Cinderella in football pads

[Young Drachma]

Story

Reality Series Takes Football Recruit on Surreal Ride

By KEVIN ARMSTRONG
It sounds like a fairy tale.

Cole Marcoux, an unheralded quarterback prospect from the Upper West Side, attended a football training camp in Chester, Pa., in July, planning to use the weekend as a tuneup for summer workouts. At 6 feet 5 inches and 244 pounds, he had the build of a pro-style, drop-back passer, but lacked the corresponding résumé.

“He wasn’t just below the radar,” said Tom Martinez, a coach at the camp and mentor to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. “He was beneath the dashboard.”

On one side of the field, seven quarterbacks were dressed in red. Each had already been cast in a reality television series for Fox Sportsnet called “The Ride,” which was to follow them for six months and end with one earning a spot in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl on Saturday in San Antonio based on a panel’s vote. The rest, including Marcoux, wore blue on the field’s other end.

Martinez, 64, a member of the panel, studied Marcoux’s throws. Also taking notice were Larry Kennan, who helped groom Eli Manning, and the former N.F.L. coach Sam Wyche. They agreed that Marcoux could hang with the on-field competition.

“Would you like to be in a reality series?” said Rich McGuinness, the president of All American Games, which runs the bowl game and the reality series.

Marcoux said yes and has made his way from Ivy League recruit from the Bronx’s elite Fieldston School to an American Idol of prep sports. He has been accepted early decision to Dartmouth and is expected to enroll. Still, as the winner of “The Ride,” Marcoux may reconsider if his exposure in the series or his play in the game Saturday results in a scholarship offer to a college of his liking. Ivy League universities do not offer athletic scholarships.

“Everything should be in line with N.C.A.A. rules, but I told him to bring some Dartmouth gear for the cameras,” Dartmouth Coach Buddy Teevens said. “It’s not every year we have a player in that game.”

The idea for the series was hatched in June. McGuinness and his wife, Kate, awoke early to sketch out a blueprint for the series. With a background in cable television programming, Kate McGuinness felt the success of “Two-a-Days” on MTV and “Hard Knocks” on HBO had opened doors for further exploration in the field. The objective was simple: show that quarterbacks are made, not born, by being taught proper technique.

“Matt Barkley and Terrelle Pryor were doing fine with exposure,” Rich McGuinness said of the No. 1 quarterback recruits in 2009 and 2008. “Let’s find kids who aren’t.”

In 28 cities, the Football University training camps doubled as casting calls. Of hundreds of quarterbacks, eight were chosen, but one did not show up for the first day of shooting. Enter Marcoux, a baseball player turned quarterback who had wavered until months before about which sport he would pursue in college.

“I was always getting bumped up a level in baseball so that I couldn’t just throw fastballs to get by,” said Marcoux, who has most recently been clocked at 88 miles an hour.

At halftime of a Fieldston football game five years ago, Marcoux’s command and touch were noticed. Coach Gus Ornstein, who had been drafted by the Seattle Mariners as a high school senior in 1994 but chose to play football at Notre Dame, listened to his father, Steve, talk about a boy who was throwing on the field. Ornstein approached Marcoux on the track afterward, but could not immediately persuade him to join football.

Even after he decided to play both sports, there were days as a high school freshman when Marcoux did not know left from right.

“The debate was whether he’d turn the correct way on a handoff,” Ornstein said.

With his direction straightened out, Fieldston did not lose a league game the next three seasons and drew local television cameras to the field last fall. Broadcasting the game was Jay Fiedler, a former Dartmouth quarterback who played in the N.F.L. When he was introduced to Marcoux beforehand, Fiedler punched him in the right arm.

“Just to make sure you don’t go up and break all my records,” Fiedler told him.

Marcoux threw for more than 300 yards that day in a 42-41 win over Riverdale.

Networking opportunities continue to arise. Martinez, who championed Marcoux throughout the show’s nine episodes that have been shown, invited him to his home in Menlo Park, Calif., two weeks ago, but called just days before to see if a change of scheduling was possible. Brady, coming off a game in which he felt he struggled against the Buffalo Bills, wanted to fly Martinez to New England for a tuneup. Martinez called Marcoux and asked if he would mind rerouting to Boston for a workout with Brady.

“Let’s just say I have a $2,000 voucher from the airline since the tickets were nonrefundable,” said Marcoux’s father, Rick.

For two days, Brady, his backup Brian Hoyer and Marcoux trained together.

Martinez said, “You could not tell there was a high schooler on the field.”

Later, Marcoux ate pizza with Brady in a luxury box while Brady’s dog and 2-year-old son, John, joined them.

“It was surreal,” Marcoux said.

When he suits up Saturday, Marcoux insists he will get dressed like any other game.

“If this isn’t Cinderella, then I don’t know what is,” Kate McGuinness said. “But I do have doubts that Cole’s foot would fit in any glass slipper with that Division I size.”

[gstelmack]

That's a cool story.

[DanGarion]

Will the free luxury box seat make him ineligible?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Will the free luxury box seat make him ineligible?

There wasn't a game going on. He was just there eating pizza in the luxury box. I doubt Tom Brady bought him pizza and notice they didn't even say that Tom was eating pizza with him, that it was Tom's son and his dog. Implied that Tom was there, but probably to avoid the implication of a violation, they negated even mentioning that Brady ate with him (or bought the pizza) because it would be a violation. Stupid NCAA.

[k0ruptr]

awesome story, I will be rooting for him! would make for an awesome dynasty report