Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Desert Pines QB selling the world on Las Vegas and UNLV

Desert Pines Marckell Grayson

L.E. Baskow

Desert Pines High School quarterback Marckell Grayson will sign with UNLV football on Feb. 1. He’s pictured at Desert Pines on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017.

UNLV recruit Marckell Grayson

Desert Pines High School quarterback Marckell Grayson will sign with UNLV football on Feb. 1. He's pictured at Desert Pines on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017.  Launch slideshow »

Marckell Grayson was lying on the sofa, his leg still swollen from surgery, trying to accept that his high school football career was over. A few days earlier, the Desert Pines senior quarterback had torn the ACL in his left knee in the first game of the season.

Would the injury, he wondered, jeopardize his scholarship offer to play at UNLV?

Then, he got a message from Rebels coach Tony Sanchez.

“He wrote, ‘We have been family since you committed, we are family now. We are with you 100 percent of the way,’ ” Grayson said. “I read it with such a sigh of relief.”

Grayson will sign with UNLV on Feb. 1. He’s considered a two-star recruit, but he could be one of most pivotal prospects in the signing class because he’s a native.

Sanchez has embraced Las Vegas — especially the Strip — in marketing of the program, saying the best way to win here is to build with local talent. In every step of making over the program, Sanchez has included Las Vegas — from the uniforms, slogans and field design.

Grayson fell in love with UNLV when he attended his first basketball game as a 6-year-old. About two months into Sanchez’s tenure Grayson was so inspired by his pro-Las Vegas message he took to Twitter with a promise, “If UNLV offers me, I’ll commit on the spot.”

“I believe Sanchez. He has a blueprint and master plan that will work,” Grayson said. “We are going to reach a bowl game and lead the Mountain West.”

Marckell the leader

The final minutes of the state championship game were ticking down when a teammate took off his pads and handed them to Grayson. Desert Pines led by five touchdowns, so the players concocted a plan to have the injured Grayson take the final knee.

Administrators blocked the move because Grayson wasn’t medically cleared, and his participation would mean forfeiting the game, but the gesture spoke to Grayson’s impact on the team.

“He really cares about his teammates, and the kids are drawn to that,” Desert Pines coach Tico Rodriguez said. “He understands how to build relationships. The kids follow him, and he keeps them focused.”

Grayson’s sophomore season ended when Desert Pines blew a 20-point lead in the state championship game, losing in overtime. The Jaguars’ season was derailed the next year when they were forced to forfeit games for using an ineligible player.

Through the conflicts, Grayson remained a consistent leader.

“Dealing with those burdens made us all stronger,” he said. “In the end, it all worked out. We were champions.”

Marckell the quarterback

Some say UNLV recruited the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Grayson for his athleticism, and will ultimately change his position. He’s been labeled a work-in-progress passer whose mechanics need refining.

But the quarterback improved a great deal prior to his senior season, his coaches said. Before the injury, in his only half of the season, he passed for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns.

“This was his time,” Rodriguez said. “I have lost some guys, but this was the most gut-wrenching, heart-hurting loss.”

Grayson passed for 2,180 yards and 27 touchdowns as a sophomore, and 1,636 yards and 21 touchdowns in 2015. He may not change positions, after all.

“He thinks on a different level,” said Jason Vaughan, a former UNLV quarterback who trains Grayson in his Rebel Camps program. “He’s so impressive, so unique in comparison to other 18-year-old kids.”

Grayson will redshirt and have a chance to develop running the scout team. But if coaches ask him to help elsewhere, he’s game.

“Of course, I’d be disappointed,” he said. “But I am one of those guys who will do whatever they ask of me.”

Marckell the Rebel

A handful of recruits were at Rebel Place apartments, at the end of a recruiting visit to the school, when Grayson gave his own pitch. He was long committed and determined to bring others with him.

One by one, recruits started giving coaches verbal pledges. In Sanchez’s three years hosting recruits, it may have been the most commitments in one weekend.

“I was in everybody’s ear, ‘Just commit, bro. Come on. There’s a reason why you are on this trip,’ ” Grayson said. “I felt like I had an impact, and my word meant something to them.”

Grayson also aggressively sells UNLV at Desert Pines, which has more than 10 players expected to sign with major college programs, including USC and Arizona. But, in a testament to Grayson’s popularity, they listened — over and over again — to him talk about the Rebels.

“He loves the city; he loves UNLV,” Rodriguez said of Grayson. “He wants his brothers with him. He recruited his guys hard because he believes in Coach Sanchez and wants them to be part of it.”

Marckell the mayor?

Grayson intends to study pre-medicine at UNLV with plans to become a kidney specialist. His younger sister, who has a kidney disorder, inspires him.

Those closest to him, though, predict a future in public service. He has been an active member of the Kappa Leadership League since his freshman year, joining about 20 West Las Vegas teens in organizing clothing drives and feeding the homeless.

When the presidential debate was at UNLV last fall, the Kappa league hosted a watch party on the UNLV campus. Grayson, the club's multi-year president, led the charge welcoming visitors.

“His peers really listen to him and respect him,” said Lawrence Weekly, the Clark County Commissioner who helps run the organization. “Marckell is just that kind of person. He has that personality. We have so much talent in our community, and that kid leads the way.”

When he says he wants to win football games at UNLV, it’s not only for himself or his teammates. Like Sanchez, Grayson insists it’s for the greater good, to help bring Las Vegas together.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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