Year Off From School Aided Marshall

In the fall of 2008, Randall Marshall of Laurel was around the game of soccer but not as a participant.

She had graduated earlier that year from Pallotti Prep and was part of a girls soccer program that enjoyed success as one of the top teams in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (IAAM) as the Panthers won a league title her senior year of 2007.

Marshall, now 20, said she attracted the attention of Division I programs, including the University of Maryland.

“I was not scouted by a lot of teams because of my grades,” said Marshall, who said her grade-point-average was around 2.3 in high school.

So that fall of 2008 Marshall, a recent high school graduate, did not attend college and helped out as an assistant for the Pallotti Prep girls soccer team. She was an assistant under former Pallotti Prep head coach Mike Vawter, who also coached Marshall at the Laurel private school.

“It definitely helped me focus. I was sure I wanted to play soccer,” Marshall told Laurel Patch last week.

Vawter said he wanted to ensure that Marshall knew she had options.

"The first year she graduated, she did not get into school right away," Vawter said Tuesday. "The big thing for me is I wanted to keep her involved in positive things. I just wanted to make sure she stayed in a positive environment and kept her focus on getting ready for college."

"I did not want her to get frustrated with the whole situation. Randall was a very good one on one defender. She was very tenacious," Vawter added.

The following fall Marshall enrolled at Delaware State and is now a junior defender and one of the key players for Division I Hornets of the MEAC. She started the first six games of this season and had one goal for Delaware State, who began the year 0-5-1.

She had her team’s goal in a 3-1 loss on Sunday to Fordham.

“I knew coming out of high school it would be hard but not this hard,” Marshall said of playing at the Division I level. “But all of the hard work that you put into it is special.”

Last year she played in 14 games, with 11 starts, and scored her first college goal on Aug. 20, 2010 at Maryland, Baltimore County. As a freshman in 2009 she played in seven games, with six starts, and had eight shots, four on goal.

“This is the best season that I have had here. We are trying to go up” the standings, she said. “We have brought in some good freshmen. We really think this is our year.”

Marshall said a year away from school and has helped as a leader with the team. “I am the oldest player on the team. I am trying to be a leader,” Marshall said. There is only one senior on the Delaware State team.

Now a sports management major with a minor in coaching, Marshall found out about Delaware State thanks to her cousin, Nicole Gould, who used to work in the athletic department at Delaware State.

The 5-foot-5 Marshall grew up playing club soccer for the Laurel Wildcats and the team was a three-time state champion.

In her junior and senior seasons at Pallott Prep the Panthers were a combined 24-6-2. Marshall had 12 goals and five assists in high school and was an all-conference player as a junior and senior. Her sister, Bailey, is now a student at Laurel High.

Marshall hopes to one day be an athletic director or coach. She gives a lot of credit to Vawter.

“That year definitely helped me focus and make something out of my life," she said. And that is what she is doing at Delaware State in Dover.

"She kept her focus and I am proud of that," said Vawter, who saw Marshall play last year at league foe Howard.