Yet IHSAA hasn't attempted to move a xc semi state. Gotto love the money driven association that is more worried about money and inconvenience then athlete safety.
I think the coaches in that Semi-State need to say something to the IHSAA-- But would agree but then again not shocked because the IHSAA drag their feet WITH everything in regards to XC.
Yet IHSAA hasn't attempted to move a xc semi state. Gotto love the money driven association that is more worried about money and inconvenience then athlete safety.
Could something be in the works still? Probably a lot of moving parts that need to get put in place. Mainly, you need a second venue that is able to host. If they don't have they yet, they may be hesitant to make an announcement. Agree that they should at least make a statement like, "we're working on it."
I'm not familiar with IHSAA, though. What is the money-driven aspect here? I don't see cross country meet as a situation where a lot of money is being made - except maybe paying for parking and concessions.
I would have to disagree. Especially in the manner the potential PEDs were administered. Unsafe for any athletes, especially when they don’t even know what is being injected. It’s unfathomable to be given any injectable by a coach and not a doctor or medical professional.
As a potential donor or athlete, it would make me very hesitant that administration would turn a blind eye to PED or any medication use, that isn’t governed by a doctor. This would discredit any accomplishments along with the fact it is morally wrong in many ways.
Agreed... Hell in that kind of conservative circle even if he was just injecting a Covid-19 vaccine against their will it would probably cause more outrage than the sexual assault/rape allegations.
The sad truth is that if it doesn't effect white adult males then the powers that be do the bare minimum to get the mob to stop annoying them with this thing they don't care about. They put Hines and Lauren Johnson on leave yesterday not because they thought they should, but because of the 'annoying journalists and keyboard warriors'. They were not swift to act after initial incident or the current lawsuit and story dropped.
It shouldn’t take a mob or a lawsuit to get to where we are now, but unfortunately that’s just how this stuff works. I’ve been angry about this for a little while now. Posted a bunch in the last thread. Made a few posts on Reddit trying to create a mob (letsrun deleted my post about my Reddit post, btw). Even before the lawsuit revealed all of this extra stuff, it was easy to see that something was not right at Huntington. You had former athletes calling Nick a pathological liar in that thread (with many examples of these lies), along with several reports that they had student athletes staying over at their house. Anyone familiar with these situations could see that more stuff was happening that we didn’t know about. None of the details from this lawsuit surprised me, but I’m happy that it was enough to create a bigger mob this time. I hope Huntington burns to the ground because of this. Metaphorically speaking of course.
Is it reasonable to think that Austin Roark, the head track coach who is now interim XC coach, was unaware of what was going on with the distance coaches/runners?
The only way he could not know about what happened with Victim 1, currently enrolled and on the active roster, while she was a high schooler is through willful ignorance. He had to have overlooked LJ’s hiring and connection to the previous coach who had been fired and the reason for his termination.
I think the PED issue is not a consideration for the University that's just noise. But the sex abuse is an issue for both supporters and will have an impact on potiential enrollment. Since the university has been supporting and championing this program for some time now, it looks really bad, administrators (AD, VP of Spiritual Formation, VP of Student Life) have to go. The sooner the better.
Administering controlled substances without a prescription is another layer on lack of institutional control.
I am inclined to give Roark the benefit of the doubt for now. He has just started at Huntington after many years at Indiana Tech. He is a multi-events and throws coach. I doubt that he was ever in the cultish little clique surrounding the distance program and likely had only cursory professional relationships (staff meetings, season and schedule planning, etc.) with Johnson and Hines. I actually feel for the guy. He had an opportunity to be a head track coach, made the move, and probably walked into this sh**show unaware. Sure, he had to have known about Nick Johnson but was probably given assurances by the AD and administration that Nick was fired, prosecuted, and that the distance program was now clean and operating above board.
I give him the benefit of the doubt too, but I can tell you first hand that everyone in northern Indiana knew something wasn’t right at that university when they fired Nick and hired Lauren. Ind Tech is super connected to the track world so there’s not a chance he took that job without hearing all the rumors around HU. He knew he was not stepping into a steady situation but that’s the choice he made. So in that sense, I don’t feel bad for him. I wish him luck, but don’t feel bad for him.
Reading the police report and I am so sad for victim 1.
The worst thing about being a teenager is that when you are one you think you are a grown adult, but you really aren't. I look back and some of the stuff I did/thought at that age, and realize how completely immature and naive I was. But you don't realize that until years later, when you are a teenager, you think you are grown.
Everyone who's an adult knows this so the ones like Nick who try to manipulate teenagers are the absolute worst. Being so included in Nick and Lauren's life probably made this kid feel mature, and wiser than her years. Not having a father figure, and not having many friends at school probably added to that.
It was victim 1 who had the conversation with Nick about telling Lauren about his affairs (sexual abuse) with the other two (very young, college athlete) women. what teenager should be having a conversation like that with adults in the first place??
He was also texting with her at all hours of the day. That probably made her feel special but it's soooo ****** up.
I have so many questions for victim 1's mother. How do you not consider your child a victim in this situation? How did you let victim 1 continue to be coached by them as she is now at Huntington U? How does it not keep you up at night that she continued to affiliate with these people who manipulated and abused her, and manipulated and abused other girls?
I am inclined to give Roark the benefit of the doubt for now. He has just started at Huntington after many years at Indiana Tech. He is a multi-events and throws coach. I doubt that he was ever in the cultish little clique surrounding the distance program and likely had only cursory professional relationships (staff meetings, season and schedule planning, etc.) with Johnson and Hines. I actually feel for the guy. He had an opportunity to be a head track coach, made the move, and probably walked into this sh**show unaware. Sure, he had to have known about Nick Johnson but was probably given assurances by the AD and administration that Nick was fired, prosecuted, and that the distance program was now clean and operating above board.
I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is not involved in any of this mess, but there is no way he didn't have any idea what he was walking into. There has been smoke with this program for years. Without any speculation or inside information he would have known TWO NAIA champs transferred out AFTER Nick Johnson was fired, and that the university chose to replace Nick Johnson with his wife who had not filed for divorce from him.
Indiana Tech is located about half an hour away from Huntington. There is no way that a fellow NAIA coach wasn't aware of all of the inside information that make this situation even worse than what is already publicly known.
I'm sure the desire to be a head coach probably made him overlook some red flags, and he doesn't deserve to be punished he isn't involved. However, the idea of him being some poor victim who unwittingly walked into a bad situation is not true.
Wounder if he is on admistrative leave at the public school he works for?
That is a very good question. He is still listed on the HNHS site although I doubt a high school is likely to remove employees the second they are put on leave.
Following up on this. Student from HNHS says on twitter that Hines was at school on Tuesday, but not Wednesday or Thursday. Later confirmed that he is currently suspended with pay.
I can speak on this a bit as a former XC/TF member of Indiana Tech in 2013-2017 (all years of which Roark was a jumps/multis coach at Tech).
First of all, Roark is a great guy. All the athletes loved him in his event group and outside of his event group and would never be nefarious.
As for awareness of Huntington, despite the minimal distance between the two campuses, I don't think I remember seeing them at a XC or track meet that we were at more than once or twice over a 4 year span. We had almost no association with them. A part of that had to do with being in separate conferences (they were in the Crossroads league with all Indiana schools and we were in the WHAC with primarily Michigan schools). I'm sure he was made aware of the Nick Johnson tomfoolery and obviously new something was strange with how the program went from an absolute non-factor to winning national titles in a matter of a couple years.
That being said, I'm sure he did his research and both the head track coach and former head XC coach probably helped in his research into Huntington, so it is likely aware he was aware of some sketchy situations around the Johnsons. But, as previous posters have stated, the Johnsons essentially made the distance crew a completely separate entity from the track program so there was likely not much connection between the coaches.
I feel bad for Roark having to deal with this as a new coach and wish him the absolute best. Again, I would stand behind him based off of a great personal experience I had and my 100+ teammates seemed to have had with him. While this stink initially for him and his program, it would be best to essentially blow up the XC/distance program and start anew. For many reasons this would be the best option in the long term, but could also help create a track to XC connection that was absent due to the Johnson cult effect.
Yet IHSAA hasn't attempted to move a xc semi state. Gotto love the money driven association that is more worried about money and inconvenience then athlete safety.
This is 100% shooting from the hip and I know this because I have talked to people currently trying to make a new venue a possibility. I can't speak to all courses in northeast Indiana, but many do not have starting lines (or other limitations) large enough to accommodate the Semi-State field.
The first priority sounds like it is The Plex (at Purdue Fort Wayne - not HU), where the SS was held for several years prior to the pandemic. Covid restrictions did not allow the SS to take place there (a PFW campus property as I understand it) in 2020, so HU stepped in to help host. It has remained at Huntington because PFW/The Plex host many other events on site and it has apparently always been a little bit of a hassle to schedule meets there, clear a Saturday in late October for the SS, and prep a course that shares ground with multiple soccer fields in a short amount of time. Huntington made that process smoother than PFW did with a purpose-built XC course, hence it has remained since 2020. This is my own, unconfirmed, opinion, but Huntington is also slightly more centrally located than The Plex at PFW for all teams that travel to the New Haven SS.
The second option, which I haven't heard being prioritized at the moment, is Indiana Wesleyan University. Marion HS hosts what has been, and may still be, the largest regular season meet in Indiana, IWU hosts another large HS invite a week later, and the site has hosted IHSAA Sectionals and Regionals for over 20 years. If The Plex at PFW doesn't come through, IWU could relatively easily be ready to host a 20-team, 40 individuals meet within a week. The logistics are still challenging, but all the equipment, flagging, markings, and course maintenance are ready to go right now. The course is a little tighter in early sections than the PFW course, but it could do the job for the SS in this scenario.
If there are any other courses being talked about I am unaware, but those 2 are definitely being considered. I'm guessing people haven't heard anything because, as someone else mentioned, there is still uncertainty about the ability to move it, namely to priority #1 at PFW.
Huntington University in northeastern Indiana placed its women's cross country head coach and an assistant on leave after two former runners claimed in a federal lawsuit they were doped and sexually assaulted.
If the victim 1 story was fully known by the public this would be a much much bigger story. That’s why the running community is taking this so much more seriously then outsiders, we all know victim 1 and the grooming/brainwashing that has occurred.
I actually believe the school that offered victim 1 should offer again and help break her out of the cult. It would take a lot of maneuvering but getting her out of that town and far far away from Nick is the only solution at this point
I actually believe the school that offered victim 1 should offer again and help break her out of the cult. It would take a lot of maneuvering but getting her out of that town and far far away from Nick is the only solution at this point
Victim 1 doesn't consider herself a victim. There's a lot of unanswered questions behind that rationale. The police report is horrifying, and much of the horrible details do come from Nick Johnson himself.
