THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260147
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: OPERATION ACC
Seventh stop on a nine-day tour of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLEMSON, S.C. LENGTH: 86 lines
Everybody is looking for a deal, and it can seem that someone is throwing one at you every minute.
At shopping centers and malls, hucksters are jamming deals in your face that they say you can't refuse.
Most of them can be refused easily.
But earlier this summer, Clemson running back Raymond Priester heard one that sounded good.
Too good, he now admits.
Priester was entering a student center when someone asked if he wanted a sweet deal on a telephone card that was good any time of the day to any number in the world.
``How much?'' asked Priester.
Twenty bucks, he was told, so Priester dug into the pockets of his jeans and came up with the money.
In the next two months, he used the number on the card only six times for calls that amounted to $25.
This was earlier this summer, just as Priester was going home to Allendale, S.C.
When he returned to campus, he was told the police wanted to talk to him. The card number Priester bought had been stolen.
Suddenly, the broad-shouldered young man who broke seven Clemson records and led the ACC in rushing last year with 1,322 yards was in the headlines for less honorable reason.
``Scams like the one he (Priester) got lured into are frequent on campuses,'' Clemson coach Tommy West said. ``But the others don't make headlines.''
Most disturbing to Priester was that he was mentioned in media stories that included more serious charges against other Clemson athletes during the summer.
``Whenever a lot is going on and you do a little, it kinda adds to the fire,'' Priester told writers on the ACC tour Sunday.
Looking back, Priester admits he should have known better than to have purchased the number.
``I should have been smarter,'' he said. ``But I didn't think I was doing anything wrong. It just sounded like a good deal.''
West said it is clear to him Priester was guilty of only making an honest mistake.
``If he was doing something wrong, he would have run up more than a $25 bill in two months. My wife can run up that much in two hours,'' West said.
But, Priester was not allowed to simply pay back the $25 and get on with being a big-time college football player.
He was arrested, so he applied for pre-trial intervention since he had never been in trouble previously. He accepted a penalty of doing community service.
Priester, a smiling, easygoing young man off the field, has taken the sour experience philsophically.
``You have to think about everything you do,'' he said. ``What happened to me could happen to anyone. I've told my teammates they have to examine every move they make.''
Priester is not resentful toward the media for making the incident seem more than it was.
``It is like when you are in high school and bring home four A's and one F,'' he said. ``Your mom is going to make a bigger deal out of that F than she is those four A's.''
West said inital stories indicated Priester was deeply involved in fraud, instead of being a victim.
``When the facts came out, the clouds weren't as dark as the media had made them appear to be,'' he said.
It is fortunate for West and his football program that they weren't.
West already had lost two players, receiver Antwuan Wyatt and running back Anthony Downs, who were dismissed from school after being charged with intent to distribute illegal drugs. Two other running backs transferred.
``We don't have the depth we thought we would, especially at tailback,'' said West, whose Tigers open the season Saturday against ACC rival North Carolina.
The shortage has prompted West to move former Kempsville High School star Tony DeSue from linebacker back to tailback, his original position.
Priester said he did not allow his unpleasant summer experience to distract him from getting ready for the season.
``My mind is on football and playing North Carolina in that first game,'' Priester said. ``It is a pretty big game. No one wants to start off the season with a loss.'' MEMO: Coming Tuesday: Georgia Tech by CNB