Marquez signs letter of intent
EDITOR’S NOTE This is the third of five stories featuring a local student-athlete that signed a letter of intent during a signing ceremony at Brawley Union High on June 6.
BRAWLEY — The Adrian College Bulldogs have a long football history having first assembled a team in 1892.
Since then, the Michigan-based university has made four appearances in the NCAA Div. III playoffs and won 11 Michigan Intercollegiate Athlete Association conference championships.
Looking to add to the program’s already historic resume is recent Brawley Union High graduate Johnny Marquez.
The 18-year-old signed his letter of intent to play for the Bulldogs earlier this month during a ceremony at Brawley Union High.
“It feels pretty good,” said Marquez of the signing.
Marquez was one of six athletes that signed to play a college sport and one of two football players including teammate A.J. Grijalva, who will play at Puget Sound.
Marquez served as an outside linebacker and wide receiver for the Wildcats during his junior and senior seasons and said he was looking forward to playing for the Bulldogs this fall.
“It first started out when they looked at my recruitment page,” Marquez explained. “The coach emailed me and told me about [the program] and we started going back and forth.”
After a few months of learning about the program and the Bulldogs learning about Marquez, the Wildcat was offered an opportunity to play.
“I said ‘Yes,’ right away,” Marquez said.
While Marquez played on both sides of the ball for the Wildcats, he’ll primarily be helping the Bulldogs offensively as a wide receiver next season.
Marquez will join a Bulldog squad that finished last season with an overall record of 4-6 and a MIAA conference record of 2-4, finishing in fifth in the seven-team conference.
“I’m excited to see how everything is over there and what I’ll be able to help out with,” Marquez said. “I’m looking forward to the competition at the next level and just pushing myself to be better.”
Marquez said a cousin first encouraged him to play football and Marquez said he was glad he did.
“He made me push to get better and keep working,” he said.
Marquez said while he is excited about the opportunity to continue playing football he would miss his playing days at Warne Field.
“I’ll definitely miss my teammates and just the emotion of playing here,” he said.