North Carolina State University Athletics
Program Spotlight: Marcus Stone
9/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Pat Norris
Raleigh, N.C. - Every NC State football fan knows about the path Marcus Stone has traveled in his Red and White uniform. What you might not know about the senior from Steelton, Pa., is where his attitude and passion for the sport come from. Perhaps you don't know where his inspiration comes from and how the roots of his talents the rocket arm and soft hands developed from years of a close relationship with his older brother.
Dave Stone, who is five years older, was instrumental in getting Marcus started in football at age six. Marcus had life-threatening asthma that nearly ended his life when he was a toddler, but Dave pleaded with their mother to allow him to hit the gridiron.
"My mom had already made it up in her mind that there was no way that I would play football," Marcus said. "As I got older the asthma got better, which was when I was about six years old and when you start going out for little league. I was about to sign up and start soccer, but my brother begged my mom, and had me beg my mom, to let me play because he thought I would love it. I was always aggressive with him so he felt that football would be a good fit.
"I fell in love with football, the hitting and running all over the field. Ever since then I couldn’t stop. We were undefeated for like three straight years and it was great. I played quarterback just when we had to throw the ball, because at that age you just run and run."
During his time in little league and through middle school, Marcus enjoyed being a ball boy for Dave's football teams. Perhaps the biggest bond was that Marcus was more than a ball boy; he would also serve as Dave's interpreter.
"Dave always played quarterback and he was hearing impaired," Marcus said. "No coach would be willing to work with him and give him a shot. They don’t realize that he can have a normal conversation with you if you just speak clearly and look at him eye- to- eye. That is all it takes. He finally got a shot from a coach in his senior year, coach Jeff Weachter. Dave's senior year was awesome because Weachter was patient with him and wanted to give him a shot to play.
"I was in eighth grade at the time and was a ball boy all of those years and would always help, interpret, you could say. If the coaches need to say something to him, he can read my lips much better and I know partial sign to help get the point across real quick."
Dave wasn't the only Stone to benefit from Weachter's coaching. Marcus was fast approaching the ninth grade and his middle school didn't have football. Marcus stayed in shape by playing soccer but it wasn't long before Weachter approached Marcus about playing a position, surprisingly, that he had never really played. Quarterback.
"Coach asked me what position I wanted to play, and, to be honest with you, it didn't matter to me," Marcus said. "I’ve played everywhere, so I asked coach 'Where do you think I’ll have the best chance of starting?' Dave would be graduated when I was a freshman, and there was only one guy, a junior, on the team as a quarterback.
"Weachter asked if I ever considered playing quarterback like my brother, and he told me that I could compete for the job right out of the gate."
And he did. Marcus worked with Dave after Dave got out of high school practices for years, helping Marcus with the fundamentals of the quarterback position and three- and five-step drops.
"We started from there and whenever the both of us were at home we would work with me nonstop," Marcus said. "He would never let me sit on the couch."
After never playing quarterback until his freshman year at Bishop McDevitt, Marcus got the starting nod a week before the first game.
"Coach told me 'You earned it, worked hard and showed a lot of leadership,'" Marcus said. "My brother was excited for me."
With Marcus entrenched as a starter at Bishop McDevitt, Dave was busy in college as a quarterback at St. Francis.
"He was playing for St. Francis at the time," Marcus said of Dave. "He had a real good coach that would let an interpreter on the field to call the play. He started out there and sat behind another starter and then his chance came. The coach loved Dave and his time was coming as a starter. You should see him throw. Dave has a beautiful arm, a rocket."
With both brothers living their football dreams, a reality check, unfortunately, began to set in. Dave's hearing problems started to dampen the brightness of the brother's ambitions.
"He got his shot at quarterback and was doing really well," Marcus said. "Dave was coming back and was slated to start the next year but then that coach left. So what do you think happened? The new coach didn’t want anything to do with a hearing-impaired quarterback, and Dave was forced to transfer to Millersville College."
Dave had a fresh start and another coach that was willing to give him a shot. After all, he was a talented quarterback who thrived in high school and could have success at the college level with the right opportunity, or any opportunity.
"Millersville's coach gets an opportunity to go to the NFL and a new coach comes in," Marcus recounts. "Dave reports to camp and the new coach looks at him and basically says, 'What's this kid doing here' and just sends him home. It crushed him and it hurt me, too, like you would never believe."
Marcus was discouraged, but he now had the motivation and desire to succeed on the field. If his brother wouldn't be given the opportunity to live his dreams, then Marcus would work that much harder, for the both of them.
"I told Dave that all of the work that he put in with me is going to pay off," Marcus. "You’ve been getting screwed so much and I'm going to work as hard as I can to be successful and make you proud."
Fast forward a few years. Marcus is a highly recruited quarterback, set to fill the shoes of record- setting, ACC Player of the Year Philip Rivers. He gets his shot at quarterback but is later replaced in the lineup after finishing the 2005 season and starting the 2006 campaign. It was another tough day for the Stone family of quarterbacks.
"What my brother went through was tough, and no question it helped me when I got benched," Marcus said. "Look, they just told me I can't start. I still have a spot on the roster, I might be able to play, I can still help our team."
Marcus is passionate when speaking about his brother, and his emotions are barely held in check.
"They told him to leave," Marcus said. "They laughed at him. I just told myself that if my brother can go through something like that, then this is nothing that I went through. That eats me up when someone won't give him a chance. Just a chance, because of a disability. It doesn't affect his arm or affect how he plays. I don't understand it and never will."
That is the fire and passion that makes Marcus Stone the person and player that he is today. Marcus, a co- captain as voted on by his fellow teammates, is a success on the field now as the Pack's starting tight end.
He will have an opportunity to reach his and Dave's goal of living a NFL dream, a dream that both brothers have shared since convincing their mother to let six- year old Marcus play little league all those years ago.
It is a decision that the Stone family will never regret.
