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football Edit

Marcus Calvin realized in high school he had a future in football

Marcus Calvin is ready to take his official visit this weekend to Kansas for football. But for most of his life he thought his college visits would be for basketball.

Calvin, a defensive tackle from Gibbs High, was not always a 6-foot-3, 295-pound lineman.

“I grew up in a family full of basketball players,” Calvin said. “I had two uncles play division one. So did my grandad. One of my uncles played at University of Detroit. One of my other uncles got offers from Clemson, Arkansas, and North Carolina. My whole life, the first sport I ever played was basketball. I wasn’t always this big.”

At the age of five he would watch countless hours of basketball practice. He said his dreams were to be on the basketball floor for his college career.

“When I was four or five years old, I would work with resistance bands, running suicides, dribbling drills, shooting on the shooting gun,” he recalled. “I was so in love with the sport and from that everyday life of mine. Then I found a way to put the ball in the basket. Shooting is basically just consistency. I shot every day for hours. The more you put the ball in the basket, the better you get.”

As he moved into his grade school years, he played among the nation’s best on the AAU circuit. His team was loaded with talent, and they won several tournaments.

“When I got to nine or ten years old, I became elite at my age level,” Calvin said. “We won state four times. And we won nationals twice. I played a lot of great competition.”

Going into high school Calvin said his job was to shoot. That is what he worked on all those years growing up.

“My freshman year, my only responsibility was to make a jump shot,” he said. “My job was to make three balls. And I shot like 44% my freshman year from three. I hit like 65-70 treys. And my phone blew up and I was getting all these calls from coaches.”

At the time he was weighing in at 240 pounds. College coaches were telling him to trim down just a little and he would be on their radar. He said a coach from Stanford told him if he can get in the 205-pound range they would offer a scholarship.

Calvin has built a good relationship with Jim Panagos and will visit Kansas this weekend
Calvin has built a good relationship with Jim Panagos and will visit Kansas this weekend

Calvin said that is when Covid hit. He started to run all the time and his weight would drop and then go back up.

“I started at 247 pounds and went down to 225,” he said. “Then I would go right back up to 240. I was running, doing a diet. I was in the gym every day from sunup to sundown.”

One day he was talking with a friend who played football. He made a deal, and it would lead the beginning of his football days.

“My friend played football, so we told each other he has to do a basketball workout with me, and I have to do a football workout with him,” Calvin said. “I did that for three weeks and I decided to try football.”

When he told everyone he was going to play football he said some people started laughing. The first three months Calvin said he wore his friends’ cleats and gloves.

His sophomore season Gibbs hired Louis Murphy to be the head coach. Murphy was a wide receiver at Florida and a team captain when they won the national title. He played nine years in the NFL. He immediately had an impact.

“First thing he says to me, ‘Man, you're a leader. I need you to be a leader,'" Calvin said. "I didn't really know what I was doing. I was out there being an athlete, making moves, spin moves and crossovers and stuff like that. And then, my coach told me, he said, ‘man you could be a first-round draft pick if you want to be.’”

He played offensive and defensive line. With his footwork he felt he could play on both sides of the ball. He said he started taking it seriously when he would have success and hear from others that he can play at the college level.

Kansas defensive line coach Jim Panagos was one of the first college coaches to build a bond with Calvin.

“Coach P, he's almost like an uncle to me,” Calvin said. “He’s one of the cool ones you can call. You can call the man and have a great conversation. He will check up on you at all times. I really appreciate Coach P for him believing in my talent. Believing in the kid from South St. Pete, South Florida. He's real. He's real transparent with you. He's the only coach that calls me.”

There are other schools starting to notice his ability. Louisville is reaching out and he will camp there. Iowa State, Central Florida, Memphis, Indiana, and Wisconsin have also started to show interest. Marshall, Florida International and Jacksonville State have offered. The Jayhawks will get the first official visit this weekend.

“I’m ready for my visit to Kansas and want to look at the family bonding and just to see how Lawrence is,” he said. “I want to see the city, see the setting, and see the love of the school. And because I've always been a basketball player, I need to see the basketball arena. I want to see the ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawks 2021-2022 National Champion’ banner. I have to go see what's down the hallway at least once.”

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