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Bloomingdale mourns former star Smalling

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By SARAH HOYE and NICK WILLIAMS

shoye@tampatrib.com nwilliams@tampatrib.com

Published: November 4, 2009

Josh Chapin knew the kid playing high school basketball for him was something special.

Theo Smalling had it all - size, speed, strength and skill. And toughness to spare.

"He was one of the best I've had in my seven years as coach," said Chapin, who coached Smalling at Bloomingdale High from 2002 to 2006. "He was my first class. I had him for four years. He was my first Division I player. He's probably the toughest kid I ever coached."

The last time Chapin spoke to Smalling was Oct. 23, when he called to wish his former student happy birthday. Smalling was looking forward to Hampton's game against the University of South Florida on Dec. 2.

Two days later, Chapin was talking to Smalling's grieving mother. Her son had been shot in the stomach in Virginia.

Theo Smalling, who loved basketball more than anything else, the kid who scored 1,239 points at Bloomingdale, who was the starting center at Hampton University in Virginia, died Oct. 26. He was 22.

"It's a tragic accident to happen to such as a fine person," said Chapin, now an assistant principal at Brandon High School. Tampa "lost a great person; to see someone with so much potential go tragically is a great loss for not only this community, but also Virginia."

Police say Smalling was shot in the abdomen shortly after midnight Oct. 24 in the parking lot of a nightclub after another man mishandled a firearm. Police have charged 21-year-old Dominique Devon Smith with reckless handling of a firearm, a misdemeanor.

"There is nothing to indicate that there was any animosity between the two," said Cpl. Paula Ensley, Hampton Police spokeswoman. "We do know that they were known to each other. He (Smith) is being cooperative."

Prosecutors in Hampton will have to determine whether to file manslaughter or murder charges in the accidental shooting, the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., reported. Police have so far treated the incident as an accident.

HU basketball coach Ed Joyner called Smalling's death a devastating loss. Hampton President William R. Harvey described Smalling as a model student-athlete.

Smalling's family was at his bedside in Newport News when he died.

WFLA reporter Jennifer Leigh contributed to this report. Reporter Nick Williams can be reached at (813) 259-7851. Reporter Sarah Hoye can be reached at (813) 259-7832.

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