Marcellus a D1 Player
Two years ago, James Marcellus was a senior at Archbishop Williams High School in Massachusetts where he had already led his team to the TD Banknorth Garden for a State semifinal appearance. The future looked promising for the young big man, but due to a lack of college exposure his junior year, Marcellus only was seeing Division III recruitment in his college picture. In hopes of improving his scores and level of recruitment, Marcellus opted to do a Post Graduate year at Bridgton Academy. This decision allowed Marcellus to play an extra year of AAU, giving him a head start on his recruitment to follow at Bridgton. "At Archies, it was good ball, but it wasn't the best competition in Boston and I didn't have the chance to prove myself," Marcellus said. "I never doubted my ability and when I started playing for Coach Gibson (Bay State Magic/Boston Soldiers) and traveled around the country, I was putting up good numbers against some of the nation's best big men."
Marcellus starred on the Bay State Magic, who had an excellent spring season, winning the 2007 17 and Under Massachusetts State Championship, as well as finishing 2nd out of 83 teams at the Providence Jamfest, only falling to the Westchester Hawks by 3 (who went on to finish 4th in the nation that year). This game proved to play a vocal point in Marcellus' future recruitment as he went head to head with West Virginia forward Kevin Jones and Syracuse forward Mookie Jones. Even though it wasn't during the April live period, this game would provide the 6'8 post player with more exposure, as his team was invited to the Reebok Summer Classic in New Jersey.
"That summer my recruitment really started to pick up," said the Boston native. At this point, Marcellus was receiving interest from Manhattan, Bucknell, St. Peters, Hartford, James Madison and Binghamton who had seen him on the circuit at the Charlie Weber (Washington DC) and Coaches v. Cancer (Philadelphia) spring live period tournaments. Marcellus' stellar showing in New Jersey forced St. Peter's and Manhattan to extend offers, but they weren't interested in James for a year down the road. They were interested in having him on campus that fall. However, the problem was that the big fella wasn't yet a NCAA Division One Qualifier. Consequently, Marcellus would spend his next season in Bridgton, Maine.
At Bridgton, Marcellus saw significant playing time for Coach Whit Lesure as many of the same schools followed his post-graduate year, but the big man was still a few credits short and still unable to qualify at the D1 Level. Opting to go to summer school, he earned his needed credits, but fate was not on his side as there was only a short amount of time left to find a school before the fall.
Marcellus had two options: Accept a scholarship at one of the many Division II institutions that were perusing him, or opt to go to a year of Junior College. "I knew I could play at that level and I didn't want to just settle because of the circumstances," Marcellus said. "Any kid who knows they can play at the division one level is going to do everything and anything possible to reach that goal and I wasn't willing to give up on that."
The fall of 2008 came and Marcellus found himself at Polk Community College in Winter Springs, Florida. "At Polk, the biggest thing I improved on was my body and conditioning," said Marcellus. "Before, I didn't realize how important it is to be in good shape and that was the main thing that brought me to another level."
That hard work paid off when the Delaware State coaching staff took notice and flew him out for an official visit to their Dover campus last Wednesday. "The Coaches at DSU told me they hadn't had a low post presence in a long time and that I have a chance to start right away" he said. "Once they saw me, they told me I was the missing piece. They liked how I could score in the post and rebound."
Besides Marcellus' liking of the campus and basketball program, he made an important connection with DSU Head Coach Greg Jackson. "Growing up in the Christian Church with my dad as a Pastor, it was refreshing to know that Coach Jackson too had a strong Christian background," he said. "That was what made me feel at home and was of great importance to me."
Coach Gibson knows how serious James is about his religion and thinks that it is important that the coaching staff fits the bill. "When James started playing with us, I made every kid fill out a little background info on themselves, so that we could post it to the website and one of the questions everyone had to answer was 'Who is your hero?'", Coach Gibson said. "When I read what each player put down (Lebron James, Michael Jordan, etc.), I came across one that was much different than the others. It read 'Jesus'. If it was anyone else, I may not have believed it but I knew what an important part religion plays in James' life."
Delaware State features a tough schedule next season, going up against non league powerhouses UCLA, Ohio State, Arkansas and Arizona St. James, always a thoughtful young man, has seemingly learned his lessons in the classroom and life well. Applying this new found maturity, James has all the tools to be a dominant player in the MEAC and an outstanding example of a complete student-athlete.
James Marcellus