Students found a cellphone recording inside a Tracy High School locker room, leading police to arrest the school’s head football coach.
TRACY, CA — Tracy High School head football coach and teacher Jeff Pribble was arrested after students discovered a cellphone recording them as they changed inside a school locker room, according to police and school officials.
The investigation began Thursday evening, Sept. 10, when Tracy police were contacted by a concerned parent. Police said a student and several classmates had discovered the phone recording inside the locker room. The students stopped the recording, deleted the video and turned the phone over to a teacher. School resource officers and detectives then began investigating who owned the device.
Investigators determined the phone belonged to Pribble, 48, according to police. Officers arrested him Friday on the Tracy High School campus. Authorities have described the investigation as ongoing, and the publicly available reports reviewed for this story did not specify criminal charges against him. His arrest does not establish guilt, and it was not immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney.
Pribble has been placed on administrative leave while both the criminal investigation and a separate Tracy Unified School District review continue. The district identifies Pribble as Tracy High School’s varsity football head coach. He also works as a teacher at the school and has been involved with the football program for years.
Tracy Police Chief Sekou Millington said the department viewed the students’ safety and privacy as a priority. He thanked the students who reported what they found and credited officers and detectives with responding quickly after the incident was brought to adults’ attention.
Tracy High Principal Jon Waggle also informed families that a school employee had been arrested, though his message did not name Pribble or describe the allegations. Waggle said the district was cooperating with law enforcement and was concerned about the well-being of students and staff. He said the district would take necessary steps to protect students while the investigation continued.
The arrest came as Tracy High’s football season was underway. The Bulldogs played at Lathrop on Friday night and won 56-0, improving to 3-0. Assistant coach Justin Evans handled coaching duties for the game after Pribble’s arrest, according to the football program’s website.
School and football program records list Pribble as the varsity head coach for the 2026 season. A separate youth flag football program associated with Tracy High also lists him as its Tracy site director. Those roles placed him in regular contact with school-age athletes, adding urgency to investigators’ effort to determine the circumstances surrounding the recording and whether any additional incidents occurred.
Police have not publicly established a motive or said how long the phone had been recording. Authorities also have not publicly identified the students involved, which protects the privacy of minors connected to the investigation. Investigators are continuing to gather information, while Pribble remains on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal and district inquiries.
Author note: Last updated September 13, 2026.