Florida assistant high school football coach accused of stealing $13K in team gear

An assistant high school football coach at Florida’s Lakeland High has been arrested for the theft of team equipment, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s office.

23-year-old Azadrean Yarde has been accused of stealing three-dozen football helmets — reportedly valued at $13,000 — from the program. The helmets were reported missing to the sheriff’s office back in April, per a report by Fox13 News in Tampa.

In the midst of the investigation, surveillance video showed Yarde stealing the helmets, which he later sold secondhand. The report goes on to say that Yarde visited used sporting goods store Play It Again Sports store in Tampa on multiple occasions. However, he was only able to sell the helmets for a meager $1,000 payday, despite them retailing for nearly $400 each.

He now faces half a dozen felony charges for the thefts, including grand theft, dealing stolen property and false verification of ownership.

Yarde reportedly did not hide his identity when he sold the helmets to Play it Again, telling the employees that he was authorized by the school to sell them.

“He told them who he was and gave them a proper ID,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “He said he was an assistant football coach, and they were phasing out the helmets in favor of new helmets. It was a plausible story, but it was a lie.”

Six of the helmets were eventually returned to the school, but only after he had sold seven of them for his profit of roughly $1,000.

Lakeland, one of the top high school programs not only in the state of Florida but in the country, said he was hired as a janitor in 2022 before being brought on as an assistant football coach.