When Dominic Gicinto got the news, all he could do was smile. His mother, Anita Gicinto, began to cry. Missouri assistant coach Andy Hill appeared confused.
Dominic, then a senior at Raytown high school on the outskirts of Kansas City, was wrapping up an official visit to Missouri. The wide receiver prospect had grown up a Missouri fan — he attended his first camp at the university when he was about seven years old — but, for much of his life, the odds of him actually going to school there seemed remote. Anita, a single mother of four children, had been frank with Dominic and told him at a young age that she couldn’t afford to pay tuition. If he wanted to go to college, he’d have to earn a full scholarship. Dominic had long viewed football as his path to college, but for much of his high school career, coaches and talent evaluators had told the 5-foot-9 Dominic he was too short to play for a Division I college, much less an SEC school.
But on Dec. 3, 2017, head coach Barry Odom had just offered Dominic one of the final spots in Missouri’s 2018 recruiting class, and Dominic beamed as he told his mother and Hill the news. Anita burst into tears. Hill, Dominic’s primary recruiter and, at the time, the wide receivers coach, was happy as well; he knew how badly Dominic wanted to play at Missouri. But when Dominic said he hadn’t yet accepted the scholarship offer, Hill was a bit perplexed. Dominic remembers him asking, "You want to play for us, right?"
Yes.
Then go back in there and tell the big man.
That Dominic earned a spot on Missouri’s team in the first place is a testament to his self-confidence and determination. But the former two-star recruit hasn’t simply cheered from the sidelines during his freshman season. He’s appeared in nine of the team’s 10 games and caught 11 passes for 125 yards. Saturday, with two tight ends and a wide receiver out of the lineup against Vanderbilt, Dominic recorded four catches for a team-high 81 yards, including a 25-yard reception on a third down and three, which led to a touchdown. Late in the fourth quarter, he caught a 42-yard rope from Drew Lock that looked like it would set up a game-clinching score (Tucker McCann ultimately missed a 31-yard field goal on the drive). In the days since, his teammates and coaches have raved about Dominic’s readiness for the moment.
“That was almost like a game-winner right there,” offensive coordinator Derek Dooley said of the 42-yard catch. “So proud of him. We gotta keep playing him, and hopefully he’ll keep producing.”
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As is typical for a mother, Anita is Dominic’s biggest fan. She describes herself as “that mom at the 40-yard line that’s screaming at the top of her lungs” during games. Her pride is audible as she talks about the accomplishments of her son. But even Anita admits she’s surprised at how quickly Dominic has managed to make an impact playing on the same fields as the most coveted recruits in the country.
On the other hand, Anita says, she’s not surprised at all, because once Dominic makes up his mind to do something, he gets it done. In high school, Dominic spent hours every Saturday and Sunday at the Raytown football field. He would recruit teammates, players from rival high school Raytown South, and anyone else willing and able to throw a football to tag along as he put himself through drills and ran routes.
“Most kids in high school his age are going out partying, and my son’s worried about every Sunday, meeting a couple other players up at the field to practice outside of practice,” Anita said.
Dominic said his willingness to practice outside of practice stems from being told he wasn’t tall enough to play in college. It’s not that he carries a big chip on his shoulder, per se — at least in interviews, he doesn’t appear to fit the mold of the underrated athlete who clings to his detractors for motivation. Instead, his approach is more matter-of-fact.
“I was always the smallest kid on any team I ever played on, so I always had to work harder, try harder in everything I did,” Dominic said.
It was that determination that first caught the eye of the Missouri coaches. Dominic used it to show off the other attribute to set him apart: his speed.
During the summer before his senior year, Dominic attended a recruiting camp on Missouri’s campus. When prospects lined up to run the 40-yard dash, Dominic clocked a blazing time, somewhere around 4.4 seconds, according to wide receivers coach A.J. Ofodile. Then he got right back in line. He wanted to run again, to try to better his time. Odom took notice.
“He was cutting in line to go get another rep, which I kind of liked,” Odom said. “He didn’t want to come over and just stand on the sideline and watch everybody else work out, which a lot of guys do. He wanted to go earn it.”
Later that summer, Dominic did the same thing at the Memphis mega camp. He made sure he was the very first player to run the 40-yard dash, then any time another prospect ran a time under 4.5 seconds, he would get back in line. He wound up recording the fastest time at the camp, 4.39 seconds.
“You had 40 coaches over there with a watch on him,” Raytown head coach Logan Minnick said. “.So then when he runs through the line, all the coaches look at each other and then look at their watches and then all just kind of nod, like, wow.”
The Missouri coaches were among those impressed. Dominic had officially landed on their radar, but to earn a scholarship offer, the staff needed to see that speed translate to a game.
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Anita’s voice catches. She pauses and apologizes for crying. But as the subject turns to Minnick, who arrived at Raytown prior to Dominic’s senior season, she can’t help it.
Dominic didn’t earn much college attention during his first three years of high school in part because of his size, but in part because he didn’t contribute much statistically. He missed his entire sophomore year due to a shoulder injury, then, as a junior, he caught something like 30 passes all season. Minnick, though, remembered being struck by Dominic’s athleticism when he scouted Raytown as a coach at Kearney. Upon taking the Raytown job, Minnick quickly went about making Dominic the focal point of the offense.
“At times, I joked, I said, ‘You’re going to be Seabiscuit, because we’re going to ride the hell out of you,’” Minnick recalled. “His senior year, we unfortunately only got to play 10 games, but he had 85 catches in 10 games. So we forced it to him repeatedly.”
Dominic rose to the challenge. During the second game of the season, he exploded for 223 yards and two touchdowns on a whopping 15 catches. He followed it up with 14 catches for 284 yards and three touchdowns the next week. On the season, he topped 100 receiving yards seven times and scored 12 offensive touchdowns. Ofodile said Dominic’s production forced the coaching staff to pull the trigger and invite Dominic on an official visit.
“His junior film was good, but nowhere near what his senior campaign was, and sometimes those senior evals are the most accurate ones,” Ofodile said. “(Dominic) really continued to develop and ended up having a monster senior year.”
Missouri wasn’t the only school to ramp up its interest in Dominic. Eastern Kentucky, Arkansas State and Memphis had all offered him scholarships, and Anita, who admitted she knew little about the recruiting process, worried that Dominic was waiting too long for a Missouri offer. She feared the other schools would fill up their signing classes, leaving Dominic without a scholarship offer and without a college education. But Minnick communicated with the coaching staffs and assuaged her fears. She credits Minnick for not only showcasing Dominic’s ability on the field, but guiding the family through the recruiting process.
“After Saturday’s game, I wanted to grab Coach Minnick and hug him and tell him thank you so much for coming to Raytown and giving these boys a chance,” Anita said. “Because if he didn’t, I don’t know where my son would be.”
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After finishing a breakout senior season and committing to the school of his dreams, the typical high school senior might opt to relax for a few weeks. Not the kid who spent his weekends running routes. Shortly after Dominic committed to Missouri, Anita remembers getting a call from him, saying he had accumulated enough credit hours to graduate from high school early and he wanted to leave for college in a month.
“Selfishly, as a mom, I was like no, I don’t want you to go, that’s my baby,” Anita said. “But I think that was the most educated, intelligent decision that he’s made with his career so far.”
Dominic’s coaches agreed that enrolling in January played a pivotal role in his readiness to see the field as a true freshman. Dooley and Ofodile were new to their positions as well, so during spring practices, Dominic learned the route tree and playbook alongside returning players. When the rest of the freshman class began practice in August, Ofodile said, he often forgot Dominic was a first-year player.
The other factor that has set Dominic apart since he enrolled in college has been his confidence. Despite the frequent reminders about his size, Dominic said he never struggled to maintain faith in his ability. He credits Anita for instilling that mindset. “Dynamite comes in small packages,” she used to tell him.
Minnick said Dominic was so confident and competitive in high school that, when an opposing wide receiver was having a big game, he would ask the Raytown coaches to let him sub in at cornerback so he could guard the player one-on-one.
“We used to joke that he could be in a phone booth with a defensive back and he’d still come back to the huddle and tell the quarterback he was wide open,” Minnick said.
That level of assurance has not wavered as Dominic has stepped onto the college stage, and it’s allowed him to come through in some clutch moments. Of his 11 catches this season, five have moved the chains on third down. That doesn’t include the 42-yard grab against Vanderbilt.
“I think it comes from just his mindset going into games,” Lock said of Dominic’s knack for making timely catches. “It’s not necessarily he’s playing big-time college football in the SEC and making catches to ice the game. It’s just Dom playing football, Dom doing what he loves, Dom doing what he’s done since he was a little kid and not overthinking it.”
Dominic, indeed, views his success this season as more of what he’s done since he was a little kid. He offered no indication that his role has surprised him, saying he’s already put the Vanderbilt game out of his mind. He made it clear that he’s not just happy to be here; he wants to contribute as much as possible this season, and he wants to play football beyond college. Those aspirations, as well as whatever work Dominic has to put in to reach them, might surprise others, but to him, they’re just part of the plan.
“I will make sure that I produce and that I do help my team,” Dominic said.
Anita, on the other hand, has taken a bit more time to reflect on her son’s journey. She recognizes the unlikelihood of a poor, 5-foot-9 kid from Raytown not only paying for his education with a football scholarship, but playing for his dream school. In that sense, she’s surprised by Dominic's accomplishments, and she’s especially surprised that her son has made such an impact as a true freshman.
But then again, knowing Dominic, she’s not surprised at all.
“The one thing about my Dominic that I always say,” Anita said, her voice cracking once more, “He is one determined young man. He has seen our family struggle. He’s seen it all, let’s just say that. There are so many directions that my kids could have taken with their life, and I am so proud of him.”
