"Soccer was Mom's sport," Dad said. "When we'd bring up football, she'd keep saying, 'Maybe next year.' When Marc got to seventh grade and she finally said yes, she knew he was strong and fast. That he wouldn't be a target out there."
He laughed. "In fact, now she takes credit for his core abilities as an athlete. The speed. The agility. She says it comes from soccer."
Marc Verica got his football start at St. Charles in Drexel Hill, because his own school, St. Philomena in Lansdowne, did not field a team. Then came Monsignor Bonner High and the University of Virginia and, yup, time does fly.
The 6-3, 210-pound Verica is now a fifth-year senior enrolled in graduate classes after earning a degree in economics, and he's more than stoked for his final quarterbacking season. So is his mom.
"Football has really grown on her," Marc said. "It was kind of a new thing to her, but now she understands the game. She'll spit out terminology sometimes that really impresses me. It's fun to hear it. She loves football now."
So does Marc, of course, but the passion has not always been rewarded. Assuming there's a book in this kid somewhere, what it needs now is a wonderful final chapter.
Both in high school and college, Verica experienced a decent amount of success one season, only to be thrown for a loop the next.
As a junior at Bonner, he passed for 1,545 yards and eight touchdowns - admittedly, for a not-very-good team (4-9). Then, in 12th grade, he settled for 899 yards and three TDs for a 2-9 team, while having to miss two games because of injury.
