Lawyer: Coach won’t resign

Published 7:50 pm Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Staff report

A Lamar assistant softball coach won’t resign, according to a Beaumont attorney who is close to the situation.

In a statement issued Wednesday evening, attorney Cade Bernsen, who is representing fired coach Holly Bruder, said assistant coach Allison Honkofsky told Lamar athletic director Marco Born on Wednesday she would not resign her position “because she had not done anything that warranted being fired.”

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Bernsen said Born fired Bruder last Friday “without reason or explanation.”

Bernsen also said Honkofsky and assistant coach Demi Laney were told by Born Friday they should resign or would be fired.

“Coach Honkofsky is going to fight back,” Bernsen said.

Bruder was fired after complaints by catcher Paige Holmes, a Catholic, that she was forced by an assistant coach to eat a chicken sandwich on a Lenten Friday, against her religious beliefs and practices.

According to media reports, Bruder would not meet with Holmes about the incident and after Holmes appealed to an athletic department administrator, she was benched for most of the season.

Lamar insists the incident is a “personnel matter” and has given little explanation about the situation.