Youth counselors arrested on drug trafficking charges helped mold several Tampa football careers

Local youth counselors Michael Brown and Romey Battle -- who helped several Tampa football players find inner-city hope on and off the field – were arrested Thursday for cocaine trafficking, less than a week after they held a youth football clinic at USF that featured some of their brightest success stories as coaches.

Brown and Battle, the executive director and program director of the Center for Urban Programs and Services, respectively, were the subjects of a three-month police investigation during which undercover officers purchased crack cocaine from the pair several times, police said in Times story in Friday’s editions. A search of three homes in April yielded 167 grams of cocaine, 83 grams of crack cocaine, $1,800 and two vehicles used in the sales, police said.

The pair told investigators they were selling drugs to finance a center for disadvantaged children, the Times reported. Police said their investigation showed Brown and Battle didn’t sell drugs to kids.

Battle and Brown mentored with several top Tampa football players, including current Philadelphia Eagles lineman Brodrick Bunkley (a Chamberlain alum), All-SEC cornerback Javier Arenas of Alabama (a Robinson grad), former five-star Division I recruit O.J. Murdock (Middleton) and FSU rising senior Moses McCray (Hillsborough), helping them earn athletic scholarships and preaching the importance of good decision making.

On Saturday, they hosted the Hometown Heroes Youth Football Clinic, an event that drew about 175 kids to USF’s Fowler Fields. Arenas and Murdock, along with former Middleton standout and recent New York Giants draftee Stoney Woodson and former Guy Toph Award winner Marcello Trigg (Robinson), Tennessee Tech quarterback Dominic Grooms (Middleton) and FIU receiver Greg Ellingson (Robinson).

Battle mentored another former standout, former King running back Raymond Neal, helping him straighten out his life and get a scholarship at Division II Fort Hays State after Neal’s high school career was cut short after three years in prison.

"Romey's been like a second father to me," Neal said Friday from Fort Hays, where he is working out in preparation for the season. "I don't think I'd be in college right now if it wasn't for him. What matters is what's in his heart. I've learned that more than anyone. Sometimes your mind goes 100 miles an hour. It was the wrong thing to do, but he has one of the best hearts out there."

"If they don't do programs like this for the kids in the hood, who is?" Neal said. "The Boys and Girls Clubs are losing money and nobody else want to do it."

Brown expressed frustration with the lack of sponsors for the event. He said a sponsor pulled out at the last minute, they still had to order T-shirts, water and food.

"If this isn't a success, I don't know what is," Brown told the Times on Saturday. "We didn’t get the sponsorship we wanted, but we had almost 100 percent turnout from our players."

-- EDUARDO A. ENCINA

Comments

[coachev]

But...it is for the kids.....so it is all right. The stupidity of some people is amazing. And these are the people that parents are using as role models. Scary.

[ArmChairQB]

Man, the sports section in this paper is like a police blotter in the crime section.

[Drakeu85]

(This time with corrections)

You just don't get it do you. By any means necessary. They had to sell crack to help they kids....WHAT?!
That is what is wrong in the black community, male role models who justify their criminal actions and then people in the black community backing them up as if they are upstanding citizens.
THEY SOLD DRUGS!!! THEY'RE CRIMINALS!!! But don't worry, they'll be back out on the street dealing again.
Hey, I got an idea, why doesn't the Hillsborough School District hire these guys to deal on the various campuses in Tampa and then they can use that money to hire new teachers or increase the number of programs offered. Afterall, they would be doing it for the kids.

[Drakeu85]

You jsut don't get it do you. By any means necessary. They had to sell crack to help they kids....WHAT?!
That is what is wrong in the black community, male role models who justify their criminal actions and then people in the community backing them up as if they are upstanding citizens.
THEY SOLD DRUGS!!! THEIR CRIMINALS!!! But don't worry, they'll be back out on the street dealing again.
Hey, I got an idea, why doesn't the Hillsborough School District hire these guys to deal on the various campuses in Tampa and then they can use that money to hire new teachers or increase the number of programs offered. Afterall, they would be doing it for the kids.