<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=v1>Posted on Wed, Feb. 02, 2005</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=250 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=adlabel align=left><SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.1>_krdDartInc++;document.write('<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=\"JavaScript1.1\" SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/miamiherald.sports/sports;kw=center6;c2=sports_homepage
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THIRD PARTY: Antron Wright is influential in recruiting. TIM CHAPMAN/HERALD STAFF</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><SCRIPT language=JavaScript>function showResults(siteSurveyKey) {var url="/mld/templates/contentModules/poll-results-popup.jsp"+ "?siteSurveyKey=" + siteSurveyKey;window.open(url, 'Title');}function openWin(URL) {aWindow = window.open(URL,'thewindow','width=500,height=400,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');}function getSite(){foundSite = false;site=document.location.hostname;endPos=site.indexOf(".com");if (endPos>= 1) {foundSite = true;site = site.substr(0, endPos);startPos = site.lastIndexOf(".");site = site.substr(startPos + 1);}return site;}function getPublication(){publication=document.location.pathname;startPos=publication.indexOf("/mld/")
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RECRUITING
Former football star's "big brother" role draws criticism
Former All-Dade linebacker Antron Wright has guided dozens of high school football players to colleges, but there is skepticism.
[size=-1]By MANNY NAVARRO AND SUSAN MILLER DEGNAN[/size]
[size=-1][email protected][/size]
<!-- begin body-content -->Antron Wright views himself as the high school football community's ''big brother.''
The former Miami Killian High assistant coach and 29-year-old former pro linebacker has been a central figure in recruiting in South Dade the past few years.
With national signing day here, Wright will have helped dozens of high school football players find a college to play for in the fall, sometimes through something as simple as a phone call to a recruiter or helping a student learn how to deal with the NCAA's Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse.
And the question some are asking: Who is this man entrenched in South Florida college recruiting?
''They [college coaches] call me to ask me about kids because they know everybody knows me here,'' Wright said.
Wright said he has dealt with coaches such as Rutgers' Greg Schiano, Colorado State's Sonny Lubick, South Carolina's retired Lou Holtz, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, former LSU and current Dolphins head coach Nick Saban -- among others.
''I'm like a direct end,'' Wright said. ''If you bought cheese or you like cheese and I was down here in the cheese grove, they would say, 'Come talk to Antron, he'll tell you where to get some cheese from.'
''I want every kid -- white, black, blue, whatever -- to have an opportunity, not because of their economic status, but to have an opportunity at life and to get an education in college, to be exposed to things. If I can expose kids to things and give them opportunities, I'm going to keep doing it, and I'm going to do it the right way. Just like my last name, I'm going to do it the right way.''
However, some coaches feel that dealing with people outside of the high school system who are advocates of the student-athlete but haven't been closely linked with their families for years is not the preferred method.
''From what I know of Antron, he is a good person,'' said Brad Bertani, Tennessee associate athletic director for compliance. ''And I think what he is trying to do is admirable. I don't know in the long run if third-party people fit into the NCAA system of recruiting.''
University of Miami coach Larry Coker acknowledged he knows of Wright. Coker raised a concern about the emergence of independent third parties in college recruiting at the American Football Coaches Association's meeting in Louisville, Ky., last month.
''Yeah, I do know who he is,'' Coker said recently. ''I don't deal with him, so there's really nothing for me to say. I deal with parents, coaches and players.
''As a coach, you want to deal with the people who are influential in a young man's life. If somebody is recruiting my son, they're not going to deal with somebody down the street. They're going to deal with me, my wife, my son and the proper people -- the coach.''
Wright, unemployed since December, was an assistant football coach at Miami Killian in charge of college recruiting in 2003. Before his last job from April 26 to Dec. 14 as a stay-in-school counselor through a grant by Jobs for Miami (based at Miami Central High), Wright was a juvenile detention officer for two years at the Miami-Dade County juvenile regional detention center.
According to Bill Saum, NCAA director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, it is not against NCAA rules for a college coach to communicate with a person who is a friend or advocate of the recruit, even if that person is not a relative or legal guardian.
Wright says he is a friend.
''Legitimate mentors are a healthy component in young people's lives,'' Saum said. ''Coach Coker, I'm sure, and others are not speaking of legitimate mentors. They're speaking of hanger-oners, they're speaking of people who are associating with these kids merely because they are great athletes. They're speaking of individuals who want to follow the young man or develop a relationship with him as he enters the professional ranks.''
Trooper Taylor, Tennessee's running backs coach, said Wright has been a tremendous help since Taylor first began recruiting Miami-Dade this past summer.
Taylor, however, said he understands why some would question Wright's intentions as well as those of other community members involved with student-athletes.
''I think people have a hard time believing somebody can do something for somebody else without getting something in return,'' Taylor said. ''Most of the time you find somebody like that, [those] people have their hand out or have something personal to gain where they want the kid to make it to the pros and then come back and take care of them -- or promise them a job or whatever. Usually, you try to keep 1,000 feet or 100 feet between that person and you.
''Antron has never asked me for anything.''
FATHER FIGURE
Carol City's Kenny Phillips and Demetrice Morley, who played at Miami Killian in the fall, are both highly sought senior defensive backs who know Wright. Morley played with Phillips in the U.S. Army All-American Game and said he had been trying to convince Phillips to go with him to Tennessee.
''I got a father, but he [Wright] is my father figure,'' said Morley, who said he changed his commitment from Florida to Tennessee after Ron Zook was fired.
''Any college I said I wanted to go to, [Wright and I] would go and look at [the Internet] together and see the depth charts and see if I had an opportunity to come in and play. He just helped me out -- not choosing a college -- but helping me format the college and check out the colleges.''
Morley said his father, who lives in the Bahamas, approved of Wright accompanying Demetrice on his trip to Tennessee in October because he had helped him throughout the recruiting process. Wright said he paid for his own airline ticket out of Fort Lauderdale. He said he sent his debit-card statement last Wednesday or Thursday to Bertani to verify that no one associated with Tennessee had funded the trip.
Bertani said he asked Wright for the documentation last week and hadn't received it as of Tuesday.
Phillips did not take any trips with Wright and claims he barely knows him.
''I've spoken to [Wright] for all of about five minutes my entire life. All [Wright] told me was that he thought Demetrice [Morley] and I could be a great combination if we went to Tennessee together, but he's never told me I had to go there,'' said Phillips, who will choose today between Tennessee and Miami. ''I was thinking about Tennessee because I know they need safeties and because coach Trooper [Taylor] had called me.''
Another player Wright has guided is former Killian running back Bobby Washington, who originally signed a letter of intent with UM but now plays for North Carolina State. Washington's mother, Leslie Washington Mortimer, called Wright a family friend in August and said she agreed to have him accompany her during a meeting on Aug. 2 with UM compliance director Tony Hernandez and other UM officials.
Bobby Washington and his mother told The Herald in August that UM officials had heard from an outside source that an impostor had attempted to take an ACT for Washington, a claim that infuriated Washington, his mother and Wright.
''Yes, [Wright] got very upset,'' Washington Mortimer said. 'He said, 'You guys are screwing the kid.' ''
When asked why Washington Mortimer brought Wright to the meeting, she said, 'Antron Wright showed so much interest in our boy when it comes to education. He was a good friend not only to Bobby but to a lot of the kids. But he never had a say for [where Bobby should go to college]. He never told me or Bobby, 'I want you to go here or there.' ''
ON THE PULSE
In Miami-Dade County, if college coaches are looking for a possible player to fill a need on their roster, Wright is a person they call for help.
''He has given me three or four names of kids that if I hadn't run into him or been in contact with him, I wouldn't have known little things in terms of their family background or character issues or getability for us,'' said Central Michigan coach Mike Elston.
Auburn running backs coach Eddie Gran said Wright helped him with former Southridge safety Lorenzo Ferguson last year by sending him a tape and Ferguson's transcripts. Ferguson later signed with Auburn.
Illinois linebackers coach Thomas Thigpen said Wright sent him a list of defensive backs.
Said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano: ''I met Tron when he was an assistant coach at Killian High School. At that time, he seemed to have a good understanding of recruiting.''
Taylor, who met Wright six months ago, might have one of the better relationships with Wright. He said Wright drove him around South Dade in his car and introduced him to coaches and players.
''I can tell by his personality, his passion for it, [Wright] is deep-rooted about the kids making it -- I'm talking about Bethune-Cookman to Florida A&M to everything,'' Taylor said. 'He'd even tell me, 'Look I've got some guys who are mediocre guys.' If you have some friends in this business -- because he knows it's who you know -- at some smaller Division I schools, give them my number and have them give me a call.
''And that's the thing I like about him. He's always trying to help kids, period, and not just the stars.''
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Wright said he first began helping young football players through various community programs and camps in South Dade. He expanded his work when he founded the Wright Task program during the years he starred as a Bethune-Cookman College linebacker and invited kids from the South Dade area to watch his games.
Currently, Wright shares a modest two-bedroom South Dade apartment with his cousin. He uses office space in the building his uncle owns on 98th Court in South Dade to help recruits register for the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse. The space was provided by his cousin, who has a not-for-profit association, Abstinence Between Strong Teens, Inc., that works with children in the Miami-Dade County Schools, as well as throughout the community.
''The fact of the matter is he has a passion to make sure kids don't go through the struggles he went through,'' said Miami-Dade police officer and Wright's cousin, Mark Beckford, whose mother, the late Ethel Beckford, has an elementary school in west Perrine named after her. ''A lot of parents call me, and I refer them to him. He has spoken at a lot of our Police Athletic League football camps. . . . All he does is encourage kids to take the right classes.''
ROUGH LIFE
Wright, who graduated from Palmetto High in 1994, said much of what he does stems from missing out on similar guidance when he was growing up in South Miami and then west Perrine.
Eventually, he says, it cost him two years -- one he spent at Chaffey College in California before transferring to Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville -- and a chance at playing Division I football.
Wright, who said he has two young daughters who live near Gainesville, left Bethune-Cookman early for the NFL, where he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Baltimore Ravens.
Wright was cut before the season began and eventually played with the XFL's Chicago Enforcers two years later. When the league folded, Wright moved back to South Dade and the same streets that had been so tough for him as a child.
''I lived with my mom,'' Wright said. 'My dad was murdered when I was 8. The guy was [16] years old who killed my dad. He got shot about seven, eight times. My aunt came up to me when I was in South Miami and she said, 'Your dad has been killed. Come on. Let's go.' I went down to Perrine, a place called Circle Plaza. And I peeked around the corner, and all I remember is my dad laying up under a yellow blanket.''
Wright said one of his three brothers was shot to death on the brother's 18th birthday. Wright said his mother, Valerie King, ''went to prison for 18 months when I was in middle school -- for drug trafficking. At that point, I was really introduced to the streets. I'm talking about feeding yourself sometimes.''
When Wright's mom returned from prison, he said ''she wouldn't accept no money from nobody in the family. She went straight to an emergency home -- [a women's shelter] when you have nowhere to stay. It's an apartment with steel furniture that don't move. You have about five plates, five spoons, five forks. You have some hard cotton beds to lay on and sleep on. That was in Florida City off Palm Drive. I'll never forget that, man.''
High school took Wright to Southridge for two years, where he won a state championship in 1991 and then to Palmetto, where he transferred after he said he got into an argument with an assistant coach at a basketball game he attended.
''[At Palmetto], I was All-Dade, first-team All-State.'' Wright said. ''I didn't know anything about high school requirements. I didn't know about the NCAA. Didn't know about the Clearinghouse. Never took a test until the end of my senior year -- SAT or anything. Nobody took me into depth or came to my mom and said, 'Your son has done a good job for us, but this is what he needs to do. And this is what we need to do with him.'
''I had a destination, but I didn't have a road map. So, that's what I'm trying to do with these kids out there.''
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