VENICE – A Venice High School coach is being investigated for inappropriate touching.
The Venice Police Department is currently investigating assistant high school football coach, Brian Ryals for allegedly touching female students inappropriately.
In the police report, the statement from the complainant says Coach Ryals seemed to be a positive influence in the past, but the more she thought about things, the more it seemed off.
The report from VPD states two students alleged that they would hang out with Ryals in his office, where he would touch their buttocks while they were fully clothed after “play fighting” or hugging during their sophomore and junior years.
Because the student victims were 16 to 17 years old when the coach allegedly touched them, a felony lewd and lascivious molestation charge does not apply.
According to the report, at the end of the last school year, Ryals kept telling one of the students that he would be asking her to do something, but he wasn’t sure if she would say yes or if he could trust her.
Police say the coach contacted the alleged victims by phone and said he was getting a wrestling certification and needed to record himself wrestling with them.
According to the report he asked them to meet him at Venice High over the weekend of Aug. 5-7, to wear only a sports bra and tight shorts, to bring a change of clothes and to not to tell anybody, officials said in the report.
The students never met up with the coach, and police were contacted to investigate after a complaint was filed.
The complainant whose information led to the investigation told officials that the contact raised questions, among other issues. According to the report, the coach would only have photos of girls on his bulletin board and would be upset if one of the victims wore a sports bra and spandex when weightlifting in front of the football team.
During the investigation, officials said they found inappropriate text messages between one of the students and Ryal. Most of them occurred between 9 and 10 p.m. throughout 2020-21.
Text messages between one of the students and Ryals showed that they said they loved each other.
In a statement sent to SNN, the Sarasota County School District said, “The district can confirm that Mr. Ryals is no longer coaching with SCS. He was not employed by the district, rather he received a coaching stipend. He is currently on leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation of the allegations.”
In May, police arrested former Venice High soccer coach Edward Delehanty for sexual battery after beginning a sexual relationship with a student on the team.
