Former Winnipeg high school football coach sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing players

A former Winnipeg High School football coach who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing nine players has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Kelsey McKay, 54, pleaded guilty last year to nine counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual harassment.

Due to a publication ban, CBC News is not naming the players.

McKay was a prominent figure in the Winnipeg soccer community and was still actively coaching and teaching when he was first arrested in 2022.

He was promoted to head coach at Churchill High School in 2003 before moving to Vincent Massey Collegiate in 2009.

The court heard how McKay invited players to his home where he showed them pornography, massaged them and touched their genitals. McKay also texted the players and drove them to school.

Some of them had troubled family lives and viewed McKay as a role model or father figure, the court heard.

Crown attorney Katie Dojack said he had an “intimidating presence” and an “old-school coaching style.”

Dojack called for McKay to be sentenced to 25 years in prison at the sentencing hearing earlier this year, saying each of his victims had been “sentenced to a lifetime of injury and suffering.”

She also suggested that McKay be required to stay at least 200 meters away from schools and daycare centers, prohibited from contact with his victims, and prohibited from using the Internet or other technology to access images or videos of minors forbid.

McKay’s attorneys, Josh Weinstein and Lisa LaBossiere, said a sentence of just over 13 years would be “more meaningful” for McKay given his age and the fact that he pleaded guilty.

At McKay’s sentencing hearing in March, some of McKay’s victims and their family members gave impact statements in court, including the mother of a man who took his own life nearly two decades after McKay’s abuse.

Prosecutor Dojack said McKay created a “psychologically dangerous” environment for the high school players and had the option at any time to stop his abuse.

All evidence showed McKay was “in control of his thoughts and actions” during the years of abuse, she said.

“He had no history of mental health problems, no cognitive impairments, no substance abuse problems and he regularly used psychological manipulation,” the prosecutor said.

McKay also read an apology to the victims and their families at the sentencing, in which he took responsibility for what he had done and said he was sorry for the “hurt, heartache, shame and suffering” that occurred he inflicted on them.

“I know that this hurt and this betrayal will affect all of them for the rest of their lives,” he said, not turning to face the audience as he spoke.

Weinstein told the court that McKay was “not a lost cause” as the former coach had repeatedly expressed remorse over the abuse.

“This is a journey and not a simple, straight line,” Weinstein said. “He recognizes where he is and where he needs to go.”

Dr. Jonathan Rootenberg, a Toronto-based forensic psychiatrist who spoke with McKay, testified that McKay admitted he was attracted to boys in his late teens but claimed he was no longer attracted to them.

He said how likely McKay is to reoffend depends on how he responds to any psychiatric treatment he receives.