Chattanooga Christian quarterback Matthew Mercer gets set to take a snap from center Michael Nelson in the Chargers' jamboree matchup with Sale Creek. Mercer is looking to make his final season a memorable one as one of only six returning seniors. New CCS head coach Mark Mariakis says of his signal caller, "he’s a quiet leader, but he brings a skill set to our team that we’ll have to utilize on offense.”
photo by Dennis Norwood
Matthew Mercer would probably be the first to tell you, but he’d rather play baseball than football and that’s the sport where he’ll most likely have the chance to play at the next level.
But there are more pressing matters to take care of right now.
Mercer’s Chattanooga Christian Chargers advanced to the TSSAA playoffs last fall where they won their first game ever before ending their best season ever at 8-4 with a second-round loss to East Ridge.
Mercer was the starting quarterback on that team, following in the footsteps of older brother Zach, who had been the starting signal caller for the Chargers the previous two years.
So this is the last time around for the 17-year-old middle son of Jennifer and Aaron Mercer and he’s looking to make it memorable before he moves on to bigger and better things. Luke is the youngest Mercer who is now a budding sixth grader at CCS.
There are only six seniors returning this year as new head coach Mark Mariakis has some big decisions to make as to who will fill the gaps for a bunch of good ones who graduated.
The Chargers graduated 85 percent of last year’s offensive production, but Mercer is back and so is fellow senior Justin Wheeler. Mariakis feels pretty good having those two to build an offense around.
“Last year was his first year to start, but he’s a fine young man and has the ability to get fired up. He’s not a rah-rah type guy as he’s a quiet leader, but he brings a skill set to our team that we’ll have to utilize on offense,” said Mariakis, who had been the defensive coordinator for the past two years.
“The majority of this year’s starters have never been on the field on Friday night and we’re trying to develop depth right now. He’d love to play defense if we’d let him, but he’s the only experienced quarterback we have.
“Matthew is an excellent athlete with a very active arm. He knows how to read a defense and has that ability to get you out of trouble on a busted play. He has great vision of the field and isn’t overly fast, but other teams have to respect his speed.
“He has what I call game speed, which is just fast enough to not get caught. He’s always looking downfield to make a play, but it’s good we have someone like him who can make big plays.
“He’ll be taking the snap at the line of scrimmage for the first time ever and we had to do that after fall practice began as he missed spring drills due to baseball. But he runs our offense as anyone I’ve ever had and we will use all of his skills every chance we get,” Mariakis added.
Mike Connor is the CCS offensive coordinator and has coached Mercer since the sixth grade. He knows all about what he can expect from the slender 5-11, 160-pound scrapper.
“Matthew is cooler than a cucumber, although he’s not very vocal. He’s a most reliable player when it’s game time,” Connor added.
“I’ve had the opportunity to coach him since the sixth grade and I know that his passion is baseball, but he has great pocket presence, he knows exactly what we want him to do and he doesn’t get rattled.
“I’m not the least bit nervous with him as our quarterback. The way guys like Matthew and Justin play will certainly impact the rest of the team,” Connor continued.
Mercer will celebrate his 18th birthday on New Year’s Day. He’s more than excited and just a little bit tense about playing to the best of his ability as he helps his team reach tougher and higher goals.
“I’m smarter, stronger and faster this year than I’ve been in the past,” the slender southpaw suggested before an afternoon workout began this past week.
“I’m a little bit nervous, but I’m excited to see what will happen this fall. We lost a lot of key players from last year’s team, but we have a bunch more who are perfectly capable of stepping up and making big plays. I have a lot of confidence in my teammates,” he smiled.
Mercer isn’t sure what his future plans are, but “I hope I can go somewhere I can play baseball,” he responded, saying that he’d gotten letters of interest in baseball from schools like Tennessee Tech, MTSU and East Tennessee among others.
“I really just want to make an impact on those around me, especially the younger ones. I have a great opportunity here in front of me and I’m going to do my best to take full advantage of it,” he concluded.
The Chargers will open their season at home on Friday night when they host the always-dangerous Brainerd Panthers.
Perhaps the biggest game of the year Region-wise will take place on Sept. 2 when the Chargers host Notre Dame.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)