagers say Windy withdrew, refusing to speak to them until she asked them to sign a consent form so that she and her coach — a man more than twice her age — could get married.

Although anguished, her weary parents gave in.

Two years from now Windy will be 18 and no one will be interested in her story anymore. That's probably when she will become upset -- because she will miss all this special attention.

[Beam]

There's no doubt that this is pretty warped -- however, the age of consent in NC is 16, so he's not actually doing anything illegal, as hard as that may be to believe. That being said, it's common knowledge that girls at that age develop crushes and even deep feelings with relative ease, and this guy is pretty sick for taking advatange of that.

However, I think it's actually a good thing that her parents let her go through with this. The best way for her to learn her mistake is the hard way. She's going to wake up one day, realize how messed up this is, and with any luck at all, end the marriage and use some better judgement regarding future relationships.