A high school wrestling coach in Minnesota, and his wife, are under criminal investigation for giving a student prescription pills to secretly treat a rash so he would not have to forfeit any matches, officials said.
The coach told a student on the Waconia High School wrestling team to come to his house on Jan. 2 to receive medication for a rash the teenager had on his neck and behind his ear, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court and obtained by the Star Tribune.
Waconia Public Schools identified the coach to NBC News as Kelly Wagener.
The student told detectives that when he arrived at the house, Wagener told him to keep the rash a secret and then Wagener's wife, who is a nurse, allegedly gave the student pills and instructed him to take the medicine to help treat the infection, according to the affidavit.
The student, who was not identified because he's a minor, believes Wagener wanted him to keep the rash a secret because he was worried doctors would report it to the state's high school league, according to the affidavit.
The Minnesota High School League declined to comment on the incident to NBC News and said it has guidelines posted on its website which states, in part, that wrestlers who develop rashes or lesions due to infections are not allowed to compete until all sores are healed.
According to the affidavit, the student's mother took him to a doctor in December and was told that the rash was a skin infection and was given a cream to apply to the area but the rash only got worse.
The boy's mother told investigators that they went back to the doctor on Jan. 7, following the teen's visit to his coach's house, and was given a different type of medication to treat the rash.
It was a "semi-normal thing" for Wagener to give prescription medication to wrestlers on the team, the student told detectives, according to the affidavit.
A spokesperson for the school district said in a statement to NBC News on Tuesday that Wagener is not currently coaching at the school because the 2019 wrestling season is over.
"The allegation is currently under investigation by an outside investigator retained by Waconia Public Schools," the spokesperson said.
The Carver County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Monday that it was contacted last week by the Minnesota Department of Education regarding the allegation and is currently conducting a criminal investigation into these allegations."
Wagener and his wife, who was not identified, have not yet been charged with a crime, but Sheriff Jason Kamerud said charges are possible.