WILMINGTON, N.C. -- A 40-year-old high school teacher and cross country coach has resigned and married a 16-year-old student.

A marriage license shows Brenton Wuchae married Windy Hager in Brunswick County, N.C., on Monday. The county board of education approved Wuchae's resignation Tuesday -- a week after he had requested it.

Wuchae coached Hager at South Brunswick High School, where she was a star runner. He lives less than two miles from her home on Oak Island.

Hager's parents said they did all they could to keep the couple apart after noticing a deeper-than-usual friendship between them.

Betty and Dennis "Bubba" Hager told The Star-News that they exhausted their resources. They said they asked for help from school officials, law enforcement, teachers and students. They also said they asked Wuchae to leave their daughter alone and tried to get a restraining order against him.

"There was no proof of anything unlawful on his part or her part," said Oak Island Police Major Greg Jordan. "Inappropriate and unlawful are two different things."

The Star-News reported that Windy filed for emancipation in March, but ended up dropping the action after her parents' lawyer contended that they weren't bad parents.

The Hagers said they reluctantly signed a consent form allowing their daughter to marry her coach.

The parents said that on Saturday, Windy asked her dad to sign emancipation papers -- which he refused. She then asked him to sign a paper Wuchae had drawn up and had notarized, which would give Windy permission to marry her coach. Her dad said he also refused that.

But on Monday, the Hagers met their child and her coach at the courthouse and signed off on the marriage certificate.

"He had all the power in the world -- all he had to do was say, 'I can't do this,'" Betty Hager said.

Schools Superintendent Katie McGee said she was shocked and disheartened.

Wuchae was hired in 2004.