VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Three young men say they bought one-way tickets to Virginia Beach after they were promised their dream of playing college football would be fulfilled, according to an exclusive report from TEGNA partner WVEC in Virginia.
Those dreams were shattered when they came to Virginia Beach and realized that there was no football team, and the college they were promised didn’t exist at all.
“So we came out here and this is what it was, we came to his house,” said Bernard Walker.
Walker, along with his friends Keishay Harvey and Robert Brown said they first heard from Willie Williamson when he contacted them about playing football at a college in Virginia Beach.
“He was running Redemption Christian College, we were under the impression that it was this big thing. He made it seem like, you know, the college is really known in the area, we get a lot of people there, a lot of support from churches, and everything like that,” explained Walker.
But the college, as it turns out, is not at all what Walker and his friends expected.
Walker says they had to sleep on the man’s floor after they arrived to Virginia Beach. That is when they said they began raising red flags.
“I asked them, I said where is the school at, the school is wherever you are at, it’s an online school, we are like online, we were under the impression that we are going to be in a classroom, dorm rooms,” said Walker.
Virginia Beach police officers came to investigate the situation, but say they found no criminal activity.
13News Now reached out to Mr. Williamson for comment. He defended his organization over the phone.
“What we did, there’s Century International College, we have a program, and we partnered with them and they are our sister school, we have an articulation agreement, so everybody who wants to come down, I just brought other kids down here, I’m still bringing kids here, so you publicize it,” he said.
Mr. Williamson said he paid for travel fare home for the three young men.
Police said the case was handed over to The Economic Crime Unit. This unit handles cases of identity theft,embezzlement, larceny related to check & credit card fraud, computer crime & fraud, obtaining by false pretense, bad checks, forgery, construction fraud, bigamy, perjury, fail to return rental property, and counterfeit US currency and checks.
Well when it comes to higher education and Collegiate athletics Redemption Christian College probably falls to the very bottom of the list. Did these kids get tricked out of money and a missed first fall season of college? Sure. But If you go on the website for 1 second and think that this is a legitimate school, you’re a moron that doesn’t deserve higher education and the college party life. The website looks like it was made on the worst wordpress site ever. Shit this website is better than theirs. I mean getting tricked and persuading them that they should go there for education is one thing but using the football angle? Thats absolutely preposterous. At some point you would think their coaches, school administrators, friends, family members, the fact that “Redemption Christian College” has never been one of the teams playing on the Saturday football slate in the Fall, would clue these kids on the fact that this school is faker than the South Harmon Institute of Technology. I mean the fact that these guys couldn’t google this place and address and see that it was some run down 1 story house is really beyond me and the fact that they even spent the night there on some guys floor is ridiculous. I mean yea i don’t know what a mans suppose to do at that point being duped out of a major life decision, but the answer is definitely not sleeping on the floors of said scam. Any person that can misread a situation like this can’t be trusted on the field.
Dragon Slayer is a ridiculous name for a football team.
The Ugly Orange 