Wednesday, September 29, 2004
The linebacker and co-captain underwent surgery for a torn pectoral muscle.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State senior football player Yancey Marcum is still in a lot of pain, but that pain is nothing like the one he's going to have Saturday.
That's because Marcum won't be playing against Western Kentucky University in the Penguins' Gateway Conference opener.
In fact, Marcum won't play again this season. The 6-1, 250-pound linebacker who was elected one of the team's co-captains prior to the season, tore his pectoral muscle in summer weight workouts leaving him unable to play.
He tried to play in the season opener, but decided after that to pack it in for the season.
The Nicholasville, Ky., native is still on the sidelines every week rooting for his teammates and trying to help out some of the younger players.
Regret
Still, he wishes he could be on the field Saturday night in his home state when the Penguins take on the Hilltoppers.
"I'd give anything to be able to play in this game," Marcum said. "They've beaten us three straight times and we owe them one this year."
Last Thursday, Marcum had surgery on his pectoral muscle to repair the tear and said everything went very smoothly.
"They found the muscle all rolled up and unrolled it and put it back together," Marcum said.
But Marcum was not going to let this surgery stop him from being at the Penguins game last Saturday.
"I had my parents drive me to Youngstown on Friday," he said. "I was still drugged up from the surgery, but they dropped me off and then went back home."
Watching from the sidelines these days, Marcum said that his teammates are not really far away from becoming an outstanding football team.
"We have a lot of young players in there and they are still learning what it's like under game conditions," Marcum said.
Getting better
"We are making a lot of little mistakes, but those mistakes can build up into a big one," Marcum said. "It's the reason we're 2-2 instead of 4-0, but the more these kids play the better they're getting and hopefully this week we can get things turned around."
The Penguins have no easy task ahead of them the next three weeks.
Following Saturday's game with Western Kentucky (2-1), the No. 6 team in the latest Division I-AA poll, the Penguins will return home to play No. 1 ranked Southern Illinois (3-1) on Oct. 9. They will follow that with a home contest against No. 13 ranked Northern Iowa (1-2) on Oct. 16.