By Tom Halliburton
Nothing against Rancho Grande, Carmela's and Casa Ole' but there are times when a guy needs to leave those enchiladas alone. Marcquis Pitre knows.
By the time young Marcquis reached Memorial high school in summer 2006 as a freshman, his weight ballooned toward the big 3--0--0.
Marcquis only stood 5-11 and had to play a mobile right guard spot on the offensive line. That meant Marquis went to the chow line more than his football coaches could tolerate.
Marcquis is on the bubble in Nov. 2009 as a Port Arthur Memorial senior. His fellow Titans football players are too. For much different reasons, Pitre has been on a bubble of a different kind in previous seasons.
He's on the bubble as a potential Port Arthur News Super Team selection in his final high school football season. His Memorial squad is on the bubble for a potential Class 5A state playoff berth going into the regular season's final week.
That's a major contrast from the bubble confronting Pitre earlier in his high school football career.
Marcquis' earlier bubble was that he simply was too big. He was carrying around too much cargo. Food tasted good. Workouts were hard. Running was not fun. You get the idea.
When Memorial meets Baytown Lee on Friday in Baytown's Stallworth Stadium at 7 p.m., Pitre needs to leave the bubble back in Port Arthur and go all-out from 7 to 10 p.m. He needs his teammates to do the same. That's not what they did last week in a terribly humiliating 36-30 loss to previously winless Channelview.
Marcquis was not even looking ahead to Lee on Friday when he was talking Tuesday afternoon to this reporter.
"We just have to go out and have a great practice today," he said. "If we work hard Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then everything will fall into place on Friday. We didn't do that last week. We came out flat. Then we regrouped by halftime and realized what we needed to do, but it was too late by the time we fought back."
An 0-8 Channelview ambushed Memorial for a 21-0 first quarter surprise because the Titans failed to prepare adequately enough. Marcquis departed Memorial Stadium for the last time that night in tears. A revolting two weeks had caused Memorial to go from one extreme to the other. The players had trouble coping with the disappointment of losing to West Brook.
This week's workouts have convinced Pitre that the Titans have refocused for Lee.
"We're going to be more focused, I promise you that," he said. "This is a do-or-die situation. There's really no tomorrow and you're not supposed to take any team lightly. We were licking our wounds from the West Brook game the whole week. That ain't going to happen again."
The 17-year-old son of Marcus Pitre and Sabrina Ransom has felt a closeness to his head coach Kenny Harrison who advised Marcquis to reduce to 275 by the start of this summer's pre-season workouts.
Pitre noticed a different Titans head coach last week. The loss to West Brook devastated Harrison. The resignation of Dr. Mark Honea devastated Harrison. Kenny's sister Eukisha Tyler was in the hospital for three days. The Titans simply had a difficult time trying to refocus.
Harrison's sister is out of the hospital now. The losses of the past are behind Kenny. The Titans are refocused.
"Marcquis deserves to be on the Super Team, because he's graded out high each week," Harrison said. "He was overweight as a freshman and sophomore and lost a lot of weight last summer. We want to get back on track now and nobody wants it any more than Marcquis. He's a very, vocal leader on and off the field."
Remember. Pitre said it first. It ain't going to happen again. Memorial and Marcquis truly are on the bubble to make absolutely certain of that.
Titan Tidbits
Two key defensive starters missed the Channelview game -- senior inside linebacker Earl Hines (ankle sprain) and junior outside linebacker Ashland Wilson (academic-related problems). Each of them will return to their regular starting jobs on Friday night at 7 p.m. One other key starter will not. Senior cornerback Michael Johnson sustained an ankle sprain in the Channelview game and is scheduled to miss the Baytown Lee game. Harrison said Johnson will be replaced at corner by one of three candidates, senior Caleb Cole, junior DeVante Conner or sophomore Terrence Singleton... Titans will depart for Baytown after Friday's 2:30 pep rally at the Memorial practice field. The game at Baytown will not be carried on radio or television or tape delay. If Memorial wins, it enters as the top seed in the Class 5A Division 2 bracket and faces 22-5A runner-up La Porte in a bidistrict game scheduled for next Saturday in Pasadena's Memorial Stadium at 1 p.m. Memorial also can lose at Lee and qualify as Division 2 No. 2 seed provided that Baytown Sterling beats Channelview on Friday at Channelview. But the Titans would not qualify for the playoffs if Lee and Channelview both win on Friday.
