Navy’s QB embraces leadership role
Malcolm Perry didn’t want to be a quarterback.
Not in high school. Not at the Naval Academy.
He never balked at being a leader, but he just wanted to do things the right way and let others follow.
That’s all changed. Navy’s senior quarterback from Clarksville, Tennessee, has accepted his role as quarterback and leader. It has worked out well for the Midshipmen, who take a 9-2 record and No. 21 ranking in the Amway Coaches Poll going into Saturday’s showdown with Army in Philadelphia.
Perry wanted to be a running back, preferably for the Tennessee Volunteers. But the Vols never called.
Instead, he accepted an offer to play at Navy. For three seasons he bounced around from slotback to quarterback, even making plays as a pass-catcher and kick returner.
This season, Navy arrived at the conclusion that quarterback was where he belonged.
“You’re our quarterback,” head coach Ken Niumatalolo told him. “We’re putting all our chips on you.”
Perry accepted his position and all that came with it.
“I’ve really embraced it,” he texted Brian Beaubien, his high school coach, in the spring. “I want to be the quarterback now. I want to lead these guys.”
Perry knew two things when he was at Kenwood High School: He wanted to play major college football and he wanted to join the military. When he found himself being recruited by Air Force, Army and Navy — along with his hometown school, Austin Peay — it became a matter of which military academy he would attend.
Both his parents were career Army enlistees, each rising to the rank of sergeant first class. They ended up stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where Perry was born.
The family moved across the state border to nearby Clarksville when they retired.
“My two youngest — Malcolm’s the baby and he has a sister — they complained because they never got to go anywhere,” Bonny Perry, his mother, said. “Most (military) kids complain because they never get to stay anywhere.”
Beaubien approached Perry during his junior year to tell him Navy and Air Force were interested. He wanted to make sure the young player was willing to take on the responsibility that goes with accepting an athletic offer that comes with a commitment to serve as an officer for five years after graduation.
“I knew his parents were Army, but having a military background and going to a military academy are two different things,” the coach said. “I mean, it’s a huge commitment to go to a military academy: from a life standpoint, from an academic standpoint, the whole nine yards.”
Air Force wanted the two-time AllState performer as a quarterback. Navy was willing to let him choose his position. Army began its recruitment late, but had a plan to groom him as its starting quarterback by his second season.
Perry chose Navy, and all that went with it: the rigors of strict academics and discipline along with the hours of football practice.
Perry learned the priorities at the Naval Academy soon after arriving at the campus in Annapolis, Maryland. “Yes sir.”
“No sir.”
“I’ll find out, sir.”
“Beat Army.”
Those were among the first four things he was taught to say to get along.
“It’s drilled into you,” he said, “that you’re not supposed to like those guys.”
The 5-foot-9, 190-pounder has rushed for 1,000 yards in three different seasons, becoming only the second player in Navy history to do so. The American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year has rushed for 1,500 yards this year triggering Navy’s option offense. He needs just 87 yards in his next two games — the Midshipmen will play Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl to close out their season — to pass Napoleon McCallum for the school’s alltime single-season rushing record, and 68 yards in total offense to set a singleseason total offense school record.
But in three tries he’s never beaten Army.
Having played in it three times, he knows how special the game is.
“It’s an experience that’s hard to put into words,” he said. “Leading up to the game there’s a lot of emotion involved, a lot of nerves. It’s definitely not a regular game that you go out and play every Saturday.”
In youth football, Perry was the kid who always finished running his laps before the others. In high school he was the best player on the team, but also the guy who never missed a practice, who got good grades, who never got into trouble.
“That was how he led,” his mother said, “and at that age a lot of those kids were not following.”
At Navy, a quarterback has to lead other leaders. Every teammate is a future officer. Leadership is not just expected: it’s part of the curriculum.
“Every year we have classes on leadership,” Perry said. “I would say the biggest lesson I’ve learned is you can’t turn it on and off. The biggest trait of a good leader is consistency.”