Coach, 40, Weds 16-Year-Old Student
Anguished Parents Sign Consent Forms, Saying They Had No Choice

The Hagers are trying to figure out how life went off track for their teenage daughter, Windy.

They envisioned that life for the good student and promising athlete would be filled with dreams of the prom and college, but that all changed this week when Windy, 16, married her high school track coach.

"She was a dream kid," said her mother, Betty Hager. "We'd never have to worry about Windy trying to get by with something."

At South Brunswick High School in North Carolina, Windy's greatest passion was track and field.

"She just always was outside, always running, and her name's Windy — I guess she was predestined to do love to do that," Betty said.

But that passion led her down a troubling path.

Special Attention From Coach

During Windy's freshman year, her 38-year-old track coach, Brenton Wuchae, began taking a more active interest in her, offering to give the 14-year-old rides home from practice.

"He just seemed like a genuine guy, like he was there for the kids," said Windy's father, Dennis Hager.

But the Hagers eventually grew uneasy. Their phone bills showed text messages between Wuchae and Windy as late as 2 a.m.

They also discovered worrying e-mails. In one, Windy wrote to a friend, "I don't care to look at anyone other than him. He is the apple of my eye, I've never felt this way for someone, but I just don't want to lose him because of my parents' power trips."

Source

Lucky guy! She's a cutie was an awesome body!

Do you not have kids?

You hit the nail on the head Sparkie, this has got to be every parents worst nightmare. At least we can hope her parents will be there for her when the "ass" dumps her when she hits the old age of 20.

That's so far out of line, even if you meant it to be funny.

Agreed!!

There are lots of couples that are 20+ years in age difference. (I know a couple that are 70 and 46 been married over 25 years) But the difference here is the girl is under 18 AND he is in a position of authority.

Some people are very fucked up. That kid is going to waste a few years of her life with this fucking moron and kick her ass for the rest of it. Sometimes u gotta learn the hard way.

This makes me wonder about just how backwards the laws in N.C. must be that a 16 year old can legally wed, especially some middle age pedophile, which he obviously must be. And WTF is wrong with this chick's PARENTS!? They signed consent? Maybe the parents should be charged and prosecuted for child neglect and child endangerment. And the "coach" (AKA child molester) should be locked up and general population to have his ass gang pounded nightly. I'd enjoy getting hold of her parents AND the coach, but not for sexual pleasure, just to participate in the punishment they justly and richly deserve.
And to the poster who made that stupid-ass glib remark about "lucky gut" and that she was a "cutie", I wonder what kind of danger you might pose to kids if that is your sincere sentiment. YES, 16 years old is a KID.

The legal age for marriage in the United Kingdom, including my own country of Scotland, is 16. No parental permission is required in Scotland. In some of your states, it is possible to marry at 16, albeit with permission. Clearly, therefore, they are not doing anything wrong according to their state laws.

It is not particularly usual here for a 16 year old to get married, although it was some time ago. Indeed my mother was only 17 when she married and my father was 30. They stayed together till my father's death a few years ago.

Now, kids just live together rather than waste the money on the wedding, so for me as a Scot, it is interesting that they are geting married and not just living together.

How "backward" you Americans must find us Europeans, especially my parents. Verging on savage I daresay.

The point is that the coach was/is in a position of authority and power over the 16 year old girl. Consent isn't necessarily valid in situations where one of the persons is in a position of authority over the other (or has intentions that the other person does not understand or agree upon).

It would not bother me as much (it would still bother me, but not as much) if the man were not her coach - if he were just some guy that she met online or at a swap meet.

Chances are 50/50 that they'll live happily ever after or they'll separate after a few years or something.

My dad was my mum's boss and therefore in a position of power over her. She loved him then, she loved him on the day he died and she loves him now, and he loved her. As far as I know neither of them ever strayed during their marriage.

My point: It is possible for there to be love between two people of fairly disparate ages. ( maybe only for savages though ).

Having read and re-read the article,and in now way defending the coach,has anyone considered maybe he was telling the truth? She pursued him rather than the other way around.In this media hungry world if he did or even said anything inappropriate witnesses would be coming out of the woodwork.The article also stated that SHE told friends he was the one for her and SHE sent him several emails and text messages.And finally which one was using more power, a coach giving a student a ride home or the 16 yr old who pressured her parents into signing a conscent form?

I had it in mind to ask about the consent thing.

I don't know how that works, but I know that, at least at one time, in England people under the age of 18 had to get permission from their parents to get married. (This was why the famous marriage chapel was set up in the tiny village of Gretna Green, just over the border in Scotland, where no parental consent was required if the couple were both 16 or more.)

If this was such a dreadful thing to happen, why didn't the parents simply refuse to give permission. Cruel maybe, but cruel to be kind, if indeed it is a "wrong" thing.

They say that they had no choice... If that is a literal truth then what is the point of having a consent form? I suspect they had the choice but decided not to push it. She sounds rather willful does Windy.

Incidentally, is Windy a normal name for a girl in America? I've never heard it before. I ve heard of Snowy the dog or rabbit, and Sunny but not Rainy or Windy.

Wouldn't have liked that name at school... can only imagine what the kids would have called me!

Since your age is listed as 29 and the way you speak of your mother and father leads me to believe they were honorable people I am going to guess they were married for at least 30 years before your father died. That said, when I got married 29 years ago there were states where the legal age for marriage was 14 and it would not have been a scandal for a 30 something man to marry a 16 year old. I had a high school teacher that married one of his students after graduation in the 1950's (he was 30 she was 18 ).

Today we are more aware of pedophilia and the way some people in authority - teachers (male & female) priests, coaches (football, hockey, tennis, track, swimming) take advantage of the young people they are supposed to be helping. I think most people feel that as the adult this man should have resisted the temptation of this young female pursuing him (reported it to her parents, the principal, etc.). They both could have waited until she was out of high school and not so inexperienced.

Thank you for that TigeLilly. Yes, I think my parents were reasonably honourable, and as it happens I agree that probably the coach (who I assume is some sort of teacher of sports?) should have resisted the temptation to fall in love with a gil 24 years younger than he is, no matter how persistant and willful she may be.

Without knowing the facts, I guess it is hard to judge that.

What annoyed me was the comment that they have "backward" laws in NC, because you can get married iat 16. The inference being that countries or states which had marriage at 16 were backward. Most of Europe has that age, or younger, including some of the most sophisticated countries in the world (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden). Nothing backward about them.

Most contributors judged that this is paedophilia. But I'm pretty sure my father was NOT a paedophile, and take offence at the inference that he was.