For jilted Rutgers fan, it’s payback time

Norfolk State lineman Markeece Preston will finally play at Rutgers Stadium today. (JOY LEWIS | THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT)

By Vicki L. Friedman
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

Offers to play college football at Maryland and Pittsburgh simply didn’t appeal to Markeece Preston. The New Jersey native wanted to play at Rutgers Stadium.

Today, Preston will get his wish – only he’ll be wearing the green and gold of Norfolk State.

“Truthfully, I have no regrets,” said the offensive lineman, who has earned playing time with the Spartans as a true freshman. “I’m happy to be here.”

Preston didn’t grow up rooting for the Scarlet Knights, whose play was mediocre at best most years.

“I used to watch USC” on television, he admitted. “They didn’t show too much Rutgers.”

Even football seemed to be an unlikely path for Preston, who approached 6 feet as a 10-year-old. He was powerful at small forward for the Paterson Catholic basketball team, but after growing to 270 pounds, he chose football.

“I loved the game too much,” he said. “You got to hit all the time.”

Preston was good enough for coach Benjie Wimberly to make him starting center as a freshman on a team coming off a state championship. Paterson Catholic lost just twice in Preston’s four years, both times in the state final.

Preston was named an Associated Press all-state lineman his junior and senior years. His last season at Paterson Catholic, the team rushed for nearly 3,000 yards and did not give up a sack.

Preston’s mailbox overflowed. Maryland was interested; so were Pitt and Cincinnati.

But Rutgers sat 40 minutes away. The Scarlet Knights had become winners, finishing 7-5 in Preston’s junior year and advancing to their first bowl game in 27 years the next season. Preston reveled in the experience when he and his dad attended a Rutgers-Michigan State game.

“It was wild,” Preston said. “They were on the come-up, so who wouldn’t want to play there?”

Being able to stay close to family was what he wanted most. Preston wanted his parents to share his football career. He didn’t want to stray far from his mom’s cooking, especially those nights when ribs, macaroni and cheese and collard greens were on the menu.

He wanted his 22-year-old sister Shaqunda and his 23-year-old brother Mike to see him play. Not to mention his father, Mike.

Markeece had come to appreciate his dad, particularly those precious minutes when Mike Preston picked up his son from a summer job in Paterson. The family had moved to Bloomfield by then, and the two would chat about anything and everything while making that 15-minute drive.

“He’d leave at 6 in the morning and sometimes this would be 9 or 10 at night, and this would be the only time we’d have to talk alone,” Preston said.

Preston, along with his best buddy, Paterson Catholic linebacker Al-Ghaffaar Lane, participated in a Rutgers combine as juniors. Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano was in attendance.

“I remember this like it was yesterday,” Preston said. “Coach called us both to the side. He took him in the office first. He came back out and told me they just offered him. Then he took me in the office and asked me if I wanted to come to their summer camp to show them that I can play center and they’d see if they could offer me.”

Discouraged, Preston didn’t take part in the camp. He figured he still had a chance if he had a strong senior year, but he had something else working against him.

Though sometimes listed at 6-foot-3 or even 6-4, Preston really is just 6-2. Although one New Jersey-area strength coach touted him as gifted enough to play anywhere in the nation, not every college coach agreed.

“A lot of times D-I schools are looking at 6-6, 6-5 guys,” Wimberly said.

The offers from Maryland and Pitt dried up. When Spartans coach Pete Adrian got the word on Preston from assistant Rod Holder, he couldn’t figure why such a touted prospect with academic qualifications hadn’t been snagged. Adrian made contact, and Preston decided he had nothing to lose in visiting the Norfolk campus.

“I hadn’t been on any visits,” he said. “I had a meeting with Coach Holder and he told me I could play early; he wasn’t joking about it. My parents liked it. I liked it. The day I left, I told coach Adrian I was coming.”

Wimberly’s phone started ringing the moment the news got out that Preston had made a verbal commitment to NSU: “He was willing to go I-AA?”

During a senior-year field trip, Preston ran into Heisman candidate Ray Rice, one of the Rutgers players he’d had lunch with during that combine. When Preston informed him of his choice, Rice shot him an incredulous look. Rutgers later offered Preston a chance to walk on.

“What’s that?” Preston said.

In Norfolk, he has found that life is pretty good, though he’ll enjoy it more once fall temperatures replace summer’s leftover heat.

To improve Preston’s conditioning, Adrian has the former 328-pounder running extra stairs at Price Stadium.

“I’m where I want to be,” he said.

And today, Preston’s family members will be where they want to be, too: at Rutgers – watching him play.

Vicki L. Friedman, (757) 446-2039

VickiL120@cox.net