Sam Ukwuachu apparently kept his violent past a secret from Pearland High School’s coach, Tony Heath. Heath claimed that the information he was given was the fact Ukwuachu was depressed and no one ever mentioned that the football player had sexually assaulted his girlfriend in 2013.
Sam Ukwuachu is going to jail for sexually assaulting a female athlete, but he is also putting a bad light on the officials at Pearland High School and Baylor/Boise State, who agreed to sign him while knowing his past actions.
On August 20, Sam Ukwuachu appeared in a Waco, Texas courtroom where he was convicted of sexually assaulting a fellow student-athlete whom he was dating in 2013 as they attended Boise.
Mr. Ukwuachu, who was also accused of raping a woman, was sentenced to 180 days in jail, ten years probation and 400 hours of community service. Many saw the verdict as a joke and slammed the NFL and the college football community for not doing a better job at sanctioning players who commit horrible acts against women.
In a lengthy interview with ESPN, Tony Heath claimed he was not aware of the sex scandal. Heath said that school officials told him that Sam Ukwuachu was depressed and might potentially harm himself. The coach said:
“I was told the staff was very concerned about Sam being depressed and violent towards himself and their worries were for him, never once did they ever tell me he had struck or hit a female or had a violent encounter with anyone.I spoke with Chris Petersen during Sam’s redshirt freshman year about his depression and insubordination, but I haven’t spoken with Coach Petersen since. The communication I heard after Sam’s release was with the Boise State assistant coaches.”
He was quizzed on whether Art Briles, the head football coach at Baylor University, was lying when he said that he learned about the 2013 incident few weeks ago. Heath, who is a close friend of Briles, hit back by saying:
“First of all, Art Briles doesn’t need anyone to defend him, his record as a coach and man speaks for itself. And, I don’t care who is questioning Art Briles, I have another player, Kendall Erlich at Baylor. Coach (Briles) is a man of great integrity and I trust my players in his program and I’ll reiterate, his comments about what he knew about Sam Ukwuachu are exactly what I was told when Sam was released by Boise State.”
Not many people are buying “the we knew nothing about Ukwuachu’s misconduct story” because all evidence seems to point to the fact that the school had knowledge that something was wrong.
The defensive end from Pearland started 12 games for Boise State and was rapidly transferred to Baylor without any explanation just weeks after the alleged assault took place. While at Baylor, he never played a single game and now the world knows why.
What are your thoughts on Sam Ukwuachu’s sentencing?
