(Editor’s Note: South Jersey Glory Days Senior of the Month athletes are selected by our staff, which takes into consideration a student’s athletic achievements, academic prowess and leadership abilities. If you’d like to nominate a senior for this recognition, email sullyglorydays@gmail.com. Marcus Offer of the Millville High football team is our selection for December 2024.)
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
The past four years, the Millville High football team recorded 44 wins against just eight losses. The Thunderbolts won a group championship (the year before New Jersey started playing down to overall state champions) in 2021, and the next season they beat Northern Highlands to win a state title.
They made it to three straight sectional championship games, winning twice, and were a touchdown away from playing for another state championship this fall.
To keep replicating that kind of success you need outstanding players who will do whatever it takes to win. In that regard, the Bolts’ center has a lot to offer.
Marcus Offer, that is.
South Jersey Glory Days’ Senior of the Month for December has been the glue that’s held together the offensive and defensive lines, and he spent his career snapping the ball to outstanding quarterbacks, including Nate Robbins, Jacob Zamot, and this year a sophomore, Robbie O’Connor. It’s no secret as to why those players have been so successful — they’ve had one of the best offensive linemen in the state protecting them.
“He’s a four-year starter and an amazing young man. He’s a first-team all-conference and first-team all-South Jersey guy, and a big part of this program. He’s been a part of sectional and state championships. He’s experienced a heck of a high school football career. He’s our center, and our leader out there,” said current head coach Humberto Ayala, who was an assistant under Dennis Thomas when Offer came in as a freshman. “(Robbie) comes in his first year taking the reins at quarterback and has a center with that kind of experience, a guy who can lead the line and understands everything that goes into it. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”
“When I came in as a freshman I wanted to be one of the very best in New Jersey. I set myself out to be that. I would say my career is definitely what I expected it to be, but I believe I can always get better as a player,” said Offer. “The biggest thing I had to work on (early in my career) was my ability to pick up techniques and alignment. I did a lot of training, a lot of offseason training that translates onto the field. I believed that I could be a better player if I put everything that I learned into my performances. My (football) IQ got better, and my ability to read defenses.”
Offer is the total package — he’s smart (a 3.2 PGA), he’s humble, he’s a leader on both sides of the ball; and he has the size to be a force (6-foot-1, 275 pounds). With Offer leading the offensive line, Millville amassed nearly 20,000 yards of total offense the last four years. That’s not a misprint. In four years the Bolts have accumulated 19,119 yards.
“What people don’t know about Marcus is his motor and how hard he works, and how badly he wants to win on a consistent basis. When I call college coaches I’m like, ‘his motor is unreal.’ He doesn’t stop. He’s a kid you’re fortunate to have and you don’t ever have to worry about is he going to give me 100 percent today? That’s just not a question,” Ayala said. “I tell college coaches, listen, there are kids all over the country, but there’s a difference when you recruit a kid from a winning program because that kid knows what it takes to win. He understands how to compete.
“He’s the prime example of what it takes to compete at a high level on a consistent basis,” Ayala continued. “Marcus has seen every situation possible, he’s been through every moment possible, and from a young age, too. He’s a positive role model to our younger kids.”
Offer said he has thrived in that leadership role, and it has showed the past couple of years. Fans know that No. 53 is going to make an impact on each and every game he plays in, and that determination to show out for his hometown is contagious and inspiring to other players.
“It’s amazing being a team leader. That leadership role has been challenging at times when you’re dealing with different types of people, but I love taking charge of my team because I want to be a role model for the younger kids,” said Offer, who posted on X in November that he earned his first college scholarship offer from West Virginia State University. “(The seniors) are who I looked to when I was a freshman, and I’m just happy I could be that type of leader. Being a role model to a younger group encourages them to become a better version of themselves, and then we can have great leaders for this program in the future.”
It’s not easy for everybody growing up in Millville, and a lot of Thunderbolt players go through some kind of adversity in their lives before even suiting up in the blue-and-orange. But as football players they already have learned to overcome adversity, and they keep doing it every year on the field.
“The hardest thing to overcome is the critics who say how bad the line was during some games if we lost or something like that. Just being blamed for something that you put your all into. But in the end we were getting a lot of praise from people,” said Offer, who led Millville to a 10-3 season that included a trip to the sectional championship game. “Our team faces adversity and whenever a challenge presents itself to us, our coaches instill in our minds that going through adversity is a normal thing and the best thing to do is to take the challenge head on and play your hearts out. That’s what the captains on this team try to teach the younger group is that even though you might be in a bad situation, you can always push past it and get yourself in a better situation.”
“He’s done a lot in this city. He’s helped out with youth clinics and done camps with kids to give back. He comes from a good home and his parents did a great job instilling core values in him. He’s going to be a leader in life and excel. He’s just a quality kid,” Ayala said. “It makes life a heck of a lot easier anytime you have kids who understand what goes into it and how hard you have to work to be successful. When you have to fight for them to understand how hard they have to play, that’s a challenge. But in Millville, because of our standard and the culture that we’ve established — and him being a part of that and growing up in the youth circuit — you don’t have to fight those battles when the kids get to high school because they know what’s expected of them when they get here. They want to leave their legacy and create their own history like everybody in the past has done.”
As for Offer and this year’s senior class and the legacy they’ll leave, well, that’s simple — they’ll be graduating as champions, and guys who set a new standard of excellence at Millville High.
“I think the legacy that this (2024) class is going to leave on this program is the most memorable thing. Obviously we won a state championship. We faced a lot of ups and downs the last four years but we’ve all been together and we came all the way from the youth program where we won championships, all the way up to high school, where we did it, too,” Offer said. “That’s what is most memorable to me — that we went from winning championships in the youth program to winning a state championship in high school. It shows we’re a winning program altogether.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
