High school softball coach discussed sex act on student’s voicemail, NC sheriff says

The head softball coach at Lake Norman High School was fired Wednesday after he talked up a sex act on a student’s voicemail, authorities said.

The coach, 58-year-old Thomas Patrick Strahan of Cornelius, was charged with felony indecent liberties with a child, according to a news release by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office.

On Tuesday, Lake Norman staff members told the school resource officer about a student who reported receiving a voicemail from Strahan about a sexual act, Sheriff Darren Campbell said in a statement.

Investigators with the sheriff’s special victims unit immediately went to the school and took statements from people who learned about the voicemail, according to the sheriff.

Warrants were obtained to search Strahan’s social media accounts and telephone records.

Investigators returned to the school on Doolie Road in Mooresville on Wednesday and obtained “additional information” about the case, according to the release.

Deputies arrested Strahan on Wednesday afternoon.

He was jailed on a $50,000 secured bond, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Observer was unable to reach Strahan on Wednesday night.

“This investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are anticipated,” Campbell said in the statement.

Strahan coached softball at the school since June 2017 “and has never served in any other capacity in the district,” according to an Iredell-Statesville Schools statement.