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Coach Facing Sex Charges Left Old Job On Bad Terms

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2008

Updated: 02/01/2008 01:41 pm

The Newsome High School soccer coach who was charged Thursday with having sex with a female student left his former job on a sour note.

Ronald Lewis

Ronald Lewis, 37, apparently didn't want to coach what he thought would be a losing girls soccer team, said Steve Jarosz, president of the Brandon Area Youth Soccer League.

His disparaging comments about the team are why he only lasted six weeks as the coach of the Brandon Flames, Jarosz said.

"He lost interest in that team," Jarosz said. "A lot of the Newsome girls left for other leagues. It wasn't going to be as good a team as he wanted it to be.

"He said things like, 'This team's going to suck.'"

Lewis stopped coaching the Flames in September but stayed with the league until December as a boys team coach, but he was ultimately fired for poor team performance, Jarosz said.

From February 2007 to November, Lewis had sex with a Newsome student at least seven times in his Jeep Wrangler, his home and other locations in the county, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The victim was 17 at the time.

According to the Brandon Flame's Web site, the teen played for the team when Lewis coached it.

She is now 18 and identified Lewis as the man she had been having sex with, according to his arrest report.

Deputies said Lewis told a witness he and the girl had been having sex since February.

The witness was not identified.

Lewis was pulled from a Newsome classroom Wednesday when the allegations arose, Hillsborough County School District spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said. He resigned Thursday afternoon, Cobbe said.

Deputies arrived Thursday afternoon at his home, 1505 Crooked Stick Drive, Valrico. He was arrested that evening and posted $52,500 bail and left Orient Road Jail early this morning.

No one answered the door to his home this morning.

Stay with TBO.com for developments.

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