UT to handle discipline for convicted athlete

1/24/2004

A University of Toledo football player who was convicted of underage drinking and disorderly conduct in Defiance, Ohio, will be disciplined internally, a university official said yesterday.

Paul Helgren, an assistant athletic director for UT, said football Coach Tom Amstutz met with inside linebacker Brock Dodrill, 20, of Toledo, and decided that discipline would be handled privately.

Mr. Dodrill pleaded no contest on Monday to the charges, which stem from an egg-throwing incident in the early morning hours of Dec. 27. Police said they received a call of two men throwing eggs at cars on South Clinton Street. When they arrived, they caught Mr. Dodrill, but a second man, Garrit Nixon, 20, of Defiance, ran and jumped into the Auglaize River. He is presumed to have drowned.

Police have said that Mr. Dodrill and Mr. Nixon, as well as other local youths, were drinking earlier at a party hosted by David Schmenk, 21. Mr. Schmenk received 10 days of jail time for supplying the alcohol.