Football
Favorite athlete: Tavon Austin
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: 70-yard run vs CB West
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: One of my teammates was returning the ball for a touchdown during a kick return, and a flag called it back. After on the sideline, said teammate was mad and the entire team laughed because of how he reacted.
Music on playlist: "Here comes the boom" by Nelly; "Invincible" by Pop Smoke; "Members Only" EST Gee; "Like That" Future; "FEIN" by Travis Scott; "Go Stupid" Polo G
Future plans: Play football at the next level and major in accounting and/or finance
Words to live by: “I can't control my naturally born gifts or lack thereof. I can control everything else through hard work.”
One goal before turning 30: Visit a different country
One thing people don't know about me: I'm a perfectionist
By Mary Jane Souder
Houston Marshall had himself quite a senior season on the gridiron.
The Souderton standout earned first team All-SOL Continental Conference on both sides of the football. He was a captain and had the most tackles for an Indian squad that captured a share of the conference crown and earned a berth in districts.
A happy ending to a high school career that almost didn’t happen after Marshall tore his ACL early in his freshman season and was sidelined for close to a year.
“When I tore my ACL, I really thought it was over,” Marshall said. “I was already behind, and this had just set me back 10 more steps, so it was going to be basically impossible to get up there.”
Although his pathway may have been a bit non-traditional, Marshall – despite a late start playing football - did get up to the varsity level and was a difference maker for the Indians this season.
“This year was his chance to really shine,” Souderton coach Ed Gallagher said. “He took such a huge step as a running back and as a safety.
“He started at corner for us last year and struggled a little bit at times with coverages, but he was really comfortable playing safety. He led the team in tackles and just had an outstanding year.”
Marshall’s progression is remarkable by any standard since he never played tackle football until seventh grade. Throw in the fact that he spent his summers with his father in Oklahoma, and he had a lot of catching up to do.
“This year, he came back a week earlier because he was a captain and wanted to be back with the team,” Gallagher said. “It’s been a unique situation. We had to work other guys in at safety and halfback all summer.
“But it was good, so they got a lot of extra work before he got there. He’s a really smart kid, so he picks up everything we’re doing and did a really nice job with it.”
Although he was apart from his team every summer, Marshall had his own regiment to ensure he was prepared when he rejoined his squad.
“My mindset is – I have to balance between relax, have fun, it’s my summer, but also just as much to have the mindset – my teammates are waking up early and are getting better,” he said. “A lot of my teammates played youth football and have been playing more than they have not, and I started playing in middle school and have suffered an injury.
“I knew I had to work 10 times harder if I was going to have to catch up, so, I dedicated my summers to lifting on my own time to a similar schedule that I would have in the offseason if I was with the football team.”
One thing Marshall didn’t have to worry about was heat acclimation.
“When I went back it would be the start of heat acclimation, but Oklahoma is way hotter, especially in the summer, than Pennsylvania,” he said. “Heat ac in PA is like 80 degrees, maybe 90s. In Oklahoma, it gets up above 100 degrees consistently, so what I’d do – we had a long driveway. It’s a lot of flat land, so I’d just run up and down our driveway for 30 minutes to an hour just building up my tolerance.”
Back to the beginning
Football was a late entry for Marshall, whose introduction to organized sports began on the soccer pitch.
“I just remember I wasn’t really good at it, and I didn’t really enjoy it,” Marshall said. “It was a lot of running, and maybe I was lazy when I was that young. I just realized that as I was playing soccer, I just felt so annoyed because I’d chase the ball down and then go to the other side of the field, and I’d chase it down. I kept making mistakes, so that wasn’t enjoyable.”
His soccer career was very brief as was his baseball career, although that lasted several years.
“I was good at baseball,” Marshall said. “However, as I continued playing that, I realized I didn’t enjoy it. I found it boring.
“It’s just the same story – if I wasn’t up to bat, I was just sitting in the dugout. I was an outfielder, so the ball usually wasn’t coming my way.
“As I was going through those soccer and baseball days, I remember my dad was always talking about how he played football and what that was like. It sounded different. It sounded fun.”
Marshall got his first taste of a sport he would grow to love playing flag football.
“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I played two or three seasons of that. It was really fun, and I was good at it.
“Despite it not being what my dad told me about, it was really fun. I had a really good time getting to know my teammates and all that.”
In seventh grade, Marshall played tackle football for the first time at Indian Crest.
“It was a little tough at first,” he said. “I don’t know why but my coach decided to put me at right guard, which obviously – anyone who knows my build knows that’s not a position I should be at.”
The following year – under a new coach – Marshall found his home.
“Coach Pace – I love that dude,” Marshall said of Indian Crest coach Anthony Pace. “He obviously knew where I was supposed to be on the field – that’s when he made me a running back and corner. That season I played both sides of the ball. It was so much fun, being able to play with my dudes that I’ve grown up with.”
The setback
After a successful eighth grade season, Marshall was looking to make his mark on the freshman team.
“It was either the second or third game into the season,” he said. “I wasn’t getting a lot of playing time in the beginning, but I was doing good. I was proving myself to the coaches because these coaches also coached the local football Braves.
“A lot of the kids who went through the high school program also played Braves, so they knew who their star players were and who their playmakers were, and they knew who was good or not, but they didn’t really know me because I didn’t grow up in the area.
“Once they started seeing what I could do, they were giving me more and more chances to play, so the second or third game, I’m running the ball, and I tried to make a cut, but when I cut, I heard my knee pop, and I just fell. It was very painful.”
Marshall had no idea the severity of his injury.
“I just knew that it was very painful, and I needed help getting off the field,” he said. “A couple days after it took place, it felt okay. I wasn’t in pain.
“I was able to run, so again, I still didn’t understand the severity of the injury until my mom (a nurse) was telling her doctor friends, and I was telling my friends. We were starting to hear – ‘Oh, you might have torn your ACL.’ I was talking to the coaches, and they were like – ‘You may have torn your ACL,’ so that’s when we started doing more research into it.”
Several weeks after his injury, the diagnosis of a torn ACL was confirmed, and Marshall found himself on the sidelines.
“When the doctor told me it was a full tear ACL, I was crushed,” he said. “I didn’t realize how much I loved football.
“When I was sitting on the sidelines and when someone made a big play, it’s like the whole team is with that guy, and they’re hyping him up, and the energy is just high, and you feel it even if you weren’t the one making the play, but when I was injured and on the sideline and my team was winning and making plays, I was excited for them obviously, but it wasn’t the same at all when you’re sitting on the sidelines. I knew I was contributing nothing. When we were winning, we didn’t win because of me, and we lost, we weren’t losing because of me, but it just never felt the same.”
And what changed his mind about walking away from football after the injury?
“Everyone being positive around me and letting me know that because it was my freshman year, I have a lot of time to rest, recover and get back in shape,” Marshall said.
The following fall, as a sophomore, Marshall was cleared to play with an athletic brace on his injured knee.
“That year after taking a full year of no athletics, I knew I was just going to be rusty,” Marshall said. “I mainly focused on putting on weight because before my injury I never really focused on lifting. It wasn’t a big part of my routine.
“I didn’t take it seriously, I didn’t take stretching seriously either, but after my injury, I realized if I don’t want anything like that to happen again, I would need to take better care of my knee and train my body more, so it was stronger and less susceptible to injury, so I took my lifting very seriously.
“My sophomore year, I gained 25-30 pounds. Obviously, that made me slower, and with the brace, it just made me feel less athletic. I felt slower on the field. My cuts weren’t 100 percent confident obviously because I’m coming off an injury, and I’m not 100 percent confident in my knee. I didn’t play at 100 percent. That year I was basically just focusing on learning the program, learning the plays and just getting better athletically.”
Back in the game
As a junior, Marshall was back at full strength and saw plenty of varsity playing time at corner and also time at running back.
“Our two main playmakers – Danny Dyches, our wide receiver, and Ryan Sadowski, our other running back – were our two main people to get the ball,” he said. “At running back, it was either me blocking or getting a
fake. Every now and then I’d get the ball and make the best of what I had. I was just grateful the coaches thought I developed enough to be our starting corner.”
A good year on varsity as a junior was followed by a great year as a senior that saw Marshall named captain.
“I’ve always been told I was a leader, but to be honest, it wasn’t always my goal to be a captain,” he said. “I just knew what a captain needed to be, and at first, I didn’t think I would meet those standards.
“Maybe I was a little scared too, but when I came back, some of my teammates – mainly my senior class – were like, ‘Oh, Houston are you going to apply to be a captain?’ I was surprised because my senior classmates had confidence in me, and they think I met the status quo. I just applied myself, and apparently, the coaches thought I met the standard.”
Marshall was a role model to the younger players.
“Houston isn’t an in-your-face-guy, but he’s one of those who lead by example,” Gallagher said. “If he has to speak up, he talks.
“Our running back coach, Kinsley Nworu – every time we have a meeting, he makes Houston break them out and say something. He was our only senior in the backfield, and by default, he had to address the kids at every pregame meeting.
“It was awesome to see how he embraced that and embraced his role with getting the young halfbacks to learn what we’re doing. Hopefully, his leadership and his experience will rub off on the younger guys.”
On the field, Marshall had his biggest games in the biggest moments. In the Indians’ most impressive win – a 20-13 win over Central Bucks West, the senior running back/safety had seven carries for 130 yards. On the defensive side of the ball, he had 14 tackles.
In the Indians’ regular season finale against Upper Dublin for a share of the SOL Continental title – a 47-21 win, Marshall had 12 carries for 166 yards and three touchdowns and three receptions for 66 yards.
“In the CB West game, he tore off a long touchdown run that helped us upset them,” Gallagher said. “He just had an outstanding season.”
A bright future
An excellent student, Marshall has taken AP classes and has his sights set on majoring in accounting and/or finance. He plans to continue his football career at the collegiate level and walked away from his final high
school season with the fondest of memories.
“We had this tradition of the night before a game – we go out to eat and have fun and build team engagement,” Marshall said. “Our captains were more inclusive, and we allowed more people to come and hang out, and it was a much more fun time.”
It was quite a journey from a newcomer to the sport to a gifted captain and leader.
“This year was such a delight that honestly I could not describe it any less than God’s gift to recover from an injury such as the ACL tear and still be able to play at the capability I played at my senior year,” Marshall said.
Gallagher sees good things in the future for Marshall.
“He’s been looking at a couple of schools,” the Indians’ coach said. “He’s a very good student, and he’s such a great all-around kid.
“He was such a good leader. I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s going to be a really good football player somewhere in college. Hopefully, he finds the right program and the right fit.”
