Smart's release of Demery praised by Friday speaker Brenda Tracy
D’Antne Demery is no longer a part of the Georgia football program.
Sunday afternoon, head coach Kirby Smart rescinded the scholarship of the incoming freshman following his arrest Saturday night on charges of simple battery and criminal trespass-damaged property in downtown Athens.
The news was music to the ears of Brenda Tracy, a member of the NCAA’s Committee to Combat Sexual Violence, a registered nurse and rape survivor who travels the country speaking to football programs, trying to get the message across that sexual and domestic violence is not be tolerated on college campuses.
Friday, she spoke to the Bulldog football team about this very subject and earlier Sunday called on Smart to rescind the scholarship to Demery.
“This is great news. I appreciate Coach Kirby’s swift action on this issue,” Tracy told UGASports.com. “Releasing Demery from his scholarship is sending the message that violence will not be tolerated at UGA. I applaud Coach Kirby and I am grateful for his leadership.”
Tracy met with the Bulldog football team on Friday, after meeting with programs at Stanford and Arizona State earlier last week.
Neither Demery, not any of Georgia’s incoming freshmen, or recruits, attended the Friday meeting with Tracy.
“Everybody paid attention and my message was well-received by the coaches and players. I got lots of hugs, handshakes and thanks at the end from the players. It was a good visit,” she said. “I didn’t have any issues at all with anything, I felt like they understood what I was trying to say.”
Smart’s quick action indicated that was certainly the case.
“It’s an epidemic. It’s grown in size with women on college campuses who have experienced some sort of sexual assault or a rape and it’s probably 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 that have experienced domestic type violence, dating, stalking, that kind of thing,” Tracy said. “Even in high school, the rate is 1 in 3 girls will experience some sort of dating violence, stalking, personal violence so it is an epidemic in our country and there is this dynamic within athletics that we tend to protect the perpetrator and excuse their behavior when this happens and we really need to stop doing that. We’re sending dangerous message to the rest of our society that this behavior is OK.”
Demery was in Athens Saturday, along with Georgia’s other incoming freshmen, and was introduced to fans during Saturday’s G-Day game.
A former four-star performer with Brunswick High, Demery was one of six offensive linemen signed by the Bulldogs last February.
According to information provided UGASports.com by Athens Clarke-County police, officers were sent to a local Waffle House at 9:15 after it was reported that a black male was strangling a female.
The information from police stated further that neither person were there when officers arrived, but police soon received a 911 call saying that a female subject wanted to press charges against Demery, who were each contacted at the Boars Head bar downtown. At that time, she and Demery got into an argument. The female started to walk away and Demery said "if you walk away, I’ma show you."
At that time, police say that Demery grabbed the back of the female's neck and pushed her against a wall, clutching her by the back of her neck.
Police also said that Demery "threw her, causing her glasses to fall off, causing her phone to fall out of her hand, causing it to hit the ground which resulted in a crack to the screen."
Demery admitted to having physical contact with the woman, who said he had been physically violent with her in the past.