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Coach: Troubled Armwood Player Must Find Solid Base

Tribune file photo by BILL WARD

Armwood High's Dykerius Cross didn't make this 6-foot-8 jump in March, but he still excelled in the meet. His troubled private life is standing between him and being an Armwood athlete.

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By KATHERINE SMITH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

SEFFNER - Dykerius Cross wanted to know what he could do to get back on the football team.

There was only one way Armwood High coach Sean Callahan would allow that to happen. Callahan requested a meeting with Cross and his family members to discuss his living situation.

"It was all unraveling," Callahan said. "I could just see it. I had the principal come to me, the assistant principal, the deans coming to me. Every day it was something. You could tell Dykerius was spiraling. He needed some time away. I told him to bring a family member in to sit down and talk about this."

That meeting never took place. Early Tuesday morning, hours after Callahan released Cross from the football team to get his personal life in order, the senior wide receiver was arrested for the second time in three weeks.

Both arrests, Callahan said, stemmed from Cross' need to seek shelter somewhere other than at his aunt's house, where he had been living.

"He's homeless," Callahan said. "If you don't let him in the home, then what do you call it? He's not allowed in that house."

Wednesday, less than 10 miles from the Armwood practice field where his former teammates were preparing for Friday night's game against Brandon, Cross remained in his Orient Road Jail cell. Bail was set at $8,000. He declined an interview.

His pastor, Joe Johnson, visited him earlier in the day and talked not about football, but about his current situation, which the family said has been blown out of proportion.

"He's not homeless," said Johnson, who offered Cross a place to stay when he is released from jail. "He's got family. He's got good family around here."

His aunt, Lothia Cross, said the 18-year-old is "loved and will be taken care of."

Cross' mother died when he was a toddler. He grew up with other family members in Albany, Ga., before moving to the Seffner area two years ago.

"He's got no base," Callahan said. "When a kid has a good mom and dad and has some hard times, he can fall back on his base. This kid, he ain't got nothing. All he knows is how to survive."

That survival apparently included breaking in to two homes to sleep. Hillsborough County deputies said they first discovered Cross in an abandoned house three doors down from his aunt's on Aug. 24. He was charged with misdemeanor trespassing.

Tuesday morning, Cross was again arrested, this time charged with second-degree felony burglary and criminal mischief. Deputies said he pried open a door at a house in the same neighborhood. The owner of that unoccupied house discovered damage, including cigarette burns on the carpet.

Callahan described the senior wideout as someone who is fiercely independent and somewhat embarrassed to draw attention to his situation. One of Callahan's many duties as head coach includes nightly laundering of the team's football clothes, but Cross even denied that help.

"He told me he'd take care of his clothes," Callahan said. "I told him, 'I wash the clothes for free; it's OK.' I wash them and put them back in the lockers. He told me he didn't need me to do all that for him. That's just the way he is."

The 6-foot-5, 165-pound receiver was a hard worker on the field who responded to the structured, disciplined environment of the Armwood football program. In his second year on varsity, he caught the winning touchdown against Plant on Sept. 5 in a nationally televised game.

"We want him back," Callahan said. "He's just got to get help. We can do whatever we can, but it's more than that. It's more than me giving him a ride home. It's more than me giving him 5 bucks. It's so much more than that.

"I've got to know when I drive him home, he's going to go into the house and that he's going to be fed, instead of him waiting for me to pull down the road and turn left and then he goes wherever."

The door remains open, Callahan said, if Cross gets help and wants to return.

"He's in a tough spot, and I don't know what to say or do for him," Callahan said. "I'm not used to losing kids, and I feel like I've lost a kid. I've never lost a kid to grades, the police or alcohol.

"He's got a chance to come back, but I've got to have him stable, because he's not."

NewsChannel 8 reporter Jeff Patterson contributed to this report. Reporter Katherine Smith can be reached at (813) 259-7860 or ksmith@tampatrib.com.

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