Christian college coach created a culture of doping and sexual abuse, star runners allege
Huntington University has experienced a meteoric rise in its women’s running program.
The northeastern Indiana school featured two national champions in cross-country, won a national team title in indoor track in 2020, was NAIA program of the year in 2021, and landed the fastest high school miler in U.S. history in 2022.
Yet behind all that success at the small Christian college, where the motto is “the truth will make you free," former runners said there was a dark side: a cult-like atmosphere centered around former coach Nick Johnson and filled with allegations of emotional and physical abuse, sex between Johnson and two of his student-athletes, and pressure to take pills and injections — sometimes forcibly — containing unidentified substances.
The claims come from interviews with four former Huntington runners and 20 other people familiar with the athletes and program; a probable cause affidavit in a 2020 criminal case filed against Nick Johnson; a related 48-page police report obtained through a public records request; and a 40,000-word document written by runner Hannah Stoffel (part of which was submitted to police in 2021).
Hannah Stoffel won an NAIA cross-country title for Huntington University in November 2019.
More details about the allegations surfaced in a 33-page federal lawsuit filed Friday by attorney Jon Little. The lawsuit alleges criminal battery by Johnson and negligence by his wife, Lauren Johnson, as well as assistant coach Curtis Hines, Huntington University and other school officials.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/college/2022/10/04/huntington-university-indiana-running-program-doping-sexual-abuse/8177533001/
Will it never end? Suit after suit.....
