As the Friday night stadium lights shone down on a crosstown rivalry matchup in Marietta, Georgia, Northwestern’s 2025 quarterback commit Marcus Romain trotted out for a seemingly routine opening drive.
It was an atmosphere he knew well, stepping into Wheeler High School’s starting quarterback role as a freshman.
But as Romain crossed the line of scrimmage, he cracked his knuckle on an opposing player’s helmet. Although he battled through injury to lead his team to a 24-17 win, Romain soon realized his senior season suffered a major setback.
“We were starting to hit our stride,” Romain said. “I try to stay positive because I want that feeling to start to emanate throughout the rest of the team.”
Romain became first-year offensive coordinator Zach Lujan’s first quarterback commit in March and looked to put the stresses of the recruiting process on the back burner during his final high school season. However, a broken hand caused the dual-threat quarterback to miss the bulk of his last campaign at Wheeler.
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Romain took Wheeler on an upward trajectory since a 1-9 freshman season. During his sophomore campaign, the team climbed to a 5-6 record and Romain’s squad finished 7-4 in his junior year.
Wheeler assistant coach Terry Jones said he first noticed Romain’s potential when the passer was just a middle schooler. Romain’s dedication to improving his football knowledge makes him stand out from the pack, Jones added.
“He just kept wanting to get better and keep working on his craft,” Jones said. “Being a quarterback is not about how far you can throw it and how fast you can run the ball. You need to understand the nuances of the game.”
A broken knuckle marked the end of Romain’s high school football career, but when he initially served as the backup varsity quarterback as a freshman, an injury to the starter thrust Romain into the spotlight.
Wheeler High School Principal Paul Gillihan said Romain’s character when adversity struck immediately caught his eye.
“He wasn’t really focused on himself. It was more about the team,” he said. “I thought, ‘This kid’s gonna be good. This kid’s gonna be good because he knows the priority is not him — it’s the team.’”
Romain said he remembers his first high school game like it was yesterday. He said he was “starstruck” by the Friday night lights’ powerful glare and the crowd’s roaring cheers, but he quickly found his footing as he navigated the transition from middle school running back to quarterback.
Despite Romain describing his debut as a shaky start, Jones said Romain’s first game was a tone-setter.
“That gave him the opportunity to get into the game and he started playing extremely well,” Jones said. “The rest of it is history.”
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Romain’s football career began in first grade, when his mother Andrea Romain walked through the elementary school doors past a Pee Wee football coach handing out fliers.
Her son stopped, and despite her effort to drag him along, he wouldn’t budge.
“I was about to say, ‘No, we’re going to do baseball,’ and Marcus was right there beside me, and he grabbed that flier from the man’s hand,” she said. “That was how Marcus ended up playing football. He insisted, and I ended up signing him up, and we have never looked back.”
For Andrea Romain, playing football seemed instinctual for her son, since she cannot remember ever watching it at home.
Marcus Romain continued playing other sports like soccer, lacrosse and track. Lacrosse was the last to go as he entered high school, which his dad, Pinel Romain, said marked a turning point in his son’s football trajectory.
“When he started playing football, I didn’t think he was gonna take it to that level,” he said. “When he said that’s what he wanted to do, I said, ‘That’s very demanding.’ And he said, ‘I got it. That’s what I want.’”
In addition to team practices, Romain trains with quarterback coach Shai Shorty for up to three sessions per week. There, the two work on situation-based drills.
Shorty said their work helps Romain make quick decisions when plays break down.
“He does a really good job of operating in chaos and … being able to help everybody make a play,” he said. “He understands why he’s throwing certain passes the way that they’re throwing, as opposed to we’re just throwing routes for an hour.”
However, some skills cannot be taught.
For Shorty, it’s Marcus Romain’s self-starter personality that sets him apart from other athletes.
“I always knew he would be good,” he said. “I work with a lot of people who are talented, but they don’t really want to be good.”
Years before Marcus Romain actualized his collegiate goals, his dad said he had always been persistent in refining his knowledge of the game as his playing ability developed. He was studying football history and memorizing the playbook long before running his first touchdown for Wheeler.
Pinel Romain recalled that even as an elementary schooler, his son always wanted to throw a ball around.
“I would say, ‘When can we stop?’” he said. “And he’d say, ‘One more, one more.’”
Likewise, Wheeler football coach Bryan Love said his quarterback’s drive to improve propelled him to success.
Love said Romain has never faltered in chasing his goal to play at the collegiate level.
“He was always very inquisitive on how to get better, and those things stood out,” he said. “He always talked about what the future would look like. His goal was to play college football one day.”
Love added that Marcus Romain is always “the first one in and the last one to leave.”
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Marcus Romain is in one of Wheeler’s most widely regarded programs, and it’s not on the gridiron. The school is best known for its magnet program, which offers advanced science, math and technology classes for successful applicants.
In addition to taking the most rigorous classes, Gillihan said Marcus Romain regularly engages as a vocal member of the Principal Advisory Council and the Northeast Cobb Business Association, a collective of students who offer a student’s perspective on issues raised by council members.
To Marcus Romain, finding time for school, football and work isn’t about striking a balance, but a question of how to accomplish everything day to day in order to keep space for football.
“Whenever there’s something I need to do, I just try to get it done,” he said. “I never really think about it as, like, balance. Football is where I find my relaxation. So it’s not balancing football, it’s kind of everything else and then getting to play football, too. That’s where I find my peace.”
The prestige of Wheeler’s magnet program drew Marcus Romain to the school despite its lower standing in football compared to other high schools in Marietta. Still, he said he wanted to put Wheeler Wildcat football “on the map.”
As the son of two immigrants from Jamaica and Haiti, Romain said his parents always encouraged him to focus on academics.
“That was something that was really emphasized to me as a young child, to make sure I get my education,” he said.
In the recruiting process, Marcus Romain said academics were a significant factor. He received offers from Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Colombia, Boston College and the Navy.
He said it was the combination of NU’s high academic standing, the coaches and his Midwestern roots that made the ’Cats his top choice.
The culmination of his hope to attend an academically rigorous university with a Big Ten football program arrived in February when he received a text from Lujan.
Andrea Romain said when the offer came through, she fully supported her son’s steadfast decision.
“When Northwestern approached Marcus, it was a done deal,” she said.
When Marcus Romain took his official visit in May, redshirt sophomore quarterback Jack Lausch was his host. The few days he had to bond with his future teammates confirmed that the school he targeted since freshman year was the right choice.
“One night, you know, we were all just kind of chilling in the players’ lounge,” he said. “We were just sitting there talking, and it just felt right.”
Born in Michigan, Marcus Romain had been visiting family in Evanston and said he imagined himself on campus long before Lujan extended an offer to join NU.
Lujan began coaching him from afar, noting improvements Romain could make on the field based on his Hudl clips.
Marcus Romain said he looks forward to working with reigning 2023 Big Ten Coach of the Year David Braun in just a few months.
“He’s a proven coach, and he’s a cool guy to talk to,” he said. “I feel like both coaches are going to push me to get better.”
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Marcus Romain said his ultimate goal is to play in the National Football League. As a kid, he supported the Detroit Lions and looked up to wide receiver Calvin Johnson, but now he chooses to focus on how he can emulate professional quarterbacks.
“There’s a lot of things that I feel like a lot of quarterbacks do well, and I kind of just want to take what every quarterback does, develop it and make it better and make it my own,” Marcus Romain said.
Andrea Romain has no doubt that her son will be able to handle playing football at the collegiate level because he has maintained the same relentless work ethic since he was in elementary school and would invite his classmates over to throw the ball.
From constructing a functional home gym to discovering a new role for himself as a student coach amid his injury, determination has been rooted in Marcus Romain throughout his life, Andrea Romain said.
“He has a greater drive that I never had as a teenager growing up,” she said. “He knows what he wants and he goes for it. That’s just Marcus. He finds ways to get things done.”
Andrea Romain has attended almost all of her son’s football games since that fateful day in the first grade hallway.
As her son’s self-described biggest cheerleader, Andrea Romain plans to make many trips to Evanston, where she’ll watch her son suit up with a new group of Wildcats next season.
His high school coaches said they hope he maintains the humility that motivated him as a young teenager to be the team’s key player. Jones said as long as Romain comes to NU with comparable humility, similar results will follow.
“When he came in his ninth grade year, he wanted to be the starting quarterback,” Jones said.
That goal hasn’t changed.
As his new life venture nears, Marcus Romain said he wants to fight for a Day One starting role.
“There can only be one quarterback, so that’s always kind of tough,” he said. “I still want to compete, I want to get on the field as soon as possible and just get some experience and win some games.”
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