Pubdate: Tues. 29 Jun 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html BAYTOWN COACH SUSPENDED AFTER COCAINE ARREST IN SAN ANGELO A Baytown high school coach, arrested while in San Angelo to attend a football clinic, has been suspended with pay. Mark Nichols, 35, a varsity line coach and junior varsity baseball coach at Ross S. Sterling High School, is free on $10,000 bail after being charged with possession of a controlled substance by San Angelo police on June 17. He was arrested by an undercover officer who reported seeing him snort cocaine. Nichols, who lives in Channelview, is barred from coming onto Baytown's Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District property while the district investigates the charge. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday. According to police reports, drug task force members seated in an unmarked car used binoculars to observe Nichols and Paul Graham, 40, of San Angelo using a straw to snort a white powder. Police said they recovered a gram of cocaine. Nichols, who grew up in San Angelo and was attending a four-day clinic there, and Graham were in the latter's pickup truck in a grocery store parking lot when arrested. Nichols was hired by Baytown's Goose Creek School District a year ago at an annual salary of $34,162 to coach and teach health. He came to Baytown from the Ector County Independent School District in Odessa, according to school records. Goose Creek's attorney Rick Peebles said the district has started an investigation into the incident and will talk to police in San Angelo. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake