Huntington Uni drama

Who else would be a good person to contact here regarding investigative journalism into the issue? David Woods, obviously. Not anyone at LetsRun, obviously. Who else?

There was an investigative journalist by the name of Samantha Mathers who did the expose on the situation at Jacksonville University which came to a head just last month. The circumstances are very different, obviously, but she might be more interested than the NY Times or Bryant Gumbel.

I think the classic “life isn’t fair” applies here. Is any of this fair to Lauren assuming her complete innocence? Of course not. Of course she’s just as much of a victim as anyone and has been put in a terrible spot. However, I think her proximity to the parties involved should absolutely disqualify her from coaching at this university. That’s just my opinion. HU apparently sees it differently.

I’m a reasonable person. I’m all for forgiveness. I don’t attribute evil intention to this man. I don’t think his life or her life should be ruined, but not being allowed to coach at one university is not ruining your life. Known abusers should not be in close proximity to those who were abused, and I’m not talking about just one athlete.

I attribute evil intention to him. Sexual harassment/assault cases are generally so hard to prove. This case is different. We have on record that he admitted to staging a fake recruiting visit to Oregon so he could take an overnight trip alone with a high school recruit. He also admitted to groping that recruit's breasts in a private massage session. The victim admitted to investigators that he digitally penetrated her. You could dismiss the victim testimony if you want to try to defend Nick, but it doesn't seem out of line with what else we know about their interactions. Maybe you could also dismiss some of the other red flags by saying he was naive for massaging a female athlete alone late at night on campus, but what he admitted to himself is more than enough for a lifetime coaching ban IMO.

As for Lauren, it's theoretically possible she was surprised by what was revealed in the affidavit. If I was Huntington, I wouldn't have hired her but I'm sure you could rationalize the decision if you wanted to. However, if she's continuing to allow Nick around the team, she also deserves to be fired and handed at least a lengthy suspension from coaching IMO.

Recruiting violations, inappropriate treatments, lying, cover ups, this has a making of a major scandal. Nick is a coward. Lauren is a coward. Anyone who enables them is a coward. Letsrun should do it's thing and bring it all to the surface. Shameful...

Correct, but of course student athletes initiate contact often transfer and then universities go through the proper channels if notification so they can talk to them. This is definitely more nuanced considering Lauren was her coach and that was obviously beyond just recruiting conversations. So in short, I agree that may be a recruiting violation. Unfortunately that won't have any repercussions because the NAIA literally has a coach who is a agent and that seems inappropriate too. Lots going on there.

I think it's hard to imagine Lauren wasn't somewhat aware that something was not right with her husband's actions and my point was to provide some empathy and consideration that she may completely innocent.

Also, if Nick Johnson is still allowed to be "heavily" involved with the program, that makes me want to vomit. Some coaches just make the whole profession look absolutely terrible.

All of these post are focused on attacking the wife of a predator. There is NO evidence that she enabled him. This is not right and people should be ashamed. I cant help but feel a lot of hate and disregard for the actual victims in this situation. Not sure why so many people are upset that a high school runner decided to stay home and with her coach. These same people are using a horrible situation as justification for their own issues and hate toward a great runner's PERSONAL decision. Get over it and get off your feelings.

Most people here are not upset about the recent college decision. It has just reignited the previous topic which was the hiring decision.

I agree that the ongoing discussion makes things more difficult for the victim or victims. That being said, the negligence demonstrated makes me concerned for every future student athlete at this program. The University has demonstrated a willingness to look away when things get uncomfortable. There was not one enabler, but many.

The only information I know about this situation is what I have read here. Thus, I am curious as to who enabled this predator? Additionally, if the guy was fired im not sure how that constitutes "looking the other way." There is not much else they can do.

(A) Anyone who stays married to the abuser in this situation is condoning the behavior, and it is an indication that there is a material probability that she him enabled to begin with. Plus, her decision to be in the same position he had before smacks of his continued access.

(B) No one here is upset about someone staying home to attend school. When people read the probable cause statement and think about the situation they realize how this situation is far more alarming than that. People here are very worried about her.

They could not hire his wife and not let him still be involved with the team. That seems like a good start.

These are the questions that HU needs to answer...

1. What went into the decision to hire Lauren as the full time head coach?

2. Did the athletes have any say into the coaching decision?

3. What sort of investigation did the school conduct? Can HU confirm that all athletes involved with Mr. Johnson were privately questioned? This includes alumni, current athletes, and future recruits.

4. How is the school ensuring that Mr. Johnson has zero contact with the team? Are communications being monitored? Are there third parties present at practice to ensure compliance?

5. What does the recruiting process look like at HU? Are all athletes and their families fully aware of the "allegations" against the head coach's husband?

6. Was there ever a time when athletes were living at the Johnson household, whether it be for a short period or an extended period of time?

7. What is the relationship with the Johnson family and local high school athletes. Have they been privately coaching athletes on the side?

8. How is the school and Athletic Department ensuring that Coach Johnson is complying with recruiting and transfer guidlines? Is there an audit process in place to ensure that no violations are committed?

I think a lot of people are honestly concerned for the victim(s). When those court documents were released, it seemed clear to me that a minor was abused, came forward, but then later was uncooperative with investigators so Johnson got off extremely easily.

It is highly possible that the victim felt the abuse was their own fault, or didn't want to get a mentor, or the husband of a mentor thrown in jail, so they essentially recanted their statement.

I don't think anyone is too upset about this NAIA team gaining a fantastic runner, it's more that they are honestly worried for her safety returning to this environment. I know I feel the urge to say SOMETHING to SOMEBODY, but I don't truly know all the facts.

You’re right that it’s important to keep in mind that there is no evidence that Lauren knew anything. However, I also think that part of what concerns people is that she wasn’t just the wife, she was also an assistant coach.

As the wife, I could see not knowing anything was going on. I’ve had people close to me find out that their spouse was a serial cheater and they were absolutely surprised by it. Later, they could make some sense of things that were off about their relationship but they didn’t suspect infidelity in the moment.

As an assistant coach, however, things are different. When the team is spreading rumors about inappropriate behavior, the coach is caught in a compromising situation, and other athletes in the conference suspect weird happenings, the assistant coaches shouldn’t be able to claim ignorance and get promoted. None of those things are normal. This doesn’t just apply to Lauren but any other coaches on staff.

Per CaorlinaRunner
"2022 February 07: Nicholas Johnson sentenced to two years; 30 days to be spent in jail, 150 days under electronic monitoring, and 550 days of probation. Also ordered to have no contact with the victim.
NOTHING THAT OCCURRED AFTER THIS DATE IS RELEVANT TO THE TOPIC"

This post is poorly thought out and totally inaccurate that nothing from today's events are accurate.

I think that ForFusion's post of 8 pressing questions is perfect and also answers the thoughts of LydiaRuns.

There is nothing that should be directed towards whomever could be a victim in this situation.

We have no idea what steps HU XC/TF is taking to ensure that Nick Johnson has no interaction with the team or contact with a past victim.

All we know is that Nick Johnson's wife now has the head coaching job and that they are not separated as couple.

Huntington, IN is a very small town of 17,000 people and not large geographically (obviously).

So what formal measures are in place to ensure that someone who is banned by safe sport and legally not allowed to talk to a prior victim is actually happening?

Coaching XC/TF is very time intensive. If Lauren Johnson is spending 50-60hrs per week on campus and travelling with the team, is her husband just sitting at home post jail? Not allowed on campus? Is he allowed to discuss the team with his wife given his safe sport ban? Is he providing coaching insight or advice to athletes he worked with pre-legal issues?

Its reasonable for people to be concerned. Lauren has great coaching credentials and I'm sure she shines as a coach. but her husband was arrested (not charged) for child seduction and charged for impersonating someone from Oregon university to "recruit" a high school athlete.

While I agree that the violations of recruiting rules are important, I believe the focus should be on the main offense. The false identity charge and very likely breach of recruiting rules can just be written off as “competitive” and those bringing them up are disgruntled adversaries that lost. Certainly the possible violations add to the story and the type of person that would do what he did would probably not have any issue violating rules. I do believe that there are a ton of details that we don’t know. This is just a thought, not a criticism.

You have to remember that the athletic director coached Lauren while at Huntington (Basketball) and the other xc/track assistant coach was nick's high school coach.

so it is two of the couples life-long friends as oversight/authority on deciding to promote or discipline them.

I don’t think this really about a particular athlete going there, I think this situation just brought it to light again. I think what’s so frustrating is how blatant it all is. As someone else pointed out, Lauren isnt just his wife, she was also an assistant coach at the time. I started running at a very young age. All the way through college, my parents and I had to rely on the underground network of whisperings to figure out who was safe and who wasn’t. I would hope that things have changed, but this makes it feel like it hasn’t. Being from a small town myself, I know it takes the longest for changes to reach out into small communities. So, what’s important is that the athletes are protected, and hopefully, they are.

Occam's razor.

One explanation is that the wife (Lauren Johnson) had no idea that her husband (Nicholas Johnson) was engaging in sexual misconduct. And the university hired Lauren entriely based on merit and not at all becuase she was the spouse of the former coach (who should not be able to coach according to SafeSport because of sexual misconduct). And now the husband of the current head coach (who used to be the head coach and is banned from coaching because of sexual misconduct) has zero contact or influence on the program. And prominent female athletes who otherwise would not likely join a NAIA program continue to come to HU purely becasue they want to attend there.

Or, Nick Johnson is still very involved in the program, there are questionable recruiting practices taking place, and HU is doing nothing to prevent all of this from happening again.

All by itself, the fact that HU would rather have Lauren Johnson as their head coach than distance themselves from this mess as much as possible tells you everything you need to know. No coach that has ever existed would justify this decision. That's what stands out to me the most. Why would they not clean house and start over? What is a girl worth?