The strength and conditioning coach accused of numerous sexual offenses with minors took the stand today and said previous testimony by alleged victims was false.

Zachary Gibson, 32, spoke confidently from the witness stand Thursday as he recounted how he met and interacted with the three juvenile males named in the indictment.

“They all came in here and lied,” said Wood County Assistant Prosecutor Charles McDonald.’

“Yes,” Gibson responded.

Thursday was the third day of Gibson’s trial for multiple sexual offenses against minors, including rape.

Gibson moved to Bowling Green from Ada in early 2021 and was a strength and conditioning coach at Fastrack Performance in Perrysburg and Bowling Green High School.

He met the athletes, including one he is accused of raping while unconscious, either through a football training program and then trained them at Fastrack or at the high school.

Leading up July 2-3, 2021, Gibson testified he trained with a witness, took him to get a meal and then dropped him off at a relative’s home in Lucas County.

Gibson said he was 100% sure he went home alone that night because he had plans.

Gibson took a video the morning of July 3 of him having sex with an unknown person he referred to as a drunken hookup.

“I wish I did,” Gibson said about the identity of the male in the video. “We wouldn’t be here. But I do not.”

The male in the video had a birthmark that the state claim identified him as the alleged victim named in the indictment.

Gibson denied that claim.

As for the distinctive underwear worn by the man in the video, Gibson said it was a common style and that he had never seen it on the alleged victim, who identified himself in the video by the birthmark and underwear.

So, it was coincidence that the random person in the video was wearing the same underwear owned by the alleged victim, McDonald said.

Gibson identified himself as a gay man, but he didn’t publicize that to the people he trained.

“People don’t want a gay man around their high school boys,” Gibson said. “Other people look at it differently and I try to keep it to myself.”

He called himself “promiscuous” and didn’t usually get the names of his sex partners.

He said when alleged rape victim did visit his apartment, they would watch movies and occasionally drink.

“I thought being there for him with what he was going through … anytime he needed something, I would try to be there for him,” Gibson said.

He admitted the then 15-year-old once drank to the point of throwing up and another time urinated on his carpet.

“He was in a safe place with a person that cared about him,” Gibson said.

Being there for a minor and providing alcohol until they through up is an example of being there, McDonald asked.

High school kids drink and to say they don’t is a lie, Gibson said. He said he thought it better to provide a safe place for teens to drink rather than have to attend another funeral for someone who drove drunk.

When asking about texting a request of oral sex for payment of muscle enhancers, Gibson said he often texted sexual jokes.

“It was a joke to and from a friend,” he said.

He also stated he never asked for or received an inappropriate photo from a BGHS athlete and “I shut that down” when it was joked about. He also said he never pulled another alleged victim into his bedroom and pulled his pants down.

“In the seven years that I coached, I never did that,” he said about touching a juvenile inappropriately.

McDonald asked Gibson if he often had sexual chats on Snapchat.

Not sexual in nature, it was just joking, Gibson said.

The defense also called three additional witnesses this morning.

Jose David Jorge, of Pittsburg, introduced himself as Gibson’s best friend.

Jorge said he used to work at Fastrack Performance with Gibson and stayed in his apartment before moving to Pittsburg.

“We had a variety of athletes, and we’d take them through a program … to get them strong,” Jorge said in describing what they did at Fastrack.

They trained many high school students, and their language was “typically teenage boy stuff. Very crude,” Jorge said.

Sexual talk “was a given,” he said.

He said he never took the talk seriously and used it as a way to build rapport.

“Building a relationship with them, you have to joke like that with them. It’s how you connect with them,” he said.

Jorge said he never saw Gibson do anything that caused him concern.

John Winlock said he first met Gibson as a sophomore at a football camp.

He said Gibson was usually “goofy” on Snapchat and “usually has a problem with common sense” and never exchanged anything inappropriate.

On cross examination, he said he never exchanged sexual conversations with his trainees.

Jacob Baker said he interned at Fastrack after meeting Gibson as a sophomore at another athletic facility.

He said conversation among high school kids was “locker room talk” and they would joke with each other.

He also was friends with Gibson on Snapchat, and they used the app to set up meetings and never to exchange sexual or crude messages.

Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman spent nearly an hour with counsel cleaning up the language in the indictments. He gave jury instructions before breaking for lunch.