A Barron Collier High School football coach has been arrested on an outstanding warrant out of Jacksonville.
But Cougars head coach Mark Ivey said the wrong man was arrested.
Johnny Drummond Smith, 38, the Cougars’ defensive coordinator, was arrested Monday night by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office on a fugitive from justice warrant on a domestic battery charge from December 2008.
Ivey, however, said Smith never was in Jacksonville at that time and “doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.”
“He’s done nothing wrong and now his name’s been dragged through the ringer,” said Ivey, who played with Smith at Appalachian State in the 1990s and has coached with him for eight years. “He’s a victim of confusion within the system.”
Ryan Schwartz, a communications specialist with the Collier County School District, said Smith has been placed on leave while the district conducts an investigation.
Schwartz said Smith was hired by the district on Jan. 26, 2009 and is an exceptional student education teacher at Barron Collier. As with all employees the district hires, Schwartz said Smith passed federal and state criminal background checks.
“We’re trusting some pretty reputable sources with the FBI and the FDLE,” Schwartz said. “We can only go with what they show.”
Smith, a former All-State running back at Immokalee High School, led the state with 1,956 rushing yards as a senior in 1989.
Smith previously worked as a member of Ivey’s coaching staff at Cypress Lake High School from 2002-06.
Barron Collier (9-1) will host South Fort Myers (9-1) in a Region 3A-3 quarterfinal Friday.
– Dan DeLuca
