Star Tribune
St. Ben’s hockey coach Lindsay Macy staying on despite complaints of demeaning comments
ST. CLOUD – The coach credited with leading the College of St. Benedict women’s hockey team to its most successful season in program history will return next year despite complaints from several players about reported offensive and demeaning comments toward athletes.
Lindsay Macy, a Minnesota native who played hockey at Owatonna High School, came to St. Ben’s last year after two seasons as the head coach at Finlandia University in Michigan, where she was named coach of the year by the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association.
Despite St. Ben’s recent success, some student-athletes are not returning next year because of their concerns about the coach, according to a story published this month in the Record, the student newspaper at College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University.
According to the story, multiple students approached the school’s faculty athletics representative with concerns about Macy’s behavior, which included talking to athletes about a “fat camp” in reference to some players letting the team down by being slow. The story also said Macy used a “profanity and offensive epithet about people with disabilities to describe how they were playing.”
The college’s human resources department conducted an investigation related to the complaints and has since stated Macy will continue as the women’s hockey coach.
Macy did not respond to a request for comment.
Kelly Anderson Diercks, the athletic director at St. Ben’s, said she is disappointed some of the women’s hockey players have not had a positive experience on the team.
“We want all our student athletes to feel supported and energized by their athletic participation,” Anderson Diercks said in an email statement to the Star Tribune. “After following our process and conducting a thorough investigation, we have decided that Lindsay Macy will remain our women’s hockey coach.
“Coach Macy cares about and is dedicated to her athletes. She received feedback from the investigation and is taking action accordingly,” Anderson Diercks continued. “We are working with her and will continue to review our women’s hockey program to ensure that all our student athletes have a positive experience on this team.”
CSB/SJU spokesperson Michael Hemmesch said Tuesday he cannot provide any more information about the investigation or share the specific feedback given to Macy due to employee privacy rights.
Macy, 38, played collegiate hockey at the University of Wisconsin and Minnesota State Mankato, later coaching in Owatonna and at Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy in Idaho. She is also the owner of Relentless Hockey, an organization that runs summer hockey camps in Idaho.
A 65-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a pickup truck near Christmas Lake Friday afternoon as she was walking through a crosswalk, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
The woman was crossing Highway 7 around 1 p.m. when she was hit by a 2019 Ford F-150 turning left from Christmas Lake Road onto the highway headed east, the State Patrol said in its report. The intersection is just east of Excelsior, between Saint Albans Bay and Christmas Lake west of Minneapolis.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Minnetonka police, and other agencies responded to the fatal collision. The State Patrol has not released the identity of the pedestrian.
The driver has not been arrested. Agencies are still investigating the collision, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Alcohol was not involved in the crash, the State Patrol said.
Former trooper Shane Roper, 32, had his last day Tuesday, State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee said. Roper’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Friday evening.
In July, Roper was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and manslaughter. He was also charged with criminal vehicle operation related to five other people who were seriously injured in the incident.
The criminal complaint states that Roper had been pursuing someone “suspected of committing a petty traffic offense” as he exited Hwy. 52 onto 12th Street SW. As he neared the intersection with Apache Drive, he reportedly turned his lights off and continued to accelerate with a fully engaged throttle.
Roper was traveling at 83 mph with his lights and siren off as he approached the intersection, a Rochester police investigation found. The trooper’s squad car slammed into the passenger side of a car occupied by Olivia Flores, which was heading west and turning into the mall.
Flores died from the blunt force injuries. She was an Owatonna High School cheerleader and set to graduate June 7. There were two other people in the car with Flores.
Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in a statement following the charges that Roper violated his duty in “a gross fashion.”
Roper told investigators he was not paying attention to his speed at the time of the crash, and that he believed his lights were still activated when he exited the highway.
Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and nine counts of criminal vehicular operation. His blood alcohol content measured at 0.325% after officers administered a preliminary breath test at HCMC, according to charges filed in Hennepin County District Court.
In his first court appearance Wednesday, Bailey told a judge his use of alcohol is not a problem. He has an extensive history of drunken driving convictions, starting in 1985 in Wisconsin. Additional convictions followed in Wabasha County in 1993 and Hennepin County in 1998, according to court records. Two more convictions followed in 2014 and 2015.
A Hennepin County judge set his bail at $500,000 with several conditions, including that Bailey take a substance use disorder assessment, that he abstain from drinking alcohol, avoid Park Tavern and stay away from the victims and his family.
His next court appearance is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1.
Staff writers Paul Walsh and Jeff Day contributed to this report.
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