Ex-Wichita coach accused of fondling student pleads to amended charge

A former Wichita middle school and high school running coach accused of fondling a student during an embrace in his west-side apartment last year has pleaded no contest to an amended charge.

Terry L. Couch will be sentenced Feb. 2 on one count of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, according to court records and the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. He faces 31 to 136 months in prison but could be placed on probation depending on his prior criminal history.

Couch’s no contest plea – which ultimately has the same effect as pleading guilty – came Monday as he was scheduled for a jury trial on one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child younger than 14. That crime carries a presumptive sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years.

Couch’s employment with Mayberry Middle School ended last April, about two months after a then 13-year-old girl came forward saying Couch had touched her buttocks during a long hug on Nov. 7, 2015.

That day the girl had been with a group of teens Couch had taken to see and take photographs with Olympic runner Jim Ryun at GoRun Wichita. Couch stopped at his apartment with the group afterward then took the other children home.

But he returned to his apartment with the girl and touched her outside of his bedroom.

The girl testified during a hearing in June that Couch also called her “beautiful” and said that he “couldn’t live without her” in text messages. She was an eighth-grader then. Couch was 55.

Couch was coaching cross country and track at Mayberry and cross country at West High School when the allegations surfaced. He initially denied wrongdoing, saying that he only hugged the girl.

This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Ex-Wichita coach accused of fondling student pleads to amended charge."