Drc..dodge..players Can Talk Freely, Opposing Hs Coaches

[OldTimer]

Football: Dodge: Players can talk freely

Other coaches debunk recent charges of racism

11:54 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas head coach Todd Dodge said Wednesday that he wants his players to feel free to talk about how they are treated by his coaches as an NAACP official prepared to take statements from players regarding race relations with UNT's staff.

The meeting was prompted by a complaint filed by suspended junior defensive back Dominique Green.

Dodge suspended Green on Sunday following an incident on UNT's sideline during a loss to Middle Tennessee on Saturday. Green said he was suspended for saying "We are from the hood." Dodge said Green was insubordinate toward the coaching staff and used inappropriate language. Sophomore defensive back Desmon Chatman, who was suspended earlier in the season, joined the complaint on Tuesday.

Both contend that there is an overall pattern of racial bias among UNT's coaches.

UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said he is looking into the situation. Villarreal said Tuesday that he has never heard of any racial problems on the team before the complaint was filed.

"There is media attention on it right now and I want all of the players on my football team to feel very comfortable if someone from the media asks them a question about me, my staff, what our situation is on our team or how they are treated," Dodge said. "I want them to feel 100 percent open to visit any way they want to with anybody."

Dodge said the situation involving Green was a matter of a coach trying to correct a player on the sideline.

"I am not naïve enough to think that foul language is not going to be used, but when it is, I am not going to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye and my coaches are not, either," Dodge said. "We are going to tell them that is not appropriate and let’s redirect it."

NAACP official Ericka Cain said Wednesday that she will be in Denton today and has arranged a time and place to meet with any UNT players who want to come forward.

Cain said the meeting is only open to players.

Only Green and Chatman had come forward to join the complaint as of Wednesday night.

"I am not surprised by it," Dodge said of Chatman joining the complaint. "It [Chatman's suspension] was a matter of discipline. It was a matter of redirection. It doesn't have anything to do with the color of anyone's skin."

Both Green and Chatman are still on scholarship.

Cain said she will take the complaint to UNT's administration if she finds merit in the players' charges.

Several of Dodge's former peers in the high school coaching ranks were shocked by allegations of racism on the former Southlake Carroll coach's staff. Dodge was widely considered to be among the top high school coaches in the country when he came to UNT from Carroll, where he won four state titles in his last five seasons and built an impeccable reputation.

"I have known coach Dodge since he was the quarterbacks coach at McKinney [1988-92]," Denton ISD athletic director Ken Purcell said. "I have never known him to have trouble with his players. He is an upstanding man and his staff is the same way."

UNT Hall of Fame quarterback Mitch Maher played for Dodge while he was the passing game coordinator at UNT from 1992-93 and was a teammate of UNT assistant Clayton George.

"Neither one of those guys have ever done anything that would call their character into question," Maher said. "I just hate that it is being called into question now. I have known those guys a long time and there has never been an indication that they are racist."

Richland head coach Gene Wier faced Dodge's Southlake teams and also took on George's teams while the UNT assistant was the head coach at Haltom and Dallas Hillcrest.

"I thought the world of him," Wier said of George. "They had a lot of minority kids and did a great job with them, and coach Dodge is a class act. I would be comfortable with any of my kids going there."

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.