An Enrico Fermi High School assistant basketball coach resigned this week, after being charged with soliciting a prostitute in Windsor Locks last Friday. John Norris, 53, had worked as an assistant coach for the junior varsity basketball team since Thanksgiving.
Norris emailed his letter of resignation to the athletic director for Enfield Public Schools. He wrote that he could beat the charges but, “It will be easier on both of you if I step down as you will not have to deal with any parents who think I will be a bad person to be around their kids.”
“It’s a sad situation. It’s sad for, obviously, the coach, and it’s very sad for his family, and it’s sad for our players who don’t have their coach any longer,” Superintendent of schools Jeffrey Schumann said.
Norris was one of 11 men arrested during “Operation Cupid,” a prostitution sting along Route 75. Police put an ad for prostitutes on a website, then had an officer pose as a prostitute. A Springfield police officer was also arrested in the sting, police said.