MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) — A highly successful small-town football coach in mid-Michigan who authorities say sent sexually explicit images to boys has been sentenced to six months in jail.

The Morning Sun reports Isabella County Chief Judge Paul Chamberlain on Thursday also ordered 46-year-old Lou Rau of Beal City to serve four years of probation.

The former varsity football coach, who resigned as he was investigated, apologized in court. He says that he “treated my players like friends” and blurred the line between adult and teenager.

Rau in July pleaded no contest to distributing obscene materials to children and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Other charges were dropped.

The case came as a shock at tiny Beal City High School, 80 miles north of Lansing, when the details emerged earlier this year.