WILBERFORCE — One of the more controversial, polarizing — and, some say, mischaracterized — football players in the nation has joined the Central State Marauders and is vying for the stating quarterback job.
How the venture ultimately plays out will make the story of Trent Mays one of second chances or second guesses.
Five years ago, Mays — a budding 16-year-old star football player and wrestler and an honor student at Steubenville High School, the son and grandson of coaches and the younger brother of two sisters — was charged along with teammate Ma’lik Richmond of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who was incapacitated by alcohol. The pair also documented the assault in text, photo and video on various forms of social media.
The incident, actually a six-hour ordeal until the girl awoke in a basement missing clothes, phone and earrings, but alongside Mays, Richmond and another boy, made national headlines for months because of the glorified culture of football in Steubenville — the town of 18,000 fills its 10,000-seat stadium and the Big Red, as the team is known, has won nine state titles — and the way the town divided over the assault and arrests that followed.
In March 2013, Mays, who like Richmond was tried as a juvenile, was adjudicated “delinquent beyond reasonable doubt,” the juvenile equivalent of a guilty verdict.
For raping the unconscious girl using his fingers and disseminating pornographic photos of her, he was sentenced to two years at the Paint Creek Light House Youth Center
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine empaneled a special grand jury, specifically to see if coaches and other school personnel failed to report the incident even though they are required to do so by Ohio law.
As a result, the superintendent of schools (who resigned), an elementary school principal, two coaches and the school’s IT director all faced multiple charges ranging from obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence to perjury.
When Mays was released in January 2015, he returned to another area high school but was not permitted to join its wrestling team. He did graduate with honors.
That fall he ended up at Hocking College, a struggling junior college in Nelsonville that had just started a football program as a way to invigorate the school and raise enrollment.
Hocking remains the only junior college in Ohio to have a football program and Mays was the starting quarterback for two seasons.
And sure enough the school got attention, though not always the kind it wanted.
“I got death threats and hate mail,” coach Adolphus Matthews said. “We took a lot of crap from newspapers around the country. Papers from Salem, Oregon to St. Petersburg, Fla. just killed us.”
There was some initial campus protest and complaint and a few football opponents took issue, as well.
“There were some teams we played last year — like, I believe, Nassau and Erie (both New York schools) — where a guy or two afterward said stuff like ‘I’m not gonna shake your hand. You’re a rapist.’ Another guy stomped around and said, ‘I’m gonna find him and whoop him.’
“Trent just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking.”
As for the Harley-riding coach, he said he was unfazed by the threats.
“Look, I’m probably the only gun-packing coach you’re gonna find,” Matthews laughed. “But then I’m the police chief here, too.
“I just completed my 32nd year as a cop. Before this I was a police officer outside of Sandusky. I’ve been on drug task forces, worked undercover and I was a SWAT team commander. I wasn’t intimidated.
“I used to ride with guys I put in prison. But I never thought I was bigger or better than anybody else. And when those guys got out, I was one of the first to say, ‘Hey, give ‘em a shot.’ I’d try to help them get a job. Everybody deserves a second chance.
“Now I didn’t know Trent from Adam. He hadn’t played football since he was a freshman in high school. They arrested him the first day of two-a-days as a sophomore.
“But I liked what I saw on our field and I told him, ‘If you come in here and do your school work and do everything you’re supposed to do, you’ll be fine. But if you’re gonna be an ass——, I’ll be the first person to pack your crap up and throw you off my campus.’ ”
To prepare everyone, Hocking College president Betty Young wrote this in a campus-wide email:
“Second chances do not excuse or defend previous behavior. There are a lot of second-chance stories at every community college. Trenton’s story is just one. His path will be challenging, but many of our students face challenges and they overcome them to reach success. It is up to him to determine what to do with this opportunity.”
Classified as a Tier II (medium) sex offender, Mays must register once a year for a decade. He was not permitted to live on the Hocking College campus.
“We didn’t have any issues with Trent,” Matthews said. “He was very professional. The kids respected him and he became our team captain. I trusted him.”
He said some of the detractors on campus even embraced Mays after a while.
“Central State is going to love the kid,” Matthews said.
As for what the Marauders’ brass is thinking, they’re not saying — at least publicly.
Through a university spokesman, both athletics director Jahan Culbreath and coach Cedric Pearl declined repeated requests for an interview on Mays becoming a Marauder.
Media kept at bay