According to police reports, a fishing coach was charged with theft (stolen, embezzled) from the South Bossier Panthers Fishing Club on March 30, 2023. Jeremy Lee Gallman of Bossier City was charged and booked in Bossier City by the Bossier City Police Department. Concerned parents filed formal complaints after seeing some odd charges on the Venmo account where parents were submitting funds for the fishing team. Charges for dinner, gas, mowing among various other things were viewable by the parents and did not seem to be in connection with the fishing team. Those charges were allegedly made by Gallman for himself. When the parents requested the financial information for the account, Gallman refused and that’s when police were called.
The South Bossier Panthers Fishing Team consists of anglers from Parkway High School and Elm Grove Middle School. Parents had paid into the account for the fishing team’s expenses for travel and tournaments and various other expenses related to getting the kids on the water. They also solicited businesses in the community for donations to the team to raise funds to cover tournaments and such totaling more than $1,000 for some of the individual donations.
Gallman puts on fishing tournaments, and it is unclear from the police report if there is more to the investigation than just the misappropriated funds for the high school fishing team.
Bradley Virgillito has stepped in as coach for the team as the investigation is ongoing. The South Bossier Panthers Fishing Club made big news recently when the team of McCormick and Virgillito caught what is believed to be the biggest limit to win a high school fishing event ever.
More on the theft story can be found on the local news page here.
