Ten-pin bowling has been a sanctioned NCAA championship since the early 2000s. A women's only event, the first NCAA championship for the sport was held in 2004. It's an NCAA sport that doesn't get a lot of attention or love but has a thriving fandom and a high level of competition. However, it has suddenly been thrust into the mainstream sports spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Stephen F. Austin University, located in the Texan city of Nacogdoches, is a two-time NCAA bowling champion. They most recently won the national title in 2019 behind MOP Paige Breeney. Furthermore, they finished as runners-up to McKendree in 2022. But now the program is at the center of a controversy that has taken the sports world by storm.
SFA Bowling Assistant Coach Gives Wild Interview After Resignation
First reported by The Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel and The Lufkin Daily News, SFA bowling assistant coach Steve Lemke resigned after it was revealed he was having an affair with a student-athlete. Furthermore, the affair was discovered by Amber Lemke, his wife and head coach of the SFA bowling team. The Lemkes have since filed for divorce. If the story wasn't wild enough already, Steve chose to defend the relationship in public comments.
“I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” Steve Lemke said. “There’s not a law saying I’m going to go to jail for doing something like this. There’s nothing in stone. I guess it’s just an ethics code, like we frown upon it, but there’s no rule, there’s no law broken.” The affair was discovered when Amber saw texts from the student-athlete on Steve's phone and questioned her husband about it. However, the story is set to blow up further after Stephen A. Smith remarked that he was preparing to comment on it on the next episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show.