Casey Will Sit Out Football Season Due to SAT Score

Jerome Casey of Sylmar High, perhaps the Valley’s finest all-around football player last season, will not attend USC in the fall after failing to meet Proposition 48 requirements concerning the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Casey, a running back who also played middle linebacker and safety, accepted a scholarship in February on the condition that he score at least 700 on the test, the minimum required for athletic eligibility under Prop. 48.

“Of course it’s frustrating,” Casey said. “It’s just a test and to put it all on one test--I don’t think that’s right. But those are the rules.”

Casey said he was unsure about his next move pending a meeting, not yet scheduled, with USC Coach Larry Smith. But it is likely that he will enroll in a junior college in the fall and continue to take the SAT. He will not play football in the fall.

Provided he passes the test, he likely will enroll at USC under a scholarship that university officials indicated will be held for him. If all goes well, Casey said, that could be as soon as the spring semester.

Casey’s situation is reminiscent of that of Curtis Conway, a 1989 USC recruit out of Hawthorne High who also sat out his freshman year after failing to score the required 700 on the SAT. Conway attended junior college for a year and did not play football before passing the test. He is enrolling at USC for the fall semester as a sophomore.

Casey will lose a year of eligibility, but still plans on attending USC. Other schools--such as Washington State, Nebraska and Washington--recruited Casey, but the 5-foot-10, 180-pounder had his heart set on playing for the Trojans.

“I always imagined myself running on the field at the Coliseum,” he told The Times in February. “I grew up loving SC.”

As a senior, Casey, the East Valley League co-Player of the Year and a Times All-Valley selection, rushed for 1,447 yards, caught 14 passes for 378 yards and scored 26 touchdowns. He also led the team with 70 solo tackles.

Casey will play for the East in Friday night’s Daily News All-Star Game at Birmingham High.