Dobbins’ Sam Thomas reeling after being ruled ineligible: ‘It feels like I’m cursed’

Sam Thomas had grown accustomed to pain and heartache.

The Dobbins Tech senior was just 9 years old in 2014 when his best friend and cousin, 10-year-old Joseph Reed, was struck and killed by a carjacked vehicle along with Reed’s mother, Keisha Williams, and two more of her children.

Then in 2020, Thomas narrowly survived a gunshot wound to the stomach that forced doctors to remove a kidney.

As a junior, Thomas, who didn’t play high school basketball until his sophomore year, suffered a grisly leg fracture just before the state playoffs.

Then last week, Thomas, a 6-foot-2 guard who averages 6 points, was blindsided after learning he was ruled ineligible, per PIAA rules, because he is a fifth-year player.

In an instant, the 19-year-old learned that he was no longer part of the team he believes turned his life around, and that — because he played while ineligible — the Mustangs, who had been 15-7, had to forfeit their wins this season.

“I broke down more when I heard that than when I got shot and when I broke my leg, because there was nothing I could do,” said Thomas, sitting inside Dobbins’ gym recently as his now-former teammates prepared on the court.

“Low-key,” he added later, “I feel like a failure. I let my team down. I let everybody down. All of this happened because of me. If I could rewind and take myself away from this team, I would.”

The Mustangs’ season ended last week after a playoff loss to defending Public League champion Imhotep Charter.

League bylaws declare each team in the Pub’s top division eligible for the postseason, so Dobbins, despite the forfeits, was allowed in the playoffs, according to City of Basketball Love.

With the season now complete, Thomas must cope with losing the team that may have saved his life, navigate yet another traumatic event, and find a way forward in the aftermath of what may have started with an anonymous report by a rival coach in the Pub.

“I’d really want that person to feel my pain,” Thomas said. “I’d really sit down and make them hear everything [I’ve been through] and then ask them how they felt about that. How you feel about ending a young man’s career?”

It appears, however, that Thomas could continue his playing career in college.

Dobbins coach Derrick Stanton, who took over the program in 2020, said a few Division III teams have expressed interest.

Stanton and Thomas even recently met with one program’s coaches.

Perhaps that’s why Thomas believes, in spite of everything, he was fortunate to play at Dobbins.

“It made me a better person physically and mentally,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here today … if it didn’t make me change, make me view life more positively.”

Thomas started playing basketball in middle school but said he was too undisciplined and unfocused as a freshman at Dobbins in 2019.

“I was bad,” he said. “My first year, I was running around, going to other schools, fighting, doing X, Y, and Z.”

Academic struggles, he added, forced him to repeat ninth grade the following year.

That’s when Stanton, a 20-year Army veteran who retired as a major, was hired to teach physical education and coach basketball.

Thomas was a freshman in Stanton’s class during that pandemic-induced virtual year along with other players who are also now seniors.

When athletic director Jackie Castorino, who took over in August 2020, told Stanton about the ruling last week, he believed it was a mistake.

“I was shocked,” he said. “It was strange to me because I never thought to ask any of the kids if they had failed during their freshman year.”

PIAA rules state that a student’s sports eligibility ends once they have completed four straight years or eight consecutive semesters after eighth grade.

A student could appeal, however, which Stanton said he would have facilitated if he had known.

Given what Thomas has endured, Stanton said, he is confident Thomas would have been granted another year of eligibility.

Instead, Stanton had to tell Thomas the news last week.

“It was heartbreaking because I knew he’d be disappointed,” Stanton said. “The first thing he said was that he was looking forward to states …”

Last year, a fast-break layup in practice — just a few days before the PIAA playoffs — ended with Thomas’ crashing into a wall inside Dobbins’ gym.

A loud crack followed. Thomas had broken his tibia and fibula.

“My leg was mangled,” he said. “It was [bent] in an ‘L-formation.’”

In some ways, he said, recovering from the injury was more difficult than returning from the gunshot wound.

He wasn’t yet on the team in 2020 when he was shot while in the backseat of a car in West Philly.

Thomas declined to elaborate on the incident, but said the experience was terrifying. He said he still suffers from PTSD, especially when he’s alone.

“A lot of people don’t know what a bullet feels like,” he said. “You don’t want to know. Scary situation. All your memories flashing in your head while you’re awake. Your body starts feeling weird, starts burning.”

He exited the vehicle and banged on the door of a nearby house. Police arrived and whisked him to Penn Presbyterian Hospital.

“When I was on the stretcher, after they cut all my clothes off, that’s when I started fading away,” he said. “I really started fading away. I was really about to die.”

He awoke to the face of his father, Sam Thomas Sr.

Everything hurt. He was shot just above his belly button. Doctors said he was lucky the bullet didn’t hit his spine.

Staples held parts of him together. A colostomy bag hung from his abdomen.

Later, loud noises triggered fear, paranoia. Still, his love for basketball couldn’t be denied.

When his wounds healed, Thomas returned to the court. He even scored 22 points in a recreation league game in South Philly, he said, while wearing the colostomy bag.

It wasn’t painful, he said, he just had to be careful.

“Basketball was his life,” his mother, Rochelle Blackson, said in a phone interview. “He’s truly blessed because a lot of young kids don’t make it. I’m proud of him because he came a mighty long way.”

Friendships with players on Dobbins’ team and an opportunity from Stanton, Thomas said, made him try out as a sophomore.

Where would he be if he hadn’t?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I really don’t. Hopefully alive. Hopefully, in this crazy city.”

He dipped his head slightly and looked away when asked about unexpectedly losing his senior year.

“When I first heard, I cried my eyes out for like 20 minutes,” he said.

“It feels like I’m cursed, if I’m being real,” he continued. “It’s something new every year. Can never catch a break. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. It’s just heartbreaking.”

Stanton said the team handled the news well and never blamed Thomas.

Instead, Stanton feels responsible.

Several sources within and around the Pub believe a rival coach or assistant coach in the league reported Dobbins to district officials.

Asked what he would say to that person, Stanton didn’t hesitate.

“To be honest, I take so much responsibility for it that I wouldn’t want to be negative toward that person,” he said. “I’ve had people tell me it was this person or that person. Since I’ve moved back from New York, I’ve gotten nothing but love from the basketball community in the city and I don’t want to think that anybody would do that. So I try to just accept my responsibility for it …”

Thomas said he appreciates the loyalty from his coach and teammates. His focus now is on moving forward.

“I’m going to be who I am regardless,” he said. “I’ll always be the energetic, playful, diamond-in-the-rough Sam. I feel like I’m a diamond. I keep getting hurt, but I keep shining.”