McKeever: 'One poor decision' cost job

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - In a report released Thursday, La Cueva High School baseball coach Stan McKeever admitted to paying for strippers for two 17-year-old players, but said it was a mistake that should not have cost him his job.

McKeever was fired from his coaching position and as a mathematics teacher at the northeast Albuquerque high school after the incident last year. He's appealing to get the positions back.

He has not made a public statement on the incident, but did speak with investigators with the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department, which made the report.

He had taken the students to a showcase event in Denver. According to the report, one of the players had pressured McKeever to take them to a strip club, but he refused.

"I'm trying to be the cool coach and have them like me," he said.

He said he hired the strippers and thought they "were going to come in and strip down to a bikini" and that he thought it would be somewhat harmless.

But, one of the players testified the girls disrobed completely. The player said there was no touching or sexual contact.

APS Lieutenant Steve Gallegos interviewed McKeever and spoke to one of two students involved in the incident; the transcripts of the interviews have been released.

"I just thought it was an innocent thing to do that would keep them happy and I was just trying to be a friend, be their buddy, be cool." said McKeever.

One of the player's fathers was furious when he found out a year later and confronted McKeever saying, "I said, 'You've crossed the line here Stan. This is not right.' I wanted to him to just save what career he had left if any and just resign."

He didn't.

McKeever was fired from his jobs coaching baseball and teaching math at la-cueva last month.

"You work for 25 years, you make one poor decision one night of your life, and it ruins everything," he said. "There's people in APS that have got DWIs and they don't lose their jobs."

"I just don't feel that I deserve to have my entire career ruined over one bad decision."
McKeever cited former President Bill Clinton and Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino as examples of people whose mistakes didn't cost them their jobs.

Gallegos noted McKeever admitted to purchasing the women, only after the incident was exposed almost a year later. The report showed McKeever had paid more than $500 for the strippers.