Featured Future is a summer series where the Observer will highlight local student athletes who are preparing to continue their athletic and educational careers at the college level, or those who have already begun that journey.
After four years of football at Strawberry Crest, Marcus Springfield signed his national letter of intent this spring, committing to continue his athletic and academic journey at Wabash College in Crawfordsville Indiana.
“It’s amazing,” Springfield said. “I always had the dream as a kid to go play college football. Obviously I didn’t know where, but I always knew that I wanted this for sure so to see it actually come into play is amazing.”
A four-year varsity athlete for the Chargers, Springfield was a core part of Strawberry Crest football’s revitalization under head coach Phillip Prior.
“I always enjoyed playing football at Crest,” Springfield said. “Playing football in front of my school was one of the best feelings that I could ever have. Starting out at Crest we weren’t the best, my freshman and sophomore year, so the backlash at school wasn’t great. But my junior and senior year, as we started to get better and started to mature, I just really enjoyed going to school and playing football… Being a part of that was amazing because I had plenty of opportunity to leave and to go transfer, but I really wanted to stick it out with the guys that I came up with and that didn’t quit on me. So it was amazing to see our efforts come to fruition.”
With back-to-back winless seasons in 2015 and 2016, the Chargers won just three games combined over the next two seasons. Entering the program in 2019 alongside Prior, Springfield’s first two years at Crest didn’t see much more success as the Chargers totaled just two wins in 2019 and one win in 2020. But as a junior in 2021, Springfield was a focal point of the Chargers’ defense as they rattled off a 5-5 record — Strawberry Crest’s highest single-season win total since 2013. As a junior, Springfield led the team with 4.9 tackles per game, passes defended with five and forced fumbles with two. A player in all three phases, he added 18 rushing yards, 51 receiving yards, 197 return yards on kickoffs and 74 return yards on punts. As a senior, his presence only became more impactful as he led the team with four interceptions and five passes defended on defense, then turning right around to lead the team with 24 receptions, 293 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns. In the backfield he added 115 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 20 carries and continued to serve as the Chargers’ primary return man, totaling 187 return yards on kickoffs. As a result, the Chargers finished the 2022 season at 6-4, the programs first winning season since 2013.
A threat in all phases of the game, Springfield noted that he was recruited to Wabash as a defensive back but will have more clarity on his potential role once he arrives in Crawfordsville.
“I’m going in as a defensive back right now,” Springfield said. “They recruited me as a corner but they’ll obviously see my position once I get up there and we’ll go from there. They liked my versatility and my physicality. They were looking for strong, physical corner and they saw how I was playing safety, how I was playing DB, how I was moving around the field and they said that they think that I can be that for the team.”
Following his strong senior season, Springfield was selected to participate in the Hillsborough County All-Star Football Game and offers began rolling in from a number of Division II and Division III schools, a list that included the University of Mount Union, Capital University, Stevenson University, Wilmington University, Carthage College, Muskingnum University and of course Wabash College, but for Springfield he says that the choice was clear.
“I had different offers from different schools but they would just offer me, they wouldn’t really keep up with me or work with me as a person,” Springfield said. “Wabash made an effort to show that they want me and that they wanted me up there at the school. They would always check up on me, not just as an athlete, but as an actual person too.”
As members of the North Coast Athletic Conference, Wabash has won no fewer than seven games in a season since 2004 — going without a losing season since 1975. The Little Giants football program finished 7-3 in each of the last two seasons under head coach Don Morel, a winner of the NCAC Coach of the Year award in both 2018 and 2019 who will enter his eighth season as head coach at Wabash and his 12th year with the program after previously serving as offensive coordinator for four years before being promoted to head coach in 2016. So by joining one of the winningest programs in DIII history, Springfield is in position to step right into a winning culture on day one.
“It’s very exciting,” Springfield said. “I like to win, I’m a winner, so I’m really looking forward to this college experience where I can go to an established college program at the DIII level where we can make a push for a championship.”
And while the opportunity to continue an athletic career at the collegiate level is the dream for so many, Springfield’s accomplishments in the classroom are just as impressive as he graduated from Crest with a 4.4 GPA and was selected for the 2023 National Football Foundation’s Scholar-Athlete Award.
“I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have without academics, if I’m being honest,” Springfield said. “Academics just plays such a big role, especially at a prestigious school like Wabash and when you’re look at the opportunities to make six figures within 10 or 15 years of graduation. Academics has always been important, my dad and grandma always pushed that on me because once football is gone the one thing that I’ll have is my knowledge, so I always strive for my academics.”
