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Christian Marmolejo could feel the pressure.
On August 31, 2018, just before the start of San Marcos’ first game of the season against Buda Hays, Marmolejo walked onto the field, hand-in-hand with his fellow team captains. He took in the roaring crowd. The future of his football career was in front of him.
It was intense. The senior offensive lineman loved every second of it.
“Just walking out on the field and feeling that pressure, that anxiety that you just feel, it feels amazing,” Marmolejo said.
Ten months later, the two-year letterman experienced a similar feeling. Sitting at a table inside the San Marcos Student Activity Center, a roaring crowd cheering him on, his future in football in front of him. On May 9, Marmolejo signed his letter of intent to join the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs.
“(I had) just a lot of anxiety,” Marmolejo said. “It’s just overwhelming. But it was a good feeling.”
Marmolejo was introduced to the sport by his father, just watching games on TV and playing catch in their backyard. He started taking it seriously when he reached middle school, taking a liking to the discipline of playing organized football.
The more he watched the players on the screen, the more he wanted to be like them.
“I’d look up to players in college and say ‘I want to do that one day,’” Marmolejo said. “I wanted to be a role model for a community and do something that most players can’t do. And that’s where I got my biggest inspiration from.”
Head coach Mark Soto described Marmolejo as solid on and off the field. In addition to being a team captain in the 2018 season, the offensive lineman was named to the 26-6A Academic All-District team with a 93 average.
“He’s a very consistent player that we had,” Soto said. “He was selfless and he had a strong will. He was always willing to make a move to whatever position he needed to play to help the team out.
“We appreciate his playing days here, he’s definitely one of the building blocks for the San Marcos Rattlers.”
Marmolejo will join a fellow Rattler at TLU this fall in senior safety Therrance Soto. He plans to major in either kinesiology or business administration while with the Bulldogs.
He knows he’ll be under pressure more than ever as a collegiate student-athlete. It just means he’ll love it more than ever, too.
“I want to just be the best player I can be. Whether that’s on the field, off the field. I want to be the best student-player that I can be,” Marmolejo said. “All the sweat, all the blood and tears on the field, off the field, it just made a difference and got me to the point where I am today.”
