Las Vegas coach fired after assistant arrested, police say

A Las Vegas high school athletic coach was fired after police said another man working as a volunteer coach had sex with a student in February.

Nik’olas Clater, 20, was arrested May 9 and charged with statutory sexual seduction by a person under 21, luring a child to engage in a sex act and two counts of lewdness with a child older than 14, court records show. According to Clater’s arrest report, he was working as an assistant track team coach at Sunrise Mountain High School, 2575 Los Feliz St., from Jan. 31 to Feb. 25.

During that time, Clater had sexual contact with a 15-year-old student, who initially told him she was 16, the report said. He asked her for her phone number in February and invited her to his house, the report said.

The track team’s head coach, Cleveland Powe, was fired in February after the school’s principal learned that Clater had been at a track meeting when he wasn’t cleared to be at practices with students, the report said.

Powe told the Review-Journal on Friday that he was unaware of the allegations against Clater. Powe said Clater was not a coach, and that he was training Clater at the school.

The Clark County School District received a report in February that Clater was having “inappropriate contact” with a student. Clater was banned from campus when the investigation began, the district has said.

Powe said Clater was in the process of being cleared to help with practices when the investigation began.

“He wasn’t there on a coaching capacity,” Powe said. “I train outside the school as well, and he was just an athlete training to go to college.”

On Feb. 19, the assistant principal in charge of athletics at the school emailed Powe asking for a list of people “to put on the coaching list,” the report said.

She pointed out that the list Powe sent her, which included Clater, had people who weren’t cleared to be at practices with students. Powe replied that “they are finishing up the process and won’t be there until they are cleared,” the report said.

Powe said he didn’t know about the investigation until the day he was fired, adding that “it was news to me; I didn’t know what was going on.”

According to Transparent Nevada, Powe worked as a coach with the school district from 2015 to 2018. He also worked as physical education substitute in 2011 and 2012, a “support staff” substitute in 2013 and a program assistant in 2015.

Clater was never employed by the school district, the district has said.

He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Friday with a $75,000 bail, court records show. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.