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Slain Bloomingdale grad 'one of the best'

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By NICK WILLIAMS and SARAH HOYE

nwilliams@tampatrib.com shoye@tampatrib.com

Published: October 28, 2009

TAMPA - Josh Chapin knew the kid playing high school basketball for him was something special.

Theo Smalling had size, speed, strength and skill. And toughness to spare.

"He was one of the best I've had in my seven years as coach," said Chapin, who coached Smalling at Bloomingdale High from 2002 to 2006.

"He was my first class. I had him for four years. He was my first Division I player. He's probably the toughest kid I ever coached."

The last time Chapin spoke to Smalling was Friday, when he called to wish him happy birthday. Smalling was looking forward to Hampton University's game against the University of South Florida on Dec. 2 at the Sun Dome.

On Sunday, Chapin was talking to Smalling's mom on a much less festive occasion. Her son had been shot in the stomach in Virginia.

Theo Smalling, who loved basketball more than anything else, the kid who scored 1,239 points at Bloomingdale, who was the starting center at Hampton, in Virginia, died the next day. He was 22.

Police still don't know exactly what happened. They say Smalling was shot in the abdomen shortly after midnight Saturday in the parking lot of a nightclub after another man mishandled a firearm.

Police have charged 21-year-old Dominique Devon Smith with reckless handling of a firearm and are awaiting autopsy results.

Police have so far treated the incident as an accident.

Hampton President William R. Harvey described Smalling as a "model" student-athlete.

Smalling's family was at his bedside at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News when he died. Funeral services are being planned.
Walter Perkins met Smalling when the 13-year-old was playing youth football for the Brandon Broncos. He told the rising star that he had "a gift."

"He was a very driven young man. He was the kind of person who, if he didn't do it, it wasn't going to get done," Perkins said. "He didn't want to let me or his mother down."

The 6-foot-7 senior was respected by teammates and opponents.

"I remember my junior year, coach always said to make sure we knew where he was on the court," said Shawn Vanzant, now a junior point guard at Butler University. "If I could compare him to a player, it would be Dennis Rodman, but 10 times more skilled. That was him. He was always going hard."

Jason Anthony, a 6-foot-4 power forward who graduated from Armwood High School in 2007, was Smalling's teammate on the AAU Brandon Bolts and his archrival in high school.

"When he came into the room, people would say, 'Oh, that's Theo,'" he said. "He was a confident person."

Smalling was the whole package, said Adam Sollazzo, a 2008 graduate of Armwood and the Tampa Tribune 2007-08 Hillsborough County Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

"He was a beast," said Sollazzo, now a sophomore point guard at East Tennessee State. "He was one of the best big men I've ever seen in Hillsborough County. He was big, strong and fast."

Smalling, a sports management major, played in 30 games as a junior for Hampton, averaging 3.3 points and a team-leading 5.3 rebounds a game.

News Channel 8 reporter Jennifer Leigh contributed to this report.

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