Times: High School Softball Coach Asked Team to Find Him Dates

UPDATE, March 8, 2:30 p.m.: The Seattle Times is now reporting that Troy Hennum has resigned from his job as softball coach at Roosevelt High.

A former coach at Kirkland’s Lake Washington High, who also coaches a select team in Bothell and has coached in the Edmonds School District, has been put on leave as Roosevelt High softball coach for allegedly using team members to find him dates, the Seattle Times reports.

Troy Hennum was not rehired as coach of the Lake Washington softball team team after the Lake Washington School District investigated him last year for questionable texts to a team member. See an earlier story about that here.

Hennum, 25, was recently put on unpaid leave by Roosevelt High just days after being hired as basketball coach -- hired despite the earlier investigation at Lake Washington.

The Times story said Hennum sent members of the Roosevelt softball team to take photos of “cute girls” and get their phone numbers for him. It quotes a woman who worked at a local sporting goods store who was approached by a group of giggling girls on a mission to do that. The woman communicated by text with Hennum, but never dated him after finding the approach creepy.

The Times reports the Seattle Public Schools put him on leave just six days after hiring him as the Roosevelt softball coach.

According to the Lake Washington district’s investigative report, Hennum texted a team member last March during a stay in Wenatchee for a tournament. Hennum said he was attempting to help a student through a difficult time on a team issue, and regretted sending the text. The report said the investigation began after a complaint from another high school coach. The district found no cause for disciplinary action. But Lake Washington Athletic Director George Crowder told Patch after the investigation that Hennum would not be rehired as coach.

Hennum did not return calls and emails to the Times about this latest suspension. Patch has also sent him an email and will update this story if he replies.

His LinkedIn profile indicates that he works as a “Primary/Secondary Education Professional” for the Edmonds and Shoreline school districts. The Times story noted that he coaches a select team in Bothell.

Here is that story: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020510800_softballcoachxml.html.