Protection ordered dismissed against former St. Francis football coach

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - The civil protection order put in place for the former Saint Francis de Sales high school football coach has been dismissed.

This after the assistant coach who filed for it didn’t show up in court Friday. The dismissal from the judge today ends the case. A case that started with new hope for a storied football program many months ago.

On a Friday morning in late September, Charles Woolridge was probably expecting to be prepping for a big football game for the Saint Francis Knights. Instead, he was inside a court building in downtown Toledo where a judge dismissed the civil stalking protection order issued against him.

Woolridge’s former offensive coordinator at Saint Francis, John Allen, filed for that protection order. That came after Woolridge allegedly slapped Allen after a practice and then wrote threatening text messages according to a police report.

A judge initially ordered the protection order two weeks ago, Friday was another hearing to determine if the order would be extended.

“Don’t have much to say. Just disappointed. Just that I couldn’t lead the program. Just lead the program and get it fixed and headed in the right direction,” said Woolridge

Court proceedings are over now that Allen did not show up to court Friday. We asked Woolridge if he was disappointed in how the entire year had gone.

“Yeah, it’s just a little bigger than that. I’ve had a lot going on with, as far as just moving to Toledo and everything. I still have stuff in storage and different things. It was to a degree tough managing the whole process but we live, we learn, we move on,” said Woolridge.

Woolridge was new to Saint Francis, Toledo and this area. He resigned on September 14th just after the alleged physical altercation. He’d coached previously in Cleveland, Washington DC and Virginia.

We asked if he had a message to his players.

“Nah, just wish them all the best. Hoping that some of the guys who do want to play college football have success,” said Woolridge.

Saint Francis is now working with an interim coach. There’s no firm timetable for hiring a permanent one. Allen remains with the program.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2023 WTVG. All rights reserved.