Take a knee, tap your chest and point up.
That’s a ceremony Marquise Bridges hopes to partake in quite a few times this season for Petal. It all started last week against Gulfport following the senior’s first touchdown of the year.
“Just reminding myself and them what I do it for,” Bridges said.
Bridges does it for his mother, Tante, who tragically passed away in January. Bridges does it for Jordan Blackwell, a childhood friend that was shot and killed in May. Bridges does it for himself.
There’s a certain comfort level in knowing the two are watching down on him from above.
“Every time I step on that field, I think about both of them.”
Win or lose, those thoughts follow him. The pain, it’s still there and always will be. Still, Bridges makes do. Hard to not find him with a smile on his face, a pep in his step and a personality to match.
“Marquise is what you want all your football players to be like,” Petal head coach Marcus Boyles said. “If I had a son, he’s just what I’d want my son to be like. A high character kid that’s highly motivated.”
Most of that motivation comes from his mother and the life lessons she taught him in their brief time together.
“One thing I loved my momma about is that she stayed on me, my brother and my sister,” Bridges explained. “I respect that so much because she made me the man I am today. She always pushed me to make good grades and told me there’s more to life than just football. She just always had faith in us, and I love her for that.”
Bridges also has great love for his Petal teammates, who stuck by his side when he needed them the most.
“They were just there for me,” Bridges said. “Them just being there for me, it made me feel a lot better. “I’d go to war for either one of them.”
Boyles certainly feels a lot better knowing he has a player like Bridges in and around this program. He’s a game changer in many ways.
“His work ethic and effort every Friday night overcomes any weaknesses he might have,” Boyles concluded. “He’s also just a great young man.”
