Waithe was an All-American triple jumper at Penn State University. He later parlayed that experience into several coaching jobs, including at IIT for four months in 2017 and at Concordia.
While Waithe was coaching at Northeastern in 2018, federal prosecutors alleged that he would ask for female athletes’ phones to record their form, but on several occasions he allegedly stole compromising images from the devices.
Investigators have identified more than 10 victims of the “body development” scheme, according to the Associated Press.
“It’s really disgusting and it’s really scary that somebody in the hierarchy here was doing that,” Northeastern student Heather Gamache said.
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FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2019 file photo, pedestrians walk near a Northeastern University sign on the school s campus in Boston. Steve Waithe, 28, of Chicago, a former track and field coach at Northeastern University was arrested, Wednesday, April 7, 2021, and charged with using bogus social media accounts to try to trick female student-athletes into sending him nude photos of themselves, prosecutors said. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi, File)
Rodrique Ngowi/AP
Waithe is accused of creating fake social media accounts to contact track and field athletes and offering to help get rid of compromising photos of them he claimed to have found online. Pixabay
BOSTON: A former track and field coach at Boston’s Northeastern University was arrested Wednesday and charged with using bogus social media accounts to try to trick female student-athletes into sending him nude photos of themselves, prosecutors said.
Steve Waithe, 28, of Chicago, is accused of creating fake social media accounts to contact track and field athletes and offering to help get rid of compromising photos of them he claimed to have found online.
Who is Steve Waithe?
Waithe, from Chicago, Illinois, is a former track and field coach at various universities such as Penn State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Tennessee, and Concordia University Chicago. As per his charging documents, he worked as a track and field coach at Northeastern University in Boston from October 2018 to February 2019. His allegations are from his time at the university where he reportedly requested to use the cellphone of female athletes under the pretense of filming their form at practice and at meets. The news release further reports that she was also at times observed scrolling through the female athlete s phones.