David Kaster, an assistant swimming coach at Lawrence during the 2000-2001 season, was recently convicted on sexual assault charges stemming from incidents that took place while he was the swimming coach at Ashwaubenon High School near Green Bay.On Sept. 22, a Brown County jury convicted Kaster on two felony counts of sexual assault of a student by a school staff instructor and two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and disorderly conduct. Sentencing on these charges will take place on Nov. 9. He will also stand trial on Oct. 24 in Marathon County on two counts of child enticement and one count of sexual assault by a school staff instructor stemming from an incident that occurred at a Wausau hotel.
The incidents occurred between March 1998 and April 2000, while Kaster was still swimming coach at Ashwaubenon High School.
According to Kurt Kirner, the head coach of the Lawrence swimming and diving team, Kaster was hired in Oct. 2000 as an assistant swimming coach for the 2000-2001 season. “I knew that he was a very excellent coach technically, and I heard him talk at a clinic before,” stated Kirner.
Kirner was also familiar with Kaster through a member of the Lawrence swim team that Kaster coached at Ashwaubenon High School.
Kirner stated that he did not look into Kaster’s background because he was already familiar with him. Coach Kirner said Ashwaubenon High School was “standing behind” Coach Kaster, and any check that he might have done with the school would probably not have resulted in anything coming up.
Ashwaubenon High School officials did not respond to phone calls.
Kirner emphasized that “none of the allegations stemmed from anything that happened at Lawrence. As far as the types of things that he brought to the job here, he did a good job. He was in good standing.”
Kirner continued, “These were things that had happened prior to him being here and that we didn’t have knowledge of. I do know that in the future we plan on checking who we hire.