Marcus Post of Lakeridge (Oregon) sets table for promising career: ‘You're going to hear his name a lot’

By Shane Hoffmann 

Photos by Kevinn Doern, Undefeated Films 

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Marcus Post was determined to gain 15 pounds. He had just five weeks to do it.

An incoming freshman late last summer, Post’s mission was to earn varsity snaps on the Lakeridge football team. Bulking up wasn’t a suggestion. It was a mandate from head coach Spencer Phillips and Post treated it as such. 

It meant eating, at times, eight meals daily — peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, burrito bowls, protein shakes — anything with a high caloric value that didn’t take too long to cook. 

It meant tweaking his bedtime routine, as well. One of Post’s coaches explained that the best way to gain, and hold, weight is to prevent those calories from slipping away overnight. Chug water before bed, place a peanut butter and jelly sandwich somewhere in the bathroom, and then, when you inevitably awake to go to the bathroom, eat the sandwich afterward, before returning to sleep, he suggested. And Post did it nightly, often waking up around 2-3 a.m. 

Such is the undertaking for a freshman to find varsity snaps in Oregon, a state where physicality reigns supreme as torrential downpours — which often accompany playoff football across the state — dictate the pace, and style, of play, rewarding teams with reliable trench play and bulldozing runners.

“Doesn't matter if you're at 2A or 6A, to start as a freshman, you have to physically be ready,” Phillips said.

Post barely scratched 150 pounds before beginning his bulk. By the time the season rolled around, he was 170-175, hovering right around Phillips’ required threshold.

“The physicality, it’s obviously way different,” Post said. “But once you kind of get used to it, you learn how to use your body in certain ways to push bigger guys around.”

In six weeks, Post went from a player who’d likely seldom see the field, to a player who never came off it. 

Post played each phase of the game for Lakeridge. He showed his commitment early through his successful bulk and consistency with weight training — since eighth grade, Post never missed a lift. Next, he proved his intellectual mettle early in camp before turning in one of the state’s best seasons by a ninth-grader and positioning himself for what appears likely to be an illustrious career with the Pacers as they try to bounce back after last year's 5-7 season. 

*** 

Phillips remembers thinking to himself that he had no choice but to play Post real snaps. Post-bulk, he physically was “right at the line” of what Phillips looks for. He checked the mental side of things early, too.

The coach had Post study nearly an entire playbook for one receiver position ahead of camp last season, and then, upon arrival to practice, ordered him to line up at an entirely different one.

“That was like a big part of me getting on the field,” Post said. “Knowing plays when other players didn't.” 

It gave Phillips a chance to gauge Post’s confidence level and see how the youngster coped with stress. Phillips actually calls it his “stress test.” He uses it often on young players.

“Knock on wood, it's been a pretty good indicator for me so far,” he said. “Really, I just want to see how they respond. Does he look panicked? Does he line up and know how to do it right away? … With a lot of these freshmen, they have to really lock into one job. And it's like, well, if I can have him learn something, and then he actually sees the whole picture, then it's like, oh, this kid is ready to go now.”

And go, Post did. 

The funny thing is that Phillips thought Post was going to play only on offense. That was the plan, anyway. As it happened, one week before Lakeridge’s season opener, three players from the Pacers’ secondary succumbed to injuries. Because of the school's size, Lakeridge rarely has legitimate depth at most positions. 

“It's kind of like first string, and if first string gets hurt, we're kind of in trouble,” Phillips said.

The coaching staff approached Post, asking him if he had any experience on the defensive side of the ball. He’d played defense as recently as eighth grade, in fact, but for only half of the season as an outside linebacker.

That would do. They stuck him at safety out of abundant necessity. It was break glass in case of emergency.

“If anything happens over the top, you have to be there to prevent it,” Post said of the position. “It's a lot of responsibility. It was just new to me.”

But amidst a secondary decimated by injuries, Post found a home. He started the rest of the season on the back end of the defense, earning a nod as all-Three Rivers League honorable mention.

As of now, he plans to play both ways again next season, continuing his roles at safety, receiver and perhaps punt returner, where he made splashes last fall. 

“I didn't really expect it to go the way it went,” Post said of his breakthrough freshman season. “I, of course, was working to play varsity, but starting both ways for the whole year wasn't really in my mind. But it ended up happening and I really enjoyed it.”

*** 

Having potential is one thing. Realizing it is another. Either way, having a blueprint for early success never hurts. For Post, that came in the form of a teammate, one who made splashes as an underclassman just like him. 

Post met Joey Olsen — a 4-star receiver, USC commit and rising senior for the Pacers — in eighth grade. Olsen started on varsity as a freshman, too, and had heard about Post after his contributions as a receiver to the school’s youth program continually increased. 

Post was drawn to Olsen. 

“Once I met him and ran routes with him, I immediately knew that he was going to be great,” Olsen said.

Post trains like Olsen. And just like Olsen, Post is turning into a player who “breathes, eats and sleeps football,” according to Phillips.

He spent the early weeks of the season picking the upperclassman’s brain on how to get free off-press coverage. Post said entering the program, he was “terrible” at releases on his routes. By midseason, he’d become a legitimate option as a possession receiver in the intermediate areas of the field. 

“Over the (course of the) year, I saw him get more comfortable and really settle into his game,” Olsen said. “(He) became more confident week by week.”

Now up to 185 pounds, Post is hoping to add a new element to his game in Year 2. He wants to more effectively stretch defenses vertically, a skillset that could turn Post and Olsen into quite the one-two punch and help a continued strive for balance in a Pacers offense that lost its quarterback, among other key pieces, to graduation.

Post’s accelerated timeline as a young contributor would suggest he is capable of another jump next season, such as the one he’s envisioning as a deep threat.

“He just is at the point where he wants it more than everyone right now,” Phillips said.

He added: “You're going to hear his name a lot.”