CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- A former girl's basketball coach was charged Wednesday with 59 counts of sexual assault, assault and child abuse. Fifty-five of the counts are felonies. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office had earlier said as many as 100 counts might be filed against him.

Rick Lopez, 36, of Castle Rock, had coached the Colorado Hoopsters team but quit abruptly on July 10 during a tournament in Oregon. That's when new allegations arose against him.

The prosecutor in the case says Lopez admitted to a sexual relationship with three of his former players in tape-recorded telephone conversations.

The three alleged victims, who are now adults, had lived in Douglas County, Jefferson County and Arapahoe County. Investigators said the assaults occurred as early as 1998, when one of the girls was as young as 13 years old.

At one point, Lopez had lived with the family of one of his alleged victims, 7NEWS reported.

Lopez was arrested July 30 in New York after a traffic stop. He was near the Syracuse University campus and a tipster had told the Douglas County Sheriff's Office that Lopez was in the area to visit one of his former Hoopsters players.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office had been investigating Lopez since July 2003.

Lopez remains under a $500,000 bond and has been ordered not to contact any of the alleged victims or their families. A bond hearing will be held on Sept. 1. His preliminary hearing has been set for Oct. 28.

The Colorado Hoopsters, a nationally prominent basketball club, is in the process of reorganizing as a nonprofit organization.