Police investigating high school football coach after player alleges ‘disgusting’ behavior

The mother of a Boulder City High School football player said she filed a complaint with the Police Department about head coach Frank “Bubba” Mariani after her son alleged Mariani made “disgusting” sexual comments and gestures around the team.

The mother, Athena Cargill, said she and her son, junior Joelton Swopes, were interviewed by Boulder City police. When asked this week about the existence of an active investigation of Mariani, the city issued a statement from Police Chief Tim Shea: “The allegations are still under investigation. We hope to finish by the end of the year.” The city did not confirm that Cargill had lodged the complaint.

Mariani has been the talk of Boulder City, particularly across social media, since he did not coach the school’s season-ending 39-6 playoff loss to Virgin Valley on Nov. 7. A Nov. 6 note from Principal Amy Wagner to parents said Mariani was “unavailable” for the game and that “we cannot discuss the matter further due to privacy laws.”

Multiple attempts to reach Mariani via phone, text and social media channels while this story was being reported have been unsuccessful.

Cargill and Swopes sat for an interview with the Review in their Boulder City home to discuss the allegations against Mariani. Multiple other parents of football players contacted the Review to make allegations against Mariani, but only Cargill and Swopes agreed to have their names published.

Cargill explained how she overheard her son and some of his teammates talking about inappropriate language and some physical contact by the coach, saying it had been going on since her son was a freshman.

Swopes, when asked specifically what he had seen or experienced and not what he had heard from other players, said, “So in my case, we were doing hip stretches, and he [Mariani] lifted up my leg when we were doing one of them. Like, we were on all fours, and he lifted my leg and like, did the act of like humping me. And then like, laughed about it, like, kind of like sinisterly.”

Swopes also alleged that when he asked to take his shoes off during weightlifting, Mariani said he could do so only if Swopes made an artificial-intelligence generated video of Swopes kissing a teammate. Swopes said the video was made.

“I forgot who made it,” Swopes said. “Don’t know where it ended up, but it’s out there.”

In terms of other talk, Swopes said, “He [Mariani] said a lot of inappropriate stuff. He said to — this was also in the weight room — he said to my friend … that, like, if he were to watch gay porn, that he would hope that [the friend] was in it.”

When asked how he felt about his allegations against Mariani, Swopes said, “It’s disgusting.” He also said that if the coach is back at Boulder City High School next year, he will not play on the football team. “I’ll transfer,” he said.

The Review attempted to get a statement from the high school. After an email was sent to Wagner, the Review received an email from the Clark County School District Communications Department that said, “The Clark County School District (CCSD) cannot comment on personnel matters due to privacy laws.”

Meanwhile, a relative of Swopes emailed a copy of what appears to be a report on an investigation undertaken by the school. Cargill also displayed the same report on her phone when she was interviewed by the Review. The one-page report appears to be on CCSD letterhead and states it is from Assistant Principal Theodore “TJ” Steckelberg, who oversees activities and athletics.

The report resulted from a complaint lodged with the school by a different parent of a football player. The parent is not being identified by the Review to protect the parent and the parent’s son against retaliation. The report describes the event that was investigated as “bullying” and does not list the names of anyone involved. It says, “Investigative Results: Substantiated. Findings: Administrative investigation into the alleged bullying incident found the report to be substantiated.”

It does not say anything more about the nature of the substantiated incident, however, Cargill said school officials told her the report relates to Mariani’s behavior. Steckelberg has not responded to email messages sent by the Review seeking comment.

Multiple Boulder City High School teachers also reached out to the Review and were granted anonymity to protect them from what they described as a culture of retaliation when it comes to criticism of coaches at Boulder City High School.

“It is just an atmosphere of anything goes with the coaches,” one teacher said. “It started, I don’t wanna say small, but it started different, where it was just a lot of cursing. There is a tremendous amount of derogatory comments that they make toward students, belittling them, and it’s a problem.”

The teacher said Mariani’s behavior has worsened over time.

“Three years and they [the behaviors] have been progressing and getting more and more extreme,” the teacher said. “I don’t feel like our boys are being valued.”

Mariani’s background

The Review submitted a public records request to learn Mariani’s employment status with the school district and whether he is still the head football coach. The school district had not provided those records by the time of this report’s publication.

According to Nevada Department of Education records, Mariani has been employed by the school district since the 2009-10 school year, when he was hired as a sixth-grade teacher at the Innovations International Charter School. In 2010, he began working at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas.

Mariani told the Review in summer 2023, upon shifting to Boulder City High School, that he had finished his tenure at Desert Pines as the football team’s offensive coordinator. In addition to his football duties at BCHS, Mariani has worked in classroom roles labeled “Academic Intervention” in 2023-24, “Non-instructional Period” in 2024-25 and “Generalist” in the current school year, according to the state records.

According to the Nevada Department of Education, Mariani has held a teaching license as a K-8 teacher for all subjects as well as a K-12 special education generalist license. He was hired at Boulder City at a salary of $60,225, which increased to $66,699 last school year and $67,245 for the current school year, according to the records.

According to state incorporation records, Mariani and his wife, Stephanie, are the only two officers in the 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that runs the Boulder City Bears youth football team.