Ex-high school coach accused of sex crimes against 6 more athletes, NC sheriff says

Iredell County Sheriff's Office

The former head softball coach at Lake Norman High School, fired in May for talking up a sex act on a student’s voicemail, was arrested and charged Wednesday with sex crimes against six more student athletes, authorities said Friday.

Thomas Patrick Strahan, a 59-year-old Cornelius resident, was charged in May with a count of felony indecent liberties with a student given his role as a softball coach, Sheriff Darren Campbell said in a statement Friday. Strahan didn’t teach in the Iredell-Statesville Schools, the sheriff said.

Authorities aren’t releasing what additional acts Strahan is accused of committing, only that they’ve filed six more counts of felony indecent liberties with a student.

The sheriff’s office also isn’t saying which sports the victims played.

“During the investigation, other juvenile victims were identified and have been interviewed as this investigation has continued,” according to the sheriff’s office statement. “As a result of those interviews, it was determined that Strahan had committed crimes with other juvenile athletes.”

Strahan didn’t return a phone message from The Charlotte Observer on Saturday.

In May, Strahan also was suspended with pay as a physical education teacher at West Mecklenburg High School, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokeswoman said at the time.

On May 17, Lake Norman staff members told the school resource officer about a student who reported receiving a voicemail from Strahan about a sexual act, the Observer previously reported, citing the sheriff’s account of what transpired.

Investigators with the sheriff’s special victims unit immediately went to the school and took statements from people who learned about the voicemail, Campbell said.

Warrants were obtained to search Strahan’s social media accounts and telephone records.