THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220608
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JERRY RATCLIFFE, CHARLOTTESVILLE DAILY PROGRESS
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: CHARLOTTESVILLE
Almost any method to support his $100-a-day habit - lies, schemes, check forgery - were acceptable to the former University of Virginia basketball co-captain once the money ran out late last year.
{REST} At age 35, life had become too difficult for Jefferson. Overwhelmed with his teaching and basketball coaching responsibilities at E.C. Glass High School, domestic problems and a lifelong inability to properly express his emotions, Jefferson drifted toward drugs in the summer of 1992.
His desperation hit bottom a week before Thanksgiving last year when he robbed a woman in front of a Lynchburg grocery store.
``I was depressed when I woke up the day of the robbery, so I started drinking and using drugs,'' Jefferson said in an interview. He currently is working as a paralegal for a Charlottesville law firm as part of the work-release program at the area's security complex.
``I had tried to turn myself in a couple of times in Lynchburg for forging checks, but they didn't have the paper work ready. The robbery wasn't predetermined,'' Jefferson said. ``Boredom is the devil's playground.''
Hanging out in front of a Food Lion, Jefferson marked his target.
``I saw the lady come out of the store, saw her pocketbook on her shoulder, ran up behind her real quick, took the pocketbook off her shoulder and ran.''
When he got back to an associate's house and opened the purse, there was only four dollars inside.
``Four dollars . . . four dollars,'' Jefferson said, shaking his head. ``I didn't hurt the lady, but I was guilty. I had lowered myself to purse-snatching from a lady. . . . There I was, I had committed a felony in order to get drugs.
``This time, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.''
Jefferson knew it was only a matter of time before the police caught up with him. The next morning, he turned himself in.
``I think that was the biggest step I took, because at that point I was running away from my addiction, my problems,'' he said. ``I told myself, `I have to stop running and face this like a man.' I could have kept running, but I was tired and wanted to get some help.''
From the moment he began using drugs the year before, he had been living a lie.
Recruited out of Covington by former Virginia coach Terry Holland in 1976, Jefferson was the state's Group A scoring champion and senior class vice president. He could play either guard or small forward, coming off the bench to give the team a lift. He lettered four times and was co-captain with Mike Owens in 1980, when freshman Ralph Sampson led Virginia to the NIT championship.
After graduating from U.Va., he spent the next nine years in Washington and Northern Virginia, working in real estate and the mortgage banking business.
He returned to Charlottesville in August 1989 to begin work on a master's degree. A year later, he got a call from the Lynchburg city school system. With no formal coaching experience, Jefferson was offered the head basketball coaching job at E.C. Glass and a position teaching history.
The pressure of finishing his schooling while working as a novice teacher and novice coach was immense. ``I overloaded myself with responsibility,'' he said.
During the summer of 1992, he began hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Growing up in Covington, his only experience with drugs or alcohol was a couple of beers with the guys. He once tried to play a pickup basketball game after two beers, and realized that the two didn't mix.
He had been offered drugs many times between his days in Covington and Lynchburg, but wasn't interested. Jefferson remembers how weak he was the day he gave in.
``I smoked crack cocaine, and the first time it really didn't do anything for me. But after things didn't change in my personal life, I began to go back to the drug. It becomes psychologically addictive,'' he said.
There were times when he would stop for a week or two, but always gravitated back to the crack cocaine.
``That's the insanity of the disease. You get off it for a couple of weeks and tell yourself that you're not an addict. But really you are an addict,'' Jefferson said.
By the end of January 1993, Jefferson had resigned from E.C. Glass, citing health problems. He had trouble looking at himself in the morning and even more trouble looking his students and athletes in the eyes each day.
``Here I was, going into the classroom and onto the basketball floor, telling kids what they should or shouldn't be doing. I was doing what I told them not to do. It was tearing me up. I was supposed to be their role model. Instead, I was a hypocrite.''
He tried to hide his problem but after a while, people knew that Jefferson was in trouble.
Jefferson knows he'll be a lifelong recovering addict, but he also knows things could be worse. He could have gotten 40 years. He got 10, all but 90 days suspended. Because he works at the security complex at night, buffing floors, he can cut his jail time in half and may be out by the first week of July.
``I'm very grateful where I am,'' he said. ``If people hadn't cared about me, I might still be running from my problems. I could be dead by now.''
Instead, Jefferson will be working at U.Va. coach Jeff Jones' summer basketball camps, working with kids again for the first time since January 1993. He hopes that Jones, an old teammate, will set aside a few minutes so Jefferson can talk to the kids about his experience.
Jefferson has also arranged to go back to Covington and speak about his ordeal with drugs and to return to E.C. Glass, where the Student Council is creating a video about drug abuse. Jefferson said he believes his input will help.
He has seen a few of his former Glass basketball players from time to time since he was arrested and one of them came to his sentencing.
``I know a lot of them are still very disappointed in me, but people make mistakes and as they get on with their lives, they will realize that,'' he said.
At summer's end, Jefferson will work as an intern in Davidson's athletic department at coach Terry Holland's urging. From there, he will put his life back together. He wants to return to education, though he realizes his record presents a possible roadblock.
``I want to tell anyone, everyone who is tempted to pick up that first joint or smoke cocaine for the first time to stop. Don't do it. In a year's time, it took me from the top and brought me to my knees, robbing a lady of four dollars. Don't do it.''
by CNB