Robert Dunn of Laney High School is like a treasured Christmas gift.
On the inside The Augusta Chronicle Georgia Player of the Year is Grade-A all-America football player. Dunn scored 20 touchdowns this year. Once out of every five times he touched the football, he took it to the end zone.
He scored on receptions, kickoff returns, running plays and interceptions. He had dominant games in nine of his team's 10 victories. The senior wide receiver was at his best when the games mattered the most. Dunn scored 10 times in the 2004 Georgia High School Association Class AA playoffs, leading Laney to its second semifinal appearance at the Georgia Dome in three seasons.
But the crux of his life now has little to do with football. He's plenty good enough to play college football one day.
If only it were as easy as just playing football.
The task right now is getting such a gifted young player in the hands of the right university. His skills make him a wanted man.
"Robert can play not just on Saturdays, but Sundays," Laney coach Eric Parker said. "There's no doubt in my mind he can get rich chasing a football."
Yet there is hesitation about a player with 43 career touchdowns and a highlight tape filled with solid gold credentials.
The wrapping and packaging around the football player have issues.
Dunn was under house arrest all season. He played with a tracking collar on his ankle that monitored every move. He had to adhere to a strict 8 p.m. curfew on nights he wasn't playing football.
He did so because of mistakes. Dunn's future is cloudy because of poor choices, ill-chosen friendships and being in the wrong place at the wrong time in life.
He was charged as an accessory to thefts of stolen property. He went to pick up a friend late one night for a favor, not to transport stolen goods.
Dunn discharged a firearm into the air in a McDonald's parking lot. A group of about 20 people were rushing the vehicle he was riding in and banging on the windows. Dunn was cited for what he believed to be an act of self-defense.
"Those were mistakes that have shown me pretty clearly what all I have to lose in life," Dunn said.
Dunn was asked how he'd let a college football coach know all about these missteps in his life.
He exhales with a breath deep enough to blow out a candle for each of his 1,824 career receiving yards.
Coming clean
Dunn would start from the beginning. He grew up in inner-city Augusta. He was raised by just his mother. Sherrell Dunn has seen hard times of her own, including two trips to jail.
But she didn't lead him to trouble.
The demands of a single parent with financial issues were too much to still have the time to keep such a mercurial football player from trouble.
"My mom has never been a bad parent," Dunn said. "When I did something wrong, she would knock my head off my shoulders. It starts when a parent can't be in contact 24 hours a day. A parent is at work. The kid is at school. That leaves the kid around somebody besides the parent. That's when trouble started creeping in my life. Being around the wrong people."
Dunn has seen three people murdered with his own eyes, including a friend about to sign a rap contract to Universal Records when he was 12 years old.
"I'd let that coach know every crack of my life," he said. "I'm not hiding it. If a total stranger came up to me and asked me about the trouble I have seen and gotten into, I'd tell them about it.
"Most people would tell them to mind their business. Not me. I take responsibility for the dumb things I have done. People come up to me and congratulate me for the things I'm good at. I've got to be willing to come clean with my mistakes, too."
Obstacles
Dunn does not believe in players whose talents are so great that big football programs take the good with the bad.
Willie Williams was embraced by Miami last season with a rap sheet 10 times longer than his Dunn's.
"I don't think you can ever be good enough at a sport to cover up or make up for what you have done wrong," he said.
When Dunn reaches a point in his probation where he's allowed to remove that tracking collar from his ankle, he'll miss it.
It's a reminder of the consequences in his life. He plans to buy a gold bracelet and strap it to that same ankle to never forget the feeling.
"I don't want to cover up my past," Dunn said.
He has lived through his troubles. He has a 2-year-old daughter to think of. She is one of the few highlights of his life right now off the football field. It's another reminder to run 100 miles an hour in the other direction when troubles tries to find him.
"Trouble is easy to get into but it is hard as hell to get out of," Sherrell Dunn said. "Robert's going to get out of it. We all have faith. He takes his future a whole lot more seriously now."
His current attitude is the product of some serious soul-searching over his most trying season. He's in church every Sunday. He listens.
But his college future is not as simple as a string of months and years of model behavior. The best football player in our part of Georgia is also faced with a fourth-quarter comeback in the classroom.
Grades
Dunn is enigmatic in many ways. His freshman- and senior-year grades show the work of a B student.
He took the SAT for the first time this fall and scored 840 without any preparation. He's now taking his first SAT prep courses. It's possible he could score 950 or even 1,000 with more tries.
It shows he's capable of handling college and college football. But a grade-point average that took some hits in his sophomore year and junior years clouds that academic picture.
In the 13 college prep units required by the NCAA Clearinghouse, his GPA is around 2.0.
It will take an minimum SAT score of 900 to qualify with that GPA on an NCAA sliding scale.
Laney's teachers are being hard on him.
He wasn't allowed to leave French class one day this month to greet a visitor until he finished an exam. He got a 100.
A new goal line
Dunn rising above it all is not a foreign concept to those who know him best.
His mentor, Clinton Brown, put up the property bond from jail the afternoon before Dunn won a football game the next night against Butler. Brown's given his direction and guidance as well.
"I owe that man my life," Dunn said. "He's shown me the most so far in life about what it means to be a man and to act like one."
It would serve him well at the next level.
"Robert can succeed on a college campus with or without football," Parker said. "I see him enjoying the life of a student going to libraries and doing research. Maybe being part of a fraternity. He's kind of gotten robbed of that sort of life growing up through high school."
It's similar to the response he gave to a different question:
How would you want your life story to end?
"First, I wouldn't change a thing," Dunn said. "Sounds crazy. But I think I needed to learn these lessons right now. I was bound to get caught for the mistakes I was making.
"If I never got caught this summer, it could be at a more critical time in my life. When I did get caught not thinking of the consequences of my actions, it might have stung a whole lot worse than it has now."
He sounds like a person determined to let every one know he's already made the worst mistakes of his life.
But it's not so he can score touchdowns. He'd like to be a lawyer one day.
"Robert Dunn's life story ends with him going to college and getting his degrees and becoming successful," Dunn said. "He gets married. He has kids and dies of old age. That's the perfect ending."
Meet Robert Dunn
The 2004 Augusta Chronicle Georgia Football Player of the Year
Hgt: 5-11
Wgt: 180
Position: Wide receiver/cornerback
Team: Laney
Year: Senior
All-area statline: Scored 20 overall touchdowns in the equivalent of 12 games this season. 54 catches for 937 yards and 10 TDs receiving. Scored 10 playoff touchdowns this year.
Player's choice
A few favorites of the 2004 Georgia Player of the Year.
Favorite food: Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo
Favorite movie: Scarface
Favorite football player: Terrell Owens
Favorite football play: 82 Z Quick: It's Robert's signature play. It was an early call every game to just get his hands on the football. It's a one-to-two yard stop route that gets him isolated one-on-one with an opposing cornerback. Dunn juked that lone defender for big gains many times this year.
Favorite team: New England Patriots
Favorite Christmas Gift: A scholarship offer to play football for the University of South Carolina
FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
[filtered word]. - Name - Hgt. - Wgt. - Year - School
QB - Dominique Walker - 5-11 - 174 - Sr. - Laney
Threw for 2,411 yards and 22 TDs; holds school records with 5,245 career passing yards and 55 career touchdown passes
RB - Jeffrey Walker - 6-1 - 210 - Sr. - Jefferson County
Carried 305 times for 2101 yards and 27 touchdowns
RB - Tyree Burnett - 5-10 - 175 - Sr. - Washington Co.
Topped 2,100 yards and 30 TDs to team to the state title game
WR - Robert Dunn - 5-11 - 175 - Sr. - Laney
Caught 54 passes for 937 yards and 10 TDs; 10 of his 20 all-purpose touchdowns came in the playoffs
WR - Keith Green - 6-1 - 170 - Jr. - Warren County
Only 24 passes - but for 639 yards and nine scores
OL - Pat Finnerty - 6-0 - 220 - Sr. - Thomson
Pulling guard in the Wing-T graded out at 90 percent for the season
OL - Jeremy Hayes - 5-11 - 265 - Sr. - Laney
Rugged guard was Laney's most consistent protector up front
OL - Gene Maddox - 6-2 - 315 - Jr. - Aquinas
Size and speed make him a sure college football candidate
OL - Willie Thompson - 6-7 - 275 - Sr. - Jefferson County
82-inch wingspan) had 40-plus pancake blocks and no sacks
OL - Alex Wideman - 6-3 - 260 - Sr. - Lincoln County
Aptly-named; Red Devils weren't the same during his injury
TE - Brandon Barden - 6-5 - 230 - Soph. - Lincoln County
Matchup nightmare caught 18 passes for 428 yards and four scores
ATH - Wayne Canty - 5-9 - 185 - Sr. - Laney
Mid-season transfer had 900 all-purpose yards and 12 TDs in 6 games
PK - Cody Swartz - 5-10 - 195 - Jr. - Butler
Went 7-for-8 on field goals, with long of 44 yards, 21-for-23 on PATs
FIRST TEAM DEFENSE
[filtered word]. - Name - Hgt. - Wgt. - Year - School
DL - Jon Brown - 6-3 - 275 - Sr. - Washington Co.
Defensive anchor occupied blockers and knifed into backfields
DL - Tyrese Harris - 6-4 - 230 - Sr. - Butler
75 tackles. Nine sacks. Three blocked punts. 26 tackles for losses
DL - Corvey Irvin - 6-5 - 250 - Sr. - Laney
Skills were showcased against Charlton County at the Georgia Dome
DL - Jerbar Moss - 6-1 - 205 - Jr. - Washington-Wilkes
115 tackles, five forced fumbles, 15 sacks and 23 tackles for a loss
LB - Marcus Washington - 6-1 - 225 - Sr. - Burke County
Area's best blend of size and speed had 125 tackles; also had 16TDs
LB - Reggie Wesby - 6-0 - 240 - Sr. - Glenn Hills
Four-year starter made wrapped season with 174 total tackles
LB - Barry Wylie - 6-2 - 220 - Sr. - Washington-Wilkes
135 total tackles and seven sacks - also blocked 4 PATs and 2 punts
DB - Chris Drayton - 6-2 - 190 - Jr. - Lakeside
Notched 84 tackles and four interceptions from safety spot
DB - Josh Gordy - 5-11 - 180 - Sr. - Washington Co.
All six of his interceptions in his team's final six games, including a 100-yard return for a touchdown at Georgia Dome
DB - Aquantis Mobley - 6-0 - 177 - Sr. - Glenn Hills
Speedy Division I-A prospect had 40 tackles and four interceptions
DB - Eric Stallings - 5-10 - 160 - Sr. - Aquinas
Top athlete on the Irish had 72 tackles and five interceptions
P - Julius Patterson - 6-3 - 205 - Soph. - Burke County
Part-time tailback averaged exactly 40 yards on his 20 punts
SECOND TEAM OFFENSE
[filtered word]. - Name - Hgt. - Wgt. - Year - School
QB - Tommy Seals - 5-11 - 185 - Fr. - Warren County
RB - Damien Bell - 5-11 - 235 - Jr. - Butler
RB - Ricky Young - 5-9 - 175 - Jr. - Glenn Hills
WR - Ryan Crislip - 6-1 - 172 - Sr. - Evans
WR - Curtis Sapp - 6-2 - 215 - Sr. - Laney
OL - Derick Grant - 6-5 - 250 - Sr. - Hephzibah
OL - Austin Osment - 6-4 - 290 - Sr. - Screven County
OL - Nick Parr - 6-0 - 260 - Sr. - Evans
OL - LaMar Smart - 6-2 - 280 - Sr. - Glenn Hills
OL - Cameron Walker - 6-3 - 300 - Sr. - Jefferson County
TE - Bill Kain - 6-5 - 215 - Sr. - Aquinas
ATH - Cheng Ho - 5-11 - 190 - Sr. - Evans
PK - Reid Tankersly - 5-8 - 145 - Sr. - Evans
SECOND TEAM DEFENSE
DL - Ra'Strallias Garnett - 6-3 - 220 - Sr. - Westside
DL - A.J. Harmon - 6-4 - 270 - Fr. - Jefferson County
DL - Napolean Stewart - 6-6 - 260 - Sr. - Aquinas
DL - Markeith Wylie - 6-2 - 260 - Jr. - Washington-Wilkes
LB - Stanley Dumas - 5-11 - 230 - Sr. - Butler
LB - Bruce Lee - 6-0 - 180 - Sr. - Hephzibah
LB - Jay Tarver - 6-2 - 210 - Sr. - Westside
DB - Danny Daggett - 5-11 - 155 - Soph. - Josey
DB - Jeremy Larson - 6-2 - 195 - Sr. - Harlem
DB - Najee Tolbert - 6-1 - 185 - Sr. - Josey
DB - Eugene Rogers - 6-0 - 170 - Sr. - Greenbrier
P - Daniel Harmon - 6-2 - 230 - Soph. - Josey
HONORABLE MENTION: Aquinas: Junior LB Lee Malchow, Junior DB/RB Patrick Nordman, Senior OL/DL Brandon Rauscher; Burke County: Junior OL Tony Jones, Senior LB Jonathan Prophet, Junior LB Fred Walker, Junior DB Nicholas Pavao; Butler: Senior TE/DE Antuanne Kerr; Cross Creek: Junior QB Donald Hudson, Sophomore LB Daniel Normington, Senior WR Aubrey Payne, Senior WR Cordarryl Talbert; Evans: Senior DB Jay Acree, Senior LB Jonathan Amerson, Senior QB Brad Freeman, Senior OL Cliff Hancock; Glascock County: Senior LB Kyle Hyman, Senior FB/LB Preston Little, Senior RB Terrence Thomas; Glenn Hills: Senior DB Xavia Anderson, Senior OL Charleston Kelley, Senior DE Larry Knight, Senior DE Marcus Myles; Greenbrier: Senior FB Tyler Dent, Senior DT Daniel Landon, Junior LB/TB Reggie Rice; Junior LB/FB Eric Smith; Harlem: Sophomore QB/DB Brendan Gray, Junior RB/DB Gabe Greer, Senior FB Chris Newsome, Junior OL/DL Mike White; Hephzibah: Senior FB Kendall Calvin, Junior CB Jordan Moore, Senior LB J'Michael Swain, Senior DE/OG Brandon Thomas; Josey: Junior OL/DL Lawrence Marsh, Senior WR Rashad Roberts, Senior LB/FB Sam Williams; Jefferson County: Senior ATH Ervin Hawkins, Senior OL/LB Ricardo Lane, Sophomore QB Dennis Thomas; Lakeside: Senior QB Jimmy Johnson, Junior LB Paul Miller, Senior LB/FB Reggie Porter; Laney: Sophomore OL LaDarrien Redfield, Senior DL William Tolbert, Junior LB Kenneth Walker, Sophomore DT Tim Wright; Lincoln County: Senior DB/RB Stephen Brown, Senior QB Cordarryl Coppin Senior LB Brandon Reed, Senior WR/DB C.J. Norman; Richmond Academy: Senior LB Adam Green, Senior LB Jon McKinney, Junior DT Fernando Walker; Thomson: Senior HB Clifton Belton, Senior QB Dan Ivey, Senior LB Dan McNair, Junior DL Kelcey Neal, Senior DL Matt Smith, Senior FB Demarcus Wilson; Warren County: Junior ATH Chris Winfrey; Washington County: Senior FB Brandon Haynes, Junior OL Lance Helton, Junior PK Jamie Rountree, Junior DB Eulas Taylor; Washington-Wilkes: Junior RB Quintelle Dunn, Senior DE George Gates, Junior OL/DL Casey Nickles, Senior TE/QB Brad Sandifer, Senior OL Orrie Wynn; Westside: Senior WR Eric Taylor, Junior LB/RB Jon Wiley, Senior DB Jason Williams.
Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.
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