Stephen F. Austin bowling coach’s gutterball affair led to a 7-10 split from his wife and job

Former Stephen F. Austin’s assistant bowling coach Steve Lemke’s life is falling apart quicker than 10 pins at The Dude’s bowling alley. Stephen F. Austin is apparently renowned for its bowling program. The Ladyjacks won national titles in 2016 and 2021 under the administration of head coach Amber Lemke. Meanwhile, her aforementioned husband, Steve, pulled off the 7-10 split by losing his job, and his marriage by having one of the dumbest affairs known to mankind.

Steve resigned on April 10 after the university learned of his relationship with an unidentified player on the women’s bowling team. Inexplicably, months later Steve Lemke spoke about his firing, defending himself, and appears fixated on the consensual aspect of the relationship as if that absolved him of any blame. Steve believed his actions have been “amplified to the magnitude that it is now because of the national championship caliber that we’ve developed.”

Not only does he seem to think a national appetite exists for salacious NCAA bowling scandals, but Steve also seems oblivious to the harm he caused by cheating on his wife — with a player she coached every day.

“I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” Steve Lemke told The Daily Sentinel. “There’s not a law saying I’m going to go to jail for doing something like this. There’s nothing in stone. I guess it’s just an ethics code, like we frown upon it, but there’s no rule, there’s no law broken.”

“I think it’s more of an ethics thing when it comes to the college as far as a coach/teacher being with a student-athlete,” he added.

Steve basically disregarding ethics and his marriage vows as some rhetorical device because it wasn’t against the law is some incredible mental gymnastics. In a tale as old as time, Steve was discovered when his wife discovered texts from his mistress. They must have been some steamy texts. Nope. According to Steve, “It was just about how amazing I am, basically, in a general perspective.’”

This is just getting depressing now. Those sound like texts you’d get from your work wife. Then again, Steve’s work spouse was his actual wife. But in case you start feeling a little bad for ole Steve and his thirst for affirmation, peep this sob story he gave to explain his affair.

“I was the stay-at-home dad for five years with the kids while Amber got to go off and coach the team and when she’d get back, I’d run practices on top of taking care of the kids while she was back,” Steve Lemke said. “When they’d travel again, I would sit back, and take care of the kids. Then when I got hired on, she almost forced me to run practices. I was a volunteer the entire time before that trying to help out Amber. Once I got hired on, one thing stemmed from another. I felt like I was doing too much for what I was being valued at.”

Teamwork doesn’t always make the dream work after all. Stephen F. Austin’s Lemke dynasty is over, but Amber will return next season as head coach. Meanwhile, Steve will have to slink on down to Single Nights after his expulsion from the college bowling scene. Maybe he’ll coach on the men’s staff at another university down the road, but it might be tough sledding for an assistant bowling coach who started an affair with a student-athlete he had power over, and then spouted these oblivious quotes.

Follow DJ Dunson on Twitter: @cerebralsportex