New Mexico high school coach caught on video taking $40 from player’s wallet

A New Mexico football coach has been fired and faces criminal charges after authorities said a student used a cellphone video to capture the coach on video taking money from a player’s wallet.

State Police arrested Miyamura High School coach John D. Roanhaus on Saturday following a review of the footage showing Roanhaus going into the school’s locker room and taking $40 from the wallet, court documents said.

According to an arrest warrant, a police officer was contacted by a student’s mother who showed the officer the cellphone video. The video showed Roanhaus walking into the school’s locker area, taking two $20 bills from a black wallet and stuffing the money in his sock, Officer Nathaniel Renteria wrote in the arrest warrant.

Roanhaus had been the head football coach at the high school in the small, New Mexico western city of Gallup since 2018. He is the youngest son of New Mexico Hall of Fame coach Eric Roanhaus, who retired in 2016 as head football coach at Clovis High School after recording 343 wins, the most in state history.

The mother told Renteria it wasn’t the first time that players had experienced thefts in the locker room.

Gallup-McKinley County Schools Superintendent Mike Hyatt told the Gallup Independent newspaper that Roanhaus was fired.

Roanhaus, 42, was charged with larceny and non-residential burglary and ordered held on $2,000 bail. Roanhaus did not immediately respond to a telephone message left Wednesday seeking comment.

No attorney was listed for Roanhaus and he has not been assigned a public defender, court records said. A preliminary court hearing on the case was scheduled for Wednesday.

Miyamura High School’s football team has a 1-6 record this season after a 55-14 loss last Friday.