Patience Has Been A Virtue For Speed’s Richardson
David Chappell
Thursday May 22, 2003
Due to injuries and other player personnel matters, the 5’ 11” 185 pound Richardson has rarely come off the field during the Speed’s last two games against Rochester and Mohegan. All this activity is all the more notable considering that Richardson was a spot player last season, and did not even play in Richmond’s season opener this year.
According to Speed head coach Richard Davis, Richardson’s patience while learning the arena football game from the sidelines has allowed him to step in and perform at a high level when his playing opportunity presented itself. Davis explained, “Marcus is rising up and making plays; what a wonderful story he is. Marcus has had to wait his turn. He has waited in line and patiently learned his lessons, and now he’s going out there and getting it done. He’s an important piece of this puzzle. I can’t say enough good stuff about Marcus.”
As big an impact player as the 23 year old Richardson has now become on the football field, football was almost a sports afterthought in his early athletic endeavors. Blessed with blazing speed, Richardson was primarily a track man early on. In fact, Richardson did not play high school football until his senior year in high school.
At Halifax County High School in South Boston, Virginia, Richardson was impressive running track during his junior and senior years there. Due to his speed, Richardson was continually pushed to also put that speed to use on the gridiron. As a senior, Richardson relented and finally went out for the football team.
While his senior year at Halifax County High School was his first foray into organized football, Richardson said prior to that he “played backyard football all the time, but I never played organized ball until my senior year.” The transition from track to football was a tough one, according to Richardson. “I was playing organized football with these guys who had been playing four years and had things down. They knew what was going on and I was having to learn everything and had only one year to do it. So I knew every play I had to go all out and impress the coaches. I was one of the fastest receivers/defensive backs so that made it a whole lot easier, and that’s what actually got me on the field.”
About four games into that season, Richardson’s speed was getting him extensive time on the playing field. Halifax had a strong year, narrowly missing the playoffs on the final day of the regular season. Overall though, Richardson considered his first year of football “a great year and a good learning experience.”
Despite the good football experience during his senior year in high school, Richardson had no intentions of playing college football. In fact, he had no intentions of attending Bridgewater College originally. Rather, Richardson was accepted into Virginia Tech to enter their veterinary medicine program. Richardson hoped to run track at Tech, but football never entered into his thinking.
In a twist of fate, Richardson happened upon a booth for Bridgewater College at “College Day” while still at Halifax County High School. Richardson said that what was on the front of the booth for Bridgewater College intrigued him. “On the front of their little booth, they had a picture of somebody running track and a picture of somebody playing football, so that’s what drew me to it.” More out of curiosity than anything else, Richardson filled out a form for additional information about Bridgewater but thought little more about it at the time, as he still intended to attend Virginia Tech.
Bridgewater’s admissions office was persistent, and continued to send Richardson information about the small school of about 1,100 students near Harrisonburg, Virginia. They were persistent enough where Richardson decided to visit Bridgewater, and while there he met with Bridgewater football coach Michael Clark and Bridgewater track coach Shane Stevens.
But athletics did not drive Richardson’s decision to ultimately attend Bridgewater. Rather, Bridgewater offered a program that would have allowed him to complete a veterinary medicine program (in conjunction with Virginia Tech) in five years, rather than seven or eight years had he gone through Tech exclusively.
During Richardson’s freshman year at Bridgewater in 1997, he only ran track (which he ran all four years at Bridgewater) but from the urging of his roommate who was on the football team, Richardson decided to try to play football in his sophomore year in 1998. At around the same time, Richardson decided to concentrate on a college degree in biology as opposed to veterinary medicine.
Much like when he jumped into football for the first time in high school as a senior, Richardson had a tough adjustment when he started playing football later than most of his fellow players. But this time, the problems were mainly injury related. Richardson said, “The first day of two a days I stretched a ligament in my shoulder, and the Doctor said I would be out for four weeks. At that point, I was asking myself if I’d made the right decision to play football. Was it meant to be?” On his first day back after extensive rehab, Richardson hurt the same shoulder. All told in an injury riddled sophomore season, Richardson only played in parts of five games and caught two passes. Bridgewater finished winless that year.
Injuries slowed Richardson again early in 1999, but the Bridgewater junior started to make an impact for an improving Eagles team that year. Utilized as a third and fourth receiver on a mainly running team, Richardson quickly gained a reputation on making his catches in the end zone. And for that, Richardson was anointed with the nickname “six” by his teammates. Richardson commented, “My junior year I had 12 to 16 catches, but I had about five touchdowns so every time they threw me the ball the odds were good that I was going to score six points.”
Bridgewater’s 2000 season was a breakout year for both Richardson and the Eagles. As the second receiver, Richardson averaged a staggering 32 yards a catch during his senior season. The Eagles advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament, losing a heartbreaking overtime game to Trinity College in Texas.
At this point, Richardson received his degree in biology, but he had a year of football eligibility left. He had a major decision confronting him as to whether to play another year of football at Bridgewater. Ultimately, Richardson decided to play another year but not only because of the allure of football. Richardson explained, “I wanted to come back to Bridgewater for a reason. I didn’t want to come back just to play football. I wanted something to benefit my future also, so I took three classes and picked up a minor in computer information studies.”
Richardson also said finishing with the same teammates that he started with in the winless 1998 season was a factor in him returning for a final season. All the 2001 Eagles did was go undefeated until the Division III national championship game, where they were edged by perennial power Mount Union College. Richardson caught a touchdown pass on the first play of the championship game.
In track, Richardson accumulated numerous accolades during his career at Bridgewater. In 1999 and 2000, Richardson was named team MVP. In 2000, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) named Richardson as the Conference’s Male Athlete of the Year in track. Also in his senior year of 2000, Richardson was the ODAC champion in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes.
Likewise in football, Richardson captured numerous awards while at Bridgewater. For the 2000 season, Richardson was named second team all-ODAC. In 2001, Richardson was named team MVP and first team all-ODAC. In addition, Richardson was named the Richmond Touchdown Club’s Division II/III Wide Receiver of the Year. Richardson left Bridgewater College as the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards, touchdowns and the longest TD reception.
Unlike when he was heading off to college, Richardson definitely wanted to continue playing football after college. Richardson said, “Going into college, I had no thought of playing athletics after college. But once I was leaving college, I believed I could play football at the next level, somewhere professionally.”
This is where Richardson’s patience may have become his biggest virtue. A number of NFL teams expressed interest in Richardson, and the Pittsburgh Steelers gave him a workout. Also, several Canadian Football League teams approached Richardson in early 2002. In fact, he worked out for the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL twice and believed things looked promising. But nothing panned out at that point for Richardson with the outdoor brand of professional football. Apparently, playing only against Division III college competition hurt Richardson’s chances with those teams.
In early 2002, while accepting his award at the Richmond Touchdown Club’s awards banquet, Richardson met the Speed’s coach Davis, who was presenting one of the other awards. According to Richardson, Davis was upfront with him, explaining that Richmond had a ton of talent coming back at the skill positions for the 2002 season. Richardson candidly admitted that he knew virtually nothing about arena football at that point. “At that time, I didn’t know a lot about arena football. So I started reading up about arena2. I didn’t know that arena2 had the caliber of athletes that it had.”
At that point, Richardson had another decision to make. Try to make the talented Speed 2002 squad, or go to another af2 team with less talent and perhaps have the chance to play right away. After a lot of thought, Richardson decided that he would try to make the Speed’s 2002 team, and learn from their established veteran players and coaches.
Richardson admits that his 2002 year in Richmond was difficult at times. Richardson said, “It got hard at times. Going from being the go-to guy in college to not even playing sometimes was tough. But I wanted to stick it out. Richmond was the place for me to be. It was a great learning experience. I was patiently learning the game, because I didn’t know the (arena) game. I knew eventually, my time would come.”
Playing behind established veterans like Jeff Townsley and Kevin Harvey, Richardson got in 11 games last year and caught only seven passes for 149 yards and 3 TDs. Richardson was utilized as a return man more as last year wore on, and returned three kicks for 91 yards and a touchdown. After the 2002 season ended, Richardson said his only thoughts were to return to Richmond and continue to improve. “During the off season, I was committed to coming back to Richmond. After taking a month off, I worked out hard until camp started in March. When I got my chance, I wanted to be ready.”
When Richardson did not play at all in this year’s season opener, he said he was not discouraged. Again, his patience was rewarded. When injuries and player personnel issues hit the Speed hard after week one, Richardson got his chance. He made the most of it, and has not looked back since.
Richardson is quick to credit the Speed’s coaching staff for putting him into the position to be a major contributor in 2003. Richardson said, “I thank Coach Davis for allowing me to come here when he already had such a long line of talent here. And for him working with me the whole time.”
In addition to his current responsibilities as the starting “Z” receiver, Richardson is now on the field almost every play on defense as well. In addition to his work at DB, prior injuries have also found him being worked in at the “Jill” linebacker position at times. Bottom line, Richardson rarely comes off the field these days. Richardson says he is much more comfortable on defense this year, and enjoys playing on that side of the ball. Richardson smiled and said, “I have fun playing on defense. All those time I get hit, it’s nice to try to hit somebody else.”
The next team the Speed (3-3) will be hitting is the Rochester Brigade tomorrow night in Rochester. While the Brigade (1-6) have had their share of problems this year, including a 62-43 loss at the hands of Richmond two weeks ago, both Davis and Richardson say that tomorrow’s contest is a game to be wary of. Of the Brigade, Richardson said, “We handled them pretty easily two weeks ago until the end of the game, but then we got loose and let them score some points. That’s putting in their heads that they can play with us.”
Davis agrees, saying tomorrow’s game with Rochester “is a coach’s nightmare.” Davis elaborated by saying, “We beat them two weeks ago. They are physically talented, in that they have some kids that can run and make plays. We have back to back short weeks and back to back long trips. They’re struggling up there with crowds so it’s probably going to be a dead environment. It’s scary.”
While patience provided Richardson the chance to crack the Speed’s lineup, dedication is surely keeping him there. Take last week for example. On Wednesday afternoon, Richardson’s first child was born. Richardson was in the delivery room with mother and healthy new baby daughter Saniya. He even participated in the miracle of birth, cutting Saniya’s umbilical cord. All the while, he knew the Speed would be embarking by bus to Connecticut at midnight for Friday night’s contest at Mohegan. After much thought and discussion with his girlfriend, Richardson decided to travel to Mohegan and play in the game.
Since the Speed squad had already departed by bus Wednesday night, Richardson traveled by van on Thursday to Connecticut with remaining members of the Speed staff. Richardson was on the field at Mohegan Friday nearly the entire night despite a painful neck/head injury incurred when he was lunging for a pass on offense. He scored the Speed’s first TD of the night against the Wolves on a pass from QB Roy Johnson. And when he returns from Rochester, Richardson will assume his full-time day job as a lab technician at one of Richmond’s oldest and most respected businesses. He comes straight to Speed practices at night from his day job, like many other Richmond players.
While Richardson has aspirations of moving up to the AFL, his focus now is fully on the Richmond Speed. Richardson said, “Everyone always wants to get to the next level, but right now I’m in Richmond, Virginia playing for the Richmond Speed and that’s what I’m thinking about. I want to move on, but everything I do is for the Speed right now.”
As for that future AFL opportunity, like all that has come previously to him athletically, Marcus Richardson will no doubt remain patient.
David Chappell is a native of Richmond, Virginia. He has closely followed local sports in Richmond and vicinity for over thirty years, and Arena Football 2 since its inception. David currently writes extensively for a website that he co-founded which documents professional wrestling in Virginia and surrounding areas from 1974-1986. A former elected prosecutor, David is currently a practicing attorney in a large downtown Richmond law firm.
