Ex-Deep Creek football player gets 4 years for robbery

Orlando Barrow was seeking a second chance as a football player when he transferred to Norfolk State last fall after being dismissed from Bowling Green.

While Norfolk State provided a reprieve, a judge in Ohio on Tuesday would not. Instead, the Deep Creek High School graduate was sentenced to four years in prison for robbery and burglary.

Barrow, 20, had pled guilty in November to the third-degree felonies stemming from a home invasion on June 2 in Bowling Green, Ohio. He and two other men were accused of breaking into the apartment of several university foreign-exchange students, demanding money and leaving after ransacking the place.

Nothing was taken, but Barrow brandished a fake gun.

Barrow's attorney, Scott Coon, asked for probation, but Wood County Common Pleas Judge Reeve Kelsey followed the recommendation of prosecutor Paul Dobson who asked for the four-year sentence.

NSU coach Pete Adrian was stunned.

Barrow, a defensive lineman who graduated from Deep Creek in 2006, had enrolled at NSU in August as a nonscholarship student and practiced with the football team all fall. He carried a 2.8 GPA for the fall semester, and Adrian was expecting him to start for the Spartans in 2009.

"It's a tragedy," Adrian said. "This kid did everything that he had to do to make up for what he did. His dad is a police officer; his mom is a teacher and his grandmother taught here. I can't believe it. He planned to be back here this week for class."

According to the Toledo Blade, Barrow's father, Ray, told the court, "I believe Orlando has learned from his behaviors and has tried to do everything in his will to make a difference, not only in his life but other young people's lives."

Dobson countered, noting that the penalty is "what we do to someone who is not a football player and did exactly what he did."

Dobson said the action of the men left the three victims traumatized. They left school and at least two returned to their home countries.

Calls to Dobson and Coon were not returned Wednesday afternoon.

Barrow had already agreed to testify against co-defendant Jacob Hardwick, another Bowling Green defensive lineman dismissed who graduated from Ocean Lakes High School in 2004.

Hardwick, 22, a former Dolphins captain, is set to go to trial next month.

Adrian said he broke the news to the NSU players late Tuesday during a team meeting and used it as a cautionary tale.

"It only takes a second to screw up and a lifetime to pay for it," he said. "This was a good, solid kid who made a mistake."

Running back DeAngelo Branche said the team had trouble digesting the news because Barrow was well liked.

"For the judge to give him that for a first offense; he made a mistake. The judge took someone's future away," Branche said.

"You just have to look at that and learn."

Vicki L. Friedman, (757) 477-6874, Vicki L120@cox.net