Marshall Runs the Patriots

This past football season in Central Georgia, football fans across the state were introduced to an extremely talented athlete on the mission of winning his first state championship.

Nick Marshall, junior quarterback for the Wilcox County Patriots, ran and passed his way through Class A competition, in his coming out party of sorts, placing his name in the mouths of sporting fanatics young and old.

This past December in the Georgia Dome, in front of the state; on-line and on air, Marshall rallied his troops to win that elusive state championship over Savannah Christian, finishing the season with nearly 3,000 passing yards and 32 touchdowns.

Now here it is over a month later, the shoulder pads are stowed away. The cleats have been mothballed and replaced with high top sneakers and a head band substitutes for that Riddell helmet.

His battlegrounds of gridiron proportions outlined in chalk are now hardwood floors stained with polyurethane.

This Patriot is still a field general, sharing the ball with teammates, but is equally if not more impressive playing the game of basketball.

In an 8 day stretch in January, the 6'2" guard posted 48 points against Fitzgerald, 32 points over Turner County, 29 points defeating Montgomery County and 25 points in a loss to Dooly County.

He scores from the outside, slashes on the inside. Plays defense aggressively and dunks even more so.

During the Jan 22, game against Dooly County in Vienna, Marshall took a loose ball near the top of the key, dribbled 3 steps and gave a one handed jam to the rim all in the opening seconds of the game. The slam sent the opposing fans into a frenzy while his traveling faithful watched with their usual amazement.

With a year-and-a-half still to go in high school, Marshall is fielding D-1 offers in both basketball and football from all over the country including Georgia, Mississippi State and Florida State,to name just a few.

I'm just excited that we don't have to worry about Marshall leaving Wilcox early for the pros. We all get a chance to marvel at the young athletic phenom from Rochelle who plays the QB position as cool as he does point guard, while helping Rochelle become a mainstay on the map of high school athletics.