Karen Herzog and Devi Shastri

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

OSHKOSH – The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh quietly fired its longtime, highly successful men's club volleyball coach last year after an investigation concluded he sexually harassed a player, the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin has learned.

After the university announced coach Brian "Lumpy" Schaefer had "stepped down to pursue other opportunities," Schaefer implied to the community that he was leaving voluntarily. The coach who replaced Schaefer at UW-Oshkosh — and supported the player who brought allegations against him — also spoke glowingly about Schaefer publicly.

Schaefer continued doing independent contract work with Pacesetter Sports, an organization that offers summer volleyball camps in Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa. He has coached nine of those camps since 2010.

The 2015 "Coach of the Year" for collegiate Division 1 club volleyball also has since worked for the Wisconsin Volleyball Academy, which organizes competitive traveling teams, camps, leagues and private training for youths.

The allegations against Schaefer involved incessant sexually explicit texting, supplying alcohol to a player and then engaging in a game the player found "weird" when the player was intoxicated.

Documents about the sexual harassment allegations against Schaefer were obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after a Winnebago County Circuit Court judge denied Schaefer's attempts to block their release and to force the university to more heavily redact them before sharing them publicly.

UW devising new policy

The UW System Board of Regents is trying to address employee departures related to sexual harassment with a proposed new personnel policy. That policy, which is expected to be enacted in a few months, would alert prospective public and private employers to substantiated sexual harassment claims if they do reference checks.

"Cases like this underscore the need for the new and revised HR policies currently being developed by the UW System," UW spokeswoman Heather LaRoi said Wednesday.

The policy changes were prompted by revelations earlier this year that a UW-Stevens Point administrator resigned while under investigation for sexual harassment, then landed the same job at UW-Eau Claire.

The Journal Sentinel obtained sexual harassment case records from across the UW System through a state open records request, and shared them with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin partners in campus communities, including the Stevens Point Journal, which then reported the accusations against former UW-Stevens Point assistant dean Shawn Wilson.

The Stevens Point Journal reported two different UW-Stevens Point officials neglected to disclose the confirmed incidents of harassment when leaders from Knox College in Illinois and Eau Claire called for reference checks on Wilson.

RELATED:UW-Stevens Point assistant dean accused of sex harassment went on to work at other schools

The Journal Sentinel obtained additional documents this week about Schaefer's case.

Schaefer coached the men's club team, but also coached women's volleyball during his 25-year career at UW-Oshkosh. The male player who accused Schaefer of sexual harassment said the former coach asked him to do "weird things," and asserted that he was harassed over several years.

Schaefer was employed by UW-Oshkosh from January 1997 through August 2017 but was placed on administrative leave with pay in May 2017 when the university launched an investigation into the accusations against him.

'Weird' game of 'nut ball'

Investigative documents detail allegations that Schaefer regularly bought drinks for the male student who accused him and for other male volleyball players. He was accused of showing up at the victim's apartment with alcohol, uninvited, and asking the young man to play a game called "nut ball" when he was drunk.

The young man described "nut ball" as a game in which they would "throw the ball at each other very hard in an effort to hit each other in the groin." Schaefer exposed his penis once and asked the student to throw the tennis ball at him — an allegation Schaefer acknowledged was true in an interview with the investigator.

The student told the investigator he consented and participated because he felt pressured by the coach, and didn't want to make him mad. He said playing the game made him uncomfortable, that he didn't like to play it because "it was wrong," and that he went along with it because the coach would ask him repeatedly to play if he said no, according to documents the university released Tuesday.

Schaefer told the investigator he considered the young man to be his best friend, that he did not consider their activity "weird," and that the young man didn't act at the time like the things they did were "weird."

Facebook posts show Schaefer continued to work as a volleyball coach in different organizations following his departure from UW-Oshkosh, including as the 2017-2018 lead coach for one of the Wisconsin Volleyball Academy's boys teams.

The post from the Wisconsin Volleyball Academy announcing Schaefer's hiring as a coach in September 2017 — the month after UW-Oshkosh fired him — has since been removed, though a post from the group from February also refers to Schaefer's employment.

In May, Schaefer posted on Facebook that he was a coordinator for Pacesetter Sports' volleyball camps.

Schaefer became well known for his success in coaching the UW-Oshkosh men’s club volleyball team, winning a collegiate club Division I “coach of the year” award in 2015, the Advance-Titan student newspaper reported.

After Schaefer was fired, UW-Oshkosh Assistant Chancellor and Director of Athletics Darryl Sims said the coach “stepped down to pursue other opportunities.”

Schaefer announced his departure from the university in a public Facebook post, writing “After 25 amazing years associated with the Oshkosh Volleyball programs I am moving on to to (sic) start a new chapter in my life.”

“Although I wasn't perfect, I am proud of who I was as a player, assistant coach and head coach,” Schaefer's post continued. “I believe I put everything I had into what I did on a daily basis and look forward to continuing that in the future. I strongly believe I never put myself first and was humble in everything I did.”

In addition to the student’s complaint, documents released by the university show the young man initially talked about Schaefer's sexual harassment behavior with William Brydon, a high school teacher in Oshkosh and a coach for the UW-Oshkosh men's volleyball club program.

In his own complaint to the university about Schaefer’s behavior, Brydon said he encouraged the student to report the harassment to college officials and told him he would support him.

Brydon wrote that he accompanied the student to the meeting in which the student lodged his complaint.

Following Schaefer’s departure, Brydon was hired to fill the head coach position and to lead the volleyball program, according to posts on the volleyball club's website.

"Brian Schaefer, or Lumpy as many called him, will forever be 'coach' to me,” the Oshkosh Volleyball website quoted Brydon saying in 2017.

“I called him that when I played under his direction under (sic), and I never stopped when I began coaching alongside him. He is a great friend, a mentor, and a kindred spirit — we both truly love the sport and have sacrificed to help ensure our players' success. In short, you cannot think UW-Oshkosh Men's Volleyball without thinking of Brian Schaefer, and I can only hope to honor his legacy through my actions in this position."

Brydon declined to comment for this story.

Schaefer did not respond this week to multiple requests for comment.

Neither did one of the private youth volleyball organizations for which he worked after leaving UW-Oshkosh.

The other organization, Pacesetter Sports, responded by email late Wednesday.

Schaefer conducted nine Pacesetter volleyball camps since 2010, according to that organization's director, Jeff McCarron.

"He has received positive comments regularly. His role has been a camp coach until this year, when he became the coaching coordinator," McCarron wrote. "It was his role to find coaches to conduct Pacesetter camps. He did an excellent job recruiting coaches to run our camps, and all camps were well-received."

McCarron added: "I have not been aware of any sexual allegations against Brian until today. I have not had any contact with UW-Oshkosh."

The circle of players in the local club volleyball scene is tight.

In his Facebook post announcing his departure from the university, Schaefer thanked his friends and fellow coaches, including Brydon and Jon Ellman, who co-directs the Menasha-based Wisconsin Volleyball Academy, where Schaefer landed after UW-Oshkosh fired him.

Ellman also coaches the UW-Oshkosh women’s volleyball team. He did not respond to multiple phone calls seeking comment.

The UW System's proposed new policy is aimed at ensuring consistent disclosure of cases of sexual violence and sexual harassment to hiring institutions. It also would require UW institutions to ask about sexual violence and sexual harassment during the hiring process.

The draft policy presented to the UW System Board of Regents during a meeting in Madison last Friday specifically would require disclosure of substantiated claims to other UW institutions and to state agencies during the hiring process but not unsubstantiated claims.

Any other public or private employer who asks about sexual harassment cases involving a potential hire also would be informed of anything that was substantiated, a UW spokesman confirmed about the proposed policy.

The draft policy would standardize what is placed in personnel files to ensure proper documentation of sexual violence or harassment. It defines when and with whom personnel files should be shared. It does not require inclusion of investigatory records in a personnel file.

Regent Mike Jones applauded the proposed policy during Friday's regents meeting.

“We need to step up and stop the vicious cycle of passing the harasser from one institution to another,” he said.

While UW institutions must ask about substantiated cases of sexual harassment or sexual violence, the information would not be an automatic disqualifier during the hiring process, according to the draft policy.

Any disclosures would be weighed as part of the evidence-based hiring process, according to Quinn Williams, UW System's general counsel.