Mediaboss Marketing

Staff Writer

A School District of Osceola County investigation completed in December revealed that Celebration High School head football coach Ed Meierkort failed to responsibly account for a team fundraiser that took place during the 2012 season, according to documents obtained in a public records request.

The report also contains statements from an assistant coach and a faculty member that they felt physically threatened by Meierkort during conversations with him.

School athletic director Chris Lavoie also said in the report that Meierkort practiced players who did not have their physical forms on file, and that school principal Dr. Laura Rhinehart ordered a practice to be shut down, and that School Board Chairman Jay Wheeler intervened to acquire doctors to complete those players physicals.

Meierkort, who came to Celebration after 18 years as a college head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and the University of South Dakota, remains the Storms head coach, according to Lavoie. Lavoie said the decision whether to retain Meierkort will be up to Dr. Rhinehart.

Phone messages left with Rhineharts office about Meierkorts status have not been returned.

School district spokesperson Dana Schafer said this investigation is complete and that there are no other matters at the school level that warrant any other investigation.

Meierkort said Monday that he made mistakes in his first year at CHS but that he is committed to staying with the Storm, which was winless under Meierkort last season and has lost a total of 20 straight games since the end of the 2010 season.

I should have been more involved (in the fundraiser record-keeping), Meierkort said. This was our first time through it; well do better next time.

At the heart of this investigation was money that was turned into him by players that he took home and deposited into his personal account. He produced a personal check for $510, the amount the two players gave him, to Celebration High officials two days later.

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CHS coach failed to oversee fundraiser, investiagtion says