Three Palm Beach County players dismissed from Marshall football team

Wednesday, August 04, 2010
by Jeff Greer

Three former Palm Beach County football players were dismissed from the Marshall University football team on Wednesday, and one of them - Dwyer alum Mike Fleurizard - faces robbery charges.

Also let go were Glades Central graduate Antwon Chisholm and former Pahokee receiver Fred Pickett. All three were incoming freshmen.

Marshall coach Doc Holliday announced the dismissals just before the team's first training camp practice of the 2010 season, but Holliday did not say specifically why the three were dismissed.

"We have high expectations of our players and these three have not lived up to what we require of a Marshall University football player," said Holliday, who, as a first-year coach at the West Virginia school, had led a major recruiting push into Palm Beach County.

News of two separate weekend incidents involving Fleurizard - both alleged robberies - surfaced Wednesday. Chisholm is named in court documents detailing one of the incidents. Pickett is not mentioned in either.

A criminal complaint filed in the Cabell County Magistrate Court in Huntington, W.Va., detailed an incident on Saturday night in which Fleurizard, along with two other unidentified suspects, allegedly attacked a pizza delivery man.

The complaint said Fleurizard "knowingly and intentionally" threw the delivery man to the ground, kicked him in the face and held him down while two other males grabbed the food and $290 in cash. All three suspects fled the area, but the delivery man later identified Fleurizard in a photo lineup as the person who held him down and kicked him, according to the complaint.

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reported on its website that another alleged robbery took place the same night, linking Chisholm and Fleurizard to the robbery of a Papa's John's delivery man near Marshall's Huntington campus.

Marshall and Huntington police searched two dorm rooms on Monday afternoon, finding two Papa John's food boxes, two bottles of gin and a bag containing marijuana seeds, the Herald-Dispatch reported. Marshall police also have video of three suspects with Papa John's pizza boxes moments after the alleged robbery, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the Herald-Dispatch. .

It is unknown if any arrests have been made involving the Papa John's delivery man robbery.

None of the players could be reached for comment on Wednesday. Fleurizard was jailed on a $50,000 bond and has a preliminary court hearing on Aug. 13.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Pickett's father, Fred Pickett, Sr., said that he had no knowledge of his son getting arrested or being involved with either incident.

The elder Pickett did say that his son had missed some weight-lifting sessions and classes, prompting a concerned call home from a Marshall assistant coach, but he wasn't expecting his son's dismissal.

Pickett Sr. said he expected to hear from Holliday Wednesday night.

Fleurizard, a defensive tackle, said on Feb. 3, that he chose Marshall over Central Florida and Eastern Michigan "not only for what the school has to offer, but what the coach (Holliday) has to offer."

Dwyer coach Jack Daniels, who could not be reached Wednesday, said back in February about Fleurizard signing with Marshall: "Mike's really come from nothing, but he really turned it around. He needed something in his life to motivate him and give him direction."

Chisholm, a running back, was also a star basketball player at Glades Central. He was involved in a major brawl at the Mall at Wellington Green in 2009 and accused of pulling a knife on a security guard.

Pickett, a receiver and top-20 prospect, had decommitted from West Virginia to attend Marshall.

Pickett was expected to be in Marshall's rotation at slot receiver, Chisholm was expected to compete for playing time, and Fleurizard was expected to be redshirted, according to Herald-Dispatch .

Marshall has four other Palm Beach County natives on its 2010 roster.