Freeport grad McCormick helping General McLane football team
EDINBORO — When it comes to the coaching ranks, Marshall McCormick has climbed the ladder quickly.
Just, please, stop asking him about how young he is.
A Freeport and Slippery Rock University graduate, McCormick took over as the head coach at General McLane High School in March. Only 24 years old at the time of his hiring, he was reminded of his age during the interview process. Community members and even his friends let him know it.
“I did all my research and I did the best to my ability to prepare for the opportunity,” said McCormick, who turned 25 before his team’s schedule got underway. “I was preparing like, ‘Hey, it could happen tomorrow or it could happen in 10 years.’ I knew I wanted to be ready.”
Answering the skepticism during his round of talks with the district was simple. McCormick asked decision-makers not to look for a coach with experience, but for one that would give the kids an enjoyable one.
That involves being able to better connect with the team. It being only seven years since he was in their shoes, he has an idea of his players’ balancing act of academics and athletics. He shares a common taste in music and uses popular social media as a way to supplement his tutelage.
“TikTok is the big thing right now,” McCormick said. “For me, it’s one of the best coaching tools I’ve ever seen. There’s receiving coaches on there. There’s guys coaching people up.
“Instead of me trying to explain to them what Cover 2 is, I find a video on TikTok and I send it to them that explains it in a way that they understand it.”
The ability to relate is part of the reason he was chosen to succeed Jim Wells, who had coached the Lancers longer than McCormick had been alive. Wells steered the program to a winning season in all but four of his 25 years at the helm.
McCormick got his start on the gridiron at Freeport. John Gaillot, the Yellowjackets’ football coach, convinced him during his junior track season to come out and play receiver the following fall.
“Up until then, I hadn’t played football since my eighth grade year,” McCormick said. “It was a little unique that I didn’t play high school football until my senior year.”
Over the course of that 2015 schedule, he hauled in 19 receptions, going for 289 yards. He scored three of his four touchdowns that year in a 50-10 win over Burrell and made enough of an impression during that campaign to earn a preferred walk-on at Robert Morris.
He spent one year with the Colonials, then transferred to Slippery Rock University, where he soon after walked away from playing football to focus on his studies.
“I knew I wanted to be a teacher at that point,” McCormick said. “School kind of had to come first.”
While student teaching at Deer Lakes, his first opportunity to coach football came about. Joe Lamenza, then the coach at Ellwood City’s Lincoln High School, was looking to add to his staff. He reached out to some contacts in the education department at SRU.
Coincidentally, Lamenza roomed with Scott Farison, RMU’s defensive coordinator during McCormick’s time on the team, when the two were graduate assistants on the Colonials’ staff.
After a glowing recommendation, McCormick began coaching with the Wolverines that spring.
“He was only with me for four or five months, maybe,” Lamenza said. “But, I was just blown away by everything about him, really.”
McCormick spent that summer soaking the environment in.
“I kind of just fell in love with it,” McCormick said. “I knew it was something I wanted to do for a long time. Just the connection I was able to have with the kids and all of that made it meaningful for me.”
It wasn’t long before he found a job as a middle school phys ed teacher in the General McLane School District. The distance kept him from being around all the time, but didn’t stop him from joining the team on the weekends.
“He felt terrible about leaving us in the summertime after the time he put in,” Lamenza said. “That first year he was a teacher at McLane, he didn’t coach football. He actually drove down to all of our games throughout the season … just so he could keep his commitment and help us out.”
Both as a teacher and a coach, McCormick prides himself on being able to build relationships. He assisted for Wells for two seasons.
“I want to win and I want to do, obviously, great things for this program,” McCormick said. “But, at the end of the day, when everything is all said and done, it’s not going to be about the wins. It’s about turning these young men into fathers and husbands and things like that.”
Lamenza is convinced that his former pupil has the tools to be a great leader.
“I’m not surprised at all about the trajectory he’s on as a coach,” Lamenza said. “I think he’s going to have a terrific career at General McLane.
“I think they struck gold with him.”
