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Next move all up to Brown

Pasco star asks for a day to decide if he will remain in Georgia, but his mother expects him to return to Florida.

By FRANK PASTOR and IZZY GOULD
Published July 29, 2005

DADE CITY - It comes down to this for Dominic Brown: stay or play.

If the Pasco two-sport star sticks with his plan to enroll at a school near his father's Georgia home, he likely will be ineligible to play any sport for one year. If he returns to Dade City, Brown can join Pasco's football team for the start of practice next week.

Brown's mother, Rosemary, told Pasco football coach Dale Caparaso on Thursday she expects her son to return to Florida no later than Monday.

"He hasn't told me he's coming back," Rosemary said. "I just know Dominic. He wants to play. He's not going to be able to play there, that's clear."

During a 10-minute phone conversation Wednesday night, Rosemary told Dominic "he needs to come back." Dominic asked for a day to think things over, said Rosemary, who still awaited her son's decision as of press time Thursday. Rosemary said she plans to register Dominic for fall classes at Pasco. Meanwhile, his father, Robert Walker, continues to try to find a private school in Georgia where Dominic can play, she said.

Calls to Walker's home were not answered.

Dominic's school choices are running thin.

Based on Rosemary's intention to maintain sole guardianship of her son, Dominic would be ineligible to play at schools governed by the Georgia High School Association, even after he turns 18 on Sept. 3. The GHSA governs Redan, where Dominic initially planned to transfer. A school official told Rosemary on Thursday her son would not be accepted.

All but two schools governed by the Georgia Independent School Association follow an identical rule. The rule would be waived at Riverside Military Academy or Bethesda Day School if Dominic lived on either campus.

Tuition and board at Riverside, which is about 60 miles from Walker's home, is $23,950 for 2005-06, plus a cost of $2,250 for an initial uniform fee. Scholarships are granted on a limited basis to returning students only. Some students find sponsors, which is an option to first-year students.

Bethesda seems unlikely because it is more than 250 miles from Walker's home, and Brown told his mother he wants to live with his father.

Dominic could attend a school governed by the Christian School Association and be immediately eligible, but he would have to meet rigorous academic standards. Rosemary said he would be unable to meet them.

Dominic, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound wide receiver with 4.57 speed in the 40-yard dash, has scholarship offers from Florida State, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Carolina, among others. A left-handed pitcher with a fastball in the mid to high 80s, Dominic projects as a 15th- to 20th-round draft pick, said Larry Blustein, publisher of floridakids.us.

Dominic spoke about returning to Pasco to prepare for football season when his father picked him up at his grandmother earlier this month and drove him to Atlanta for a baseball showcase.

Two weeks later, Rosemary received a call from Dominic saying he wasn't coming home.

But because Dominic intended to move from the home of a parent who has custody to one who does not, his mother would have to sign a waiver turning over custody to Dominic's father or move with Dominic to Georgia for him to be eligible under GHSA bylaws.

Rosemary refused to do either.

The biggest remaining obstacle to Dominic's return appears to be his concerns about how he will be received, Rosemary said.

No problem, Caparaso said.

"We will open our arms and welcome Dominic back," he said. "Kids make mistakes all the time. Nobody in my program will ever crucify a kid for making a mistake."

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 00:51:17]