University of Texas at Austin women's track and field coach Beverly Kearney formally stepped down Saturday amid the ongoing controversy over her intimate past relationship with a student-athlete.
Talking to Austin American-Statesman, Kearney admitted to having had an intimate relationship with a Texas athlete that lasted for more than a decade. She said that her relationship with the former Texas University student ended after she was involved in a serious automobile accident in which she suffered a grave spinal injury.
Kearney termed her relationship as a "consensual intimate relationship" with an "adult student-athlete." The secret affair of trainer-athlete at the university came to light in October last year.
The former student involved with Kearney reported about the affair to university officials.
However, Kearney now regrets her decision in getting in a relationship with a student-athlete. She described her past relationship as "poor-judgement."
"You destroy yourself. You start questioning how could you make such a judgment," she said. "How could you make such an error after all the years? You can get consumed (by it)," she told the newspaper.
"But I had to go back and say, 'God, if this is the pattern that you choose for me to find peace of mind, if this is what I need to go through to in order to do that, let me not make it about anybody else, but revert it back to me.' It's been a difficult challenge for me simply because I have to forgive myself for making an error. I didn't commit a crime, but I displayed poor judgment," she added.
However, she refrained from identifying the former student in question.
Kearney joined the University of Texas in 1993 and has led the track and field women's team to national championships six times since.
In 20 years at Texas, she has been named conference coach of the year 16 times, National Coach of the year three times and in 2007 she was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, reported Deadspin.
