Long tenured Florida High School Football Coach Arrested for Stealing Money from his Team

A long-time Florida football coach has been arrested and charged with stealing more than $57,000 of the team’s money for personal use.

Ivory Bernard Williams, 56, of Lake Placid, Florida, was arrested on May 27 following an investigation by the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit into alleged financial misconduct related to a sports team.

Williams, who served as president of the board and was the only person with access to the team’s bank account, refused to provide financial records when requested by the board.

He is now facing charges of second-degree grand theft and failure to maintain records of a charitable organization. Williams posted a $70,000 bond and was released the next day.

After looking into the team’s TD Bank account, investigators said they found that even though there had been $53,875.01 deposited, the account was overdrawn by more than $1,500. An $800 deposit on Dec. 22, 2023, brought the negative balance to $700.25 before the bank closed the account in January 2024 and sent the matter to collections.

Authorities say the second bank account was opened at Heartland National Bank in February 2024, and a total of $36,119.83 was deposited into that account.

Pretty crazy to think a coach would steal from his team, but nothing shocks me anymore.