It’s every athlete’s dream to go to college, even better when they are recruited and allowed to play on scholarship. But what happens when the college that “Recruited” you turns out to be a hoax? That’s what happened to three HS boys as they traveled to Virginia Beach to sleep on their recruiters home floor?
Via USA TODAY:
Three young men say they bought one-way tickets to Virginia Beach after they were promised their dream of playing college football would be fulfilled, according to an exclusive report from TEGNA partner WVEC in Virginia.
Those dreams were shattered when they came to Virginia Beach and realized that there was no football team, and the college they were promised didn’t exist at all.
“So we came out here and this is what it was, we came to his house,” said Bernard Walker.
Walker, along with his friends Keishay Harvey and Robert Brown said they first heard from Willie Williamson when he contacted them about playing football at a college in Virginia Beach.
“He was running Redemption Christian College, we were under the impression that it was this big thing. He made it seem like, you know, the college is really known in the area, we get a lot of people there, a lot of support from churches, and everything like that,” explained Walker.
But the college, as it turns out, is not at all what Walker and his friends expected.
Walker says they had to sleep on the man’s floor after they arrived to Virginia Beach. That is when they said they began raising red flags.
“I asked them, I said where is the school at, the school is wherever you are at, it’s an online school, we are like online, we were under the impression that we are going to be in a classroom, dorm rooms,” said Walker.
Virginia Beach police officers came to investigate the situation, but say they found no criminal activity.
While police have not found criminal activity the Economic Crime Unit has been alerted. Mr. Williamson was not home when the news went to interview him, but he was available by phone to defend his organization:
“What we did, there’s Century International College, we have a program, and we partnered with them and they are our sister school, we have an articulation agreement, so everybody who wants to come down, I just brought other kids down here, I’m still bringing kids here, so you publicize it,” he said.
With easy access to the internet and the ability to google anything, its shocking the students or parents didn’t do any research. I’m sure the excitement of recruitment got the best of them, but student-athletes have to be extra careful in the world we live in. Parents, be weary of “recruits” reaching out to your children, search everything.