West Virginia Looking Into Incident With Football Head-Coach-In-Waiting Holgorsen

May 26, 2011 / Football
Charleston Daily Mail, Mike Casazza

http://www.dailymail.com/Sports/201105250019

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University is looking into an “alleged incident” believed to involve the football team’s offensive coordinator and head coach-in- waiting, Dana Holgorsen, at a Cross Lanes casino last week.

Multiple sources told the Charleston Daily Mail Holgorsen was removed from Mardi Gras Casino & Resort after 3 a.m. May 18. Holgorsen had been at a Mountaineer Athletic Club function earlier in the day in Logan before spending the evening at the casino with other university representatives.

In a statement released late Tuesday night, Michael Fragale, the assistant athletic director for communications, said, “Athletic director Oliver Luck and head coach Bill Stewart have been made aware of the alleged incident. Once they have all the facts, they will deal with it appropriately.”

The statement was released not long after a Daily Mail reporter left a voice message for a football program official asking if the university was aware of the incident involving Holgorsen.

Holgorsen’s behavior allegedly reached a point that necessitated involvement from on-site security, sources said. Holgorsen was escorted out of the casino with the episode caught on surveillance. University representatives who were with Holgorsen were said to have then intervened. No arrest was made.

Police records indicate Metro 911 received a call from the casino at 3:13 a.m. that night. A “white male” was said to be “refusing to cooperate with the casino’s management.” Casino supervisors had the male detained at the time.

The Nitro Police Department was dispatched to the scene.

Nitro Police spokesman Patrolman Raymond Blake said Holgorsen cooperated with law enforcement when they arrived at the scene and did not appear to be in violation of any laws. 

“We got up there and spoke to the male and said, ’Hey, they want you to leave,’” Blake said. “He complied, walked out, sat out on a bench, waited for the taxi, and when the taxi arrived he got in and left.

“Everything the officers asked him to do he did,” Blake said. “There are no charges going to be filed, he was never arrested or handcuffed or anything like that.”

Blake said he did not know what had occurred earlier at the casino that led to the initial 911 call, and said officers did not view any security footage from that night.

“There was no need to, he didn’t commit a crime or anything like that,” Blake said. “They wished that he be removed form the property and he complied with that.”

Blake said that police did not file a report of the incident “because there was no incident that took place.”

“The only way there would be a report of the situation is if he broke any laws,” he said. “Because he didn’t violate any laws and was very compliant, the situation was handled very easily.”

The Mardi Gras casino referred all requests for information about the incident to casino general manager Robert Lagg, who was unavailable for comment Wednesday morning. 

Holgorsen was hired from Oklahoma State in December to succeed Stewart beginning in the 2012 season.


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