PHOENIX โ Mike Bibby is no longer Shadow Mountain's head basketball coach following allegations of sexual abuse.ย
"He is no longer eligible to volunteer as our coach pending the outcome of the investigations," Becky Kelbaugh, a spokeswoman with the Paradise Valley Unified School District, said in an emailed statement.ย
Bibby, a former NBA player and the head basketball coach at Shadow Mountain High School,ย is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of aย Shadow Mountain teacher.
The Paradise Valley Unified School District in a statement confirmed on Monday thatย Phoenix police are investigating the claims againstย Bibbyย and that the district had been in the midst of an internal investigation into the allegations.ย
A restraining orderย obtained byย The Arizona Republicย details the claims. The document shows Phoenix Municipal Court granted the order Feb. 22.ย
The teacher claims that in February 2017,ย Bibby grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into his car on school grounds, rubbing his genitals against her and groping her.
Bibby declined to commentย and referred questions to his attorney. His attorney, Donald Harris, denied the claims.
"I can say with pretty much certainty this alleged incident didn't happen and that will be shown down the road," he said. "Michael Bibby did not participate in a sexual assault of any way, shape or form that was alleged by this lady two years ago."ย
The district has known about the claim for more than a week, according to its statement.ย The teacher reported it to the school's resource officer on Feb. 13, according to the restraining order.ย
Bibby led Shadow Mountain's varsity boys basketball team to its fourth consecutive state championship on Saturday, after it beat Tucson's Amphitheater and Salpointe Catholic to reach the title game. During his six years at Shadow Mountain, the team has won five state titles.
Bibby as a high school student in 1996 played on Shadow Mountain's first state championship basketball team. He went on to the University of Arizona, where in 1997 he led the Wildcats to theirย only national championship.
He played in the NBA for several teams as a point guard from 1998 to 2012.
Becky Kelbaugh, a spokeswoman for the school district, issued a statement confirming the police investigation:ย
"On February 14, 2019, PV Schools was notified that the Phoenix Police Department opened an investigation into alleged sexual abuse/harassment of a Shadow Mountain High School staff member by the boys head basketball coach, Mike Bibby. At the request of the Phoenix Police Department, the Districtโs internal investigation was suspended pending the conclusion of the Police Departmentโs active investigation into the accusations."
Sgt. Vince Lewis, a Phoenix Police Department spokesman, wrote in an email that the department was investigating allegations involving staff at Shadow Mountain, but he did not provide the names of those involved or detail the allegations.
Mike Bibby cuts a piece of net after the Wildcats defeated Kentucky in the 1997 NCAA Tournament championship game, giving the program its first and only title.
The allegation: Grabbed and groped
The teacher alleges in the restraining order that in February 2017ย she was walking outside towardย her classroom when she spotted Bibby driving on campus. She did not know him personally, she wrote.ย
He gestured toward her. She walked to the driver's side of the car as he swung open the door and jumped out.
According to the order, Bibby picked her up "around the hips" and carried her into the driver's seat, her head on the console and her legs splayed out the open doorย as he laid on top of her. She smelled alcohol on his breath, she wrote.
He started to rub his body and genitals on her, groping her, she wrote, and he told her, "What I could do to you."
She slid out from underneath him and moved toward theย main doors of one of the school buildings, and he followed,ย she wrote in the restraining order.
As two staff members looked on, he held her around her waist, hugged her, rubbed his erect penis against her, and made sexually explicit statements, she wrote. She saidย she tried to push him away.ย
She wrote that she was "in shock, in fear, intimidated by his actions, afraid of him as he smelled of alcohol."
Shadow Mountain head coach Mike Bibby yells to his team as they play against St. Anthony's during The Hoophall West boys basketball tournament at Chaparral High School on Dec. 19, 2015, in Scottsdale.
A reported conversation in a classroom
A few days after that, Bibby passed her classroom doorway twice, she wrote in the restraining order.
The next day, he walked into her classroom uninvited and complimented some of her classroom's decorations before leaving.
A day later, she noticed Bibby standing outside her classroom and told him that they needed to talk, according to the restraining order. They sat in her classroom;ย she wrote that she felt safe enough to close her classroom door because a colleague aware of what had happened was across the hall.
The teacherย told Bibby, according to the restraining order, that he was "out of line" and that he had sexually abused her. He responded that he had been drinking that day and told her she was a "beautiful and nice person," according to the document. He told her he wanted to date her.
She said she wasn't interested and for him to stay away. He asked her if she was going to "tell" and she said no because she was thinking of his players.
She also reported in the document another incident in October 2018, when Bibby again stood outside her classroom door.
