DaytonDailyNews.com

By Christine Vasconez and Mike Wagner
Dayton Daily News

Two Yugoslavian basketball players are currently suspended from Oberlin College while the Ohio school investigates allegations that they raped a fellow student.

Both athletes arrived in the United States after paying middlemen to place them in high schools. Criminal charges against them were dropped in October, but they now face possible disciplinary action by the school.

Djordje Eremic, a 6-foot-4-inch junior from Zrenjanin, Yugoslavia, is Oberlin College’s returning lead scorer. Bosko Tomasevic of Belgrade is a 6-foot-8-inch first-year player.

"They are not members of the campus. They are not students at the college and not currently eligible to play," Oberlin’s Athletic Director Michael Muska said.

The college suspended Eremic and Tomasevic after they were arrested on rape charges by Oberlin city police on Sept. 25. They were booked into the Lorain County Jail on $50,000 bond.

However, the criminal case was dismissed Oct. 31 during a preliminary hearing by Oberlin Municipal Court Judge Martin Heberling, who stated that there was a lack of evidence to take the case to a grand jury.

A sophomore student accused Eremic and Tomasevic of holding her against her will in Eremic’s dormitory and forcing her to perform sexual acts after a Sept. 22 drinking party, according to Oberlin police records.

Two female students at the party testified that the alleged victim was flirting with Tomasevic during the party, police records show.

Neither basketball player would comment on the current allegations, except to say they hope to be reinstated at Oberlin College.

Eremic, an engineering major, had returned to Oberlin for fall classes several weeks before the alleged incident occurred. He spent most of the summer visiting his family in Yugoslavia.

His parents, Slavica and Slobodan Eremic, paid middleman Vladimir Bosnjak several hundred dollars in 1999 to find their son an American high school where he could play basketball.

They said Bosnjak lined up a high school: Holly Hill-Roberts in Holly Hill, S.C. Bosnjak then arranged an exchange program to finalize paperwork and obtain a student visa, they said.

"I think for the whole thing it was $5,000," said Slavica Eremic, the student's mother. "That’s the sad truth that we had to borrow. It wasn’t a rational decision, but we didn’t think we should be picky."

During an interview in their home in Zrenjanin, the Eremics said they sold a small vineyard and a plum and cherry tree grove to pay off the loan.

"Vlado (Bosnjak) had him try out in Belgrade so the high school coach would know about his skills," said Slavica Eremic, who earns several hundred dollars a month as a doctor. "Then Vlado gave our phone (number) to the coach at the high school."

High schools generally are not allowed to recruit athletes through middlemen. School officials at Holly Hill-Roberts could not be reached for comment.

Eremic averaged 15 points per game at the South Carolina school and helped the team win the state high school basketball championship in 1999. The high school basketball coach recommended Oberlin College. The school doesn't offer athletic scholarships, but Eremic has several need-based loans and grants.

Like Eremic, Tomasevic turned to a middleman to funnel him to a high school in the United States.

During the summer of 1999, Tomasevic contacted a former associate of Bosnjak’s — a Minnesota woman who Bosnjak had worked with to place several athletes in American high schools.

From her home, Julie Lyon operates an exchange program that specializes in placing foreign athletes in high schools. However, her business violates high school athletic association recruiting rules in most states. Those rules prohibit a student from being placed at a school because of his or her athletic talent.

Tomasevic said friend Rade Dzambic, who now plays at Allen County Community College in Iola, Kan., recommended Lyon after she sent him to a South Carolina high school.

Tomasevic then provided his basketball statistics to a couple working for Lyon in Belgrade. He said his mother and father paid Lyon.

"My parents didn’t want to tell me the price," Tomasevic said. "They said it was a present for me, but it probably cost at least $2,000-$3,000. So I had to choose between a Homestead high school (in Florida) and Life Center Academy in New Jersey. I choose New Jersey because of the East Coast and more basketball competition."

Tomasevic was fortunate that he didn't go to the high school in Homestead, Fla. The Florida High School Activities Association expelled the school from competition after the 1999-2000 school year for illegally recruiting 11 international students to its basketball teams. Lyon placed most of those players at the school, according to the association.

Lyon broke off an interview with the Dayton Daily News, saying she wouldn't comment on any players she's helped. Life Center Academy basketball coach Darryl Gladden couldn't be reached.

Tomasevic played one year at Life Center Academy, a private school in Burlington, N.J., graduating in June of 2000.

He had hoped to attend Oberlin College in the fall, after the school was recommended by Lyon. But Oberlin didn't offer enough financial aid, so Tomasevic spent one year at McCook Community College in McCook, Neb. Oberlin's new basketball coach, Mike Cavey, began recruiting Tomasevic at the community college, and liked what he saw.

"He’s got height which is one thing we need and a big body," Cavey said. "We’re expecting him to step in and play big minutes."

But it's not clear whether Eremic and Tomasevic will even remain students at Oberlin.

A five-member panel will rule whether the students' behavior violated the school's code of conduct. Disciplinary penalties range from probation to expulsion. The school's president will ultimately decide if the students will be reinstated.

"They are in the process of gathering statements and deciding if they will proceed with a hearing and determine if there are any violations," said Oberlin College Director of Media Relations Scott Wargo.

[From the Dayton Daily News: 11.25.2001]