Police: Main Line tennis coach sexually harassed teen

BRYN MAWR A tennis coach at a Main Line Catholic girls school was arrested Friday on charges that he kissed a 15-year-old player and sent her inappropriate text messages over a period of months.

Charles "Ty" Meredith, 52, coached tennis at Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Bryn Mawr until he was fired after the investigation began in October, school officials said.

Meredith's attorney, James Freeman of Phoenixville, said, "His position is there is absolutely no merit to the allegations."

The affidavit of probable cause gives the following account:

In August, Meredith took the girl and two other players to practice doubles at a court in Bryn Mawr. When the practice finished, Meredith and the 15-year-old went by themselves to a gym in Conshohocken, where, he said, he wanted her to meet a personal trainer named "Big Daddy."

The trainer wasn't there, and Meredith and the girl headed to a nearby ice cream parlor.

"Meredith then leaned over and put his hands around her neck and began kissing her on the mouth for a period of two or three minutes," the affidavit says.

"Meredith then drove to Scoops Ice Cream in Conshohocken and told her not to tell anyone about this incident."

The coach and the girl then picked up milkshakes for the other players who had remained at the tennis court, police said.

In the following months, Meredith sent text messages to the girl that said she was attractive and that he could get drinks for her at bars, police said.

Once, after a dinner with the team, he allegedly sent a message that said she was "hot" and would be his dessert. The girl also told police Meredith would sometimes brush up against her, court records state.

Meredith, who also coached squash, was in his third year at the school.

He and his wife, Pamela Rende, who both had coached at the Shipley School, ran a private youth tennis program in King of Prussia, Tots-to-Teens Tennis, according to news reports.

He also has two adult children from a previous marriage.

Meredith, who lives on Balligomingo Road in West Conshohocken, was charged with two counts of corruption of minors, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison. District Judge Francis Bernhardt III released him on $50,000 unsecured bail.

Police from Radnor Township, Delaware County, and Lower Merion, Montgomery County, investigated the alleged incidents. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office will prosecute the case.

A woman who answered the phone at the school declined to comment except to say Meredith had been fired.