http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0330wade30.html
Coach: Wade had girlfriend 'issues'
Koetter defends ASU's handling of player; Wade's ex had called police twice in past
Judd Slivka
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 30, 2005 12:00 AM
ASU football coach Dirk Koetter said Tuesday that he'd never connected the dots in Loren Wade's history of trouble with women in the athletic program.
He said he didn't refer the running back to counseling after incidents involving a female gymnast at Arizona State University in November and Wade's ex-girlfriend earlier this month. He also reinstated Wade in the football program, allowing him to participate in spring practice.
ASU officials expressed support for Koetter at a news conference Tuesday, the same day Wade was formally charged with first-degree murder. Koetter was defiant, defensive and still reeling from the shock of one of his players being accused of killing a former player outside a Scottsdale club early Saturday. advertisement
Troubling details continue to emerge.
On March 3, three days before Wade and former ASU soccer player Haley van Blommestein broke up, van Blommestein called Chandler police and asked for an officer to meet her at her apartment, saying Wade was on his way and had threatened to destroy things. On March 9, three days after the couple broke up, Chandler police were called again. Dispatchers reported that van Blommestein advised "her boyfriend told her he is en route to the apartment to destroy the apartment."
That same day, a former soccer teammate called Scottsdale police, expressing fears about van Blommestein's safety.
In other news Tuesday:
• ASU President Michael Crow said he stands behind Koetter and outgoing Athletic Director Gene Smith. "They're two of the straightest arrows I know," Crow said. "I have confidence in Dirk. I have confidence in Gene, based on the information that I have."
• Koetter acknowledged other allegations of misconduct against Wade, though the coach would not specify what they were, saying only that they weren't "relationship issues."
"It serves no purpose at this point," he said. "It won't bring Brandon Falkner back."
• Neither Koetter nor Smith told Crow specifics about Wade's threats, even after Wade was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder Saturday.
"When I was talking with Dirk on Sunday, he was very upset, very upset," Crow said in an interview.
Crow added: "He said that Loren had relationship issues. That's all he said."
But Koetter knew that the "relationship issues" would come to light soon enough. He knew it Saturday when the media started asking about the high-profile murder.
"I knew in my heart that there were other things coming," Koetter said. "I knew there were more things coming down the line. It wasn't the right time to talk about them."
In conversations Sunday and Monday with Crow, Koetter never told him the nature of the relationship issues. Crow first found out about them in Tuesday's Arizona Republic.
• Wendy Adams, a former athletic department employee who is a central figure in an ongoing investigation into whether Wade violated NCAA rules, said that Wade called her at about 2 a.m. Saturday, a half-hour before the shooting. Adams said that Wade sounded "off" and that she had difficulty comprehending what he was saying.
Arizona Board of Regents President Gary Stuart expressed confidence in ASU's athletic department but said he wanted questions answered.
"It seems to me to be necessary that the right questions are asked and asked quickly," he said.
Stuart added, "It's something not so much from the perspective of this investigation but to make sure the athletic department is properly managed."
Smith is scheduled to leave ASU on April 14 to take over as Ohio State's athletic director.
Ohio State officials said Smith had kept them apprised of the situation at ASU.
"Arizona State University and Gene Smith are handling this event with sensitivity and compassion. We fully support Gene during this difficult period and look forward to his arrival," a statement released by the university said.
Lack of counseling
Koetter directed Wade to counseling in September, when Wade walked into the coach's office and said he wanted to quit the football team because he was afraid of "being hurt."
Wade went to counseling a few times, then stopped. He was suspended from the team in the fall after an apparent NCAA violation involving benefits from Adams.
When Wade threatened gymnast Trisha Dixon in November after she told a friend that she had seen him with another woman instead of van Blommestein, Dixon's coach, John Spini, called Smith and Koetter.
Wade was not directed to counseling then nor after a March 6 incident in which Koetter found himself on the phone with Wade and van Blommestein. Wade was in tears on that phone call, Koetter said, because the two were breaking up.
Wade, Koetter thought, had "relationship issues."
Van Blommestein's friends were so scared of the 21-year-old Wade that they called ASU soccer coach Ray Leone and told him Wade had a gun.
Witnesses to Saturday's shooting said Wade, upset over his ex-girlfriend talking to other men, strode across the parking lot of hip-hop club CBNC and put his head into Falkner's BMW. Van Blommestein was standing against the car. Wade reached into the BMW holding a .38 in his right hand, and Falkner was then shot.
When Koetter was pressed Tuesday to answer whether Wade was directed to counseling after the incidents involving threats to women, the coach did not answer.
Crow answered instead, saying both coaches who had complained about Wade's behavior were satisfied with Koetter's response at the time.
When the allegations about threats came to light Tuesday morning, Crow called Koetter, Smith and Spini and Leone, the two coaches who had contacted Koetter, into his office to discuss what had transpired over the past six months.
"All the coaches were satisfied," Crow said. "They felt they didn't have a guy who was out of control."
Falkner family anger
Miles away, Falkner's brother is just angry. Jelani Falkner thinks there's a double standard. His brother was thrown off the team after he drove on a suspended license, then had a warrant out for him when he didn't appear in court. Wade, Jelani said, did far worse things, but it was tolerated.
Koetter, who said his team had what he called "not a good practice" on Monday, hopes his reeling program can soon get back on track.
He said two players were dismissed from the team Tuesday morning for an undisclosed incident that happened last week.
Jonathan Lehmann and Brent Russum, redshirt freshmen offensive lineman, were released from the team.
now they won't have to leave their guns in the car when they go out to a pub.
remind me to not go out to a bar if i'm ever in arizona again.
