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Football

Sean Tucker, Marlowe Wax battled it out on the gridiron in high school

Courtesy of Rich Holzer (left), Courtesy of Frank Palomo (right)

Prior to being teammates at Syracuse, Sean Tucker and Marlowe Wax were on opposite sides of the Mount St. Joseph-Calvert Hall high school football rivalry.

By Henry O'BrienSenior Staff Writer

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Marlowe Wax was in a spot he would never be in at Syracuse. While primarily playing linebacker, he was also a running back for Mount St. Joseph High School (MD). In the 2019 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A conference semifinals against Calvert Hall, Wax lined up under center at the 2-yard line.

Wax’s head coach, Richard Holzer, said the Gaels were running a trick play, all of which had codenames like “Orbeez” that the players came up with. This one was called “mouse.”

When the ball was snapped, Wax faked a toss to his right before cutting back left, pounding his way into the end zone. His score put Mount St. Joseph up 20-0 en route to an eventual 35-0 victory, and eventually the state championship.

Standing on the opposite sideline was Calvert Hall running back Sean Tucker. Wax and Tucker faced off as opposing rushers in this rivalry game five times, with Mount St. Joseph winning 4-of-5. The two also played against each other on defense when Wax played linebacker against Tucker at running back. In their high school encounters, the pair showed flashes of who they would become at Syracuse.



Though Tucker grew into one of SU’s greatest statistical rushers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ backup running back, Wax finished with more rushing yards, highlighting how Mount St. Joseph always had a leg up.

“We did beat up on them bad,” Wax said. “…So I always joke with him about that.”

“We definitely had some conversations…I couldn’t really say too much,” Tucker said.

The origins of this matchup between Syracuse teammates began when Frank Palomo, the former Director of Football Operations for Calvert Hall, recruited Tucker from youth football practices with the Hamilton Tigers. Palomo remembered that Tucker was a “full go” when the Tigers ran “gassers” at the end of practices. It was an easy decision to recruit him.

Wax arrived at Mount St. Joseph during Holzer’s first season as head coach in 2015. Holzer first met Wax when he was in middle school. As soon as Wax started playing for him, Holzer switched Wax to running back.

“He basically opened the offense up instead of having a run based offense,” Palomo said of Holzer. “…He just completely changed the culture there and changed the way they did things.”

Holzer’s appointment also changed the results of the rivalry. From 2009-14, the Cardinals beat the Gaels every season. Once Holzer got there, though, Mount St. Joseph started to win.

Holzer said he attacked Calvert Hall’s man defense by using crossing routes in the passing game and Wax in the running game to “keep them honest” with rushes up the middle. Defensively, Holzer said the Cardinals were an I-formation team, which forced the Gaels to play a lot of Cover 1 and Cover 0.

“Obviously with Sean playing they had a very good run game with some big tight ends and big offensive linemen,” Holzer said. “But they were very physical.”

Wax and Tucker never faced each other as underclassmen in the 2016 rivalry matchup. The two watched from the benches in the Gaels’ 17-7 victory over the Cardinals.

The following season, Calvert Hall beat Mount St. Joseph for the only time during Wax and Tucker’s high school careers. Wax rushed for 39 yards on five carries but Tucker rushed for a game-high 84 yards and one touchdown in the Cardinals’ 34-0 win.

On the game’s opening possession, Calvert Hall started from its own 10-yard line. Tucker bursted through the seams and gave the Cardinals multiple big rushes of 15-20 yards. On a 4th-and-20, Tucker scampered for 21 yards to keep the drive alive. Later, with the Cardinals at the Gaels’ 3-yard line, Tucker lowered his shoulders for the game’s first touchdown.

Tucker compiled 46 yards on the 18-play, 81-yard drive. Palomo said Tucker’s performance marked the first signs of his illustrious career at Syracuse.

“If there are things that are bottled up, he has the ability to bounce outside and find green grass,” Palomo said. “And you can definitely tell he has the afterburners.”

The next year, 2018, Tucker suffered a shoulder injury on the second play of the second half. With Tucker out, Wax became the standout rusher. He tallied 82 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries in a 21-7 victory over Calvert Hall.

“He was big, so having to face that every down was challenging,” Tucker said of Wax as a rusher.

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At this point, Wax started to play linebacker as well. He made his two-way prowess known by recording two sacks and a 33-yard interception return. Wax’s dominance on either side of the ball made him “pound-for-pound” one of the two best players in the league, Palamo said, alongside current Penn State linebacker Curtis Jacobs.

During a regular season matchup in 2019, Tucker registered a touchdown, but Mount St. Joseph got the win. Wax’s stout display at linebacker limited Tucker. On a play in the first quarter, Tucker juked his way through multiple Gaels defenders before facing a scrum. As he tried to move forward, Wax finished off the tackle and knocked the tailback’s helmet off.

After Mount St. Joseph took a 7-3 lead, Tucker ran for a 6-yard touchdown with just under eight minutes left in the first half. But Wax, who recorded 11 tackles (second-most on the team), and the defense stalled the Cardinals’ offense as the Gaels clawed back to secure a 20-10 victory.

By the time playoffs came around, Wax and Tucker had both committed to playing at Syracuse. During SU’s 2019 bye week, the Gaels and Cardinals met for a second time. Wax recorded 63 receiving yards and six tackles. And while Tucker rushed for 51 yards in the defeat, he surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the second consecutive year.

Tucker stayed on as a running back while Wax decided to strictly play linebacker. After Syracuse’s season-opening win over Colgate this year, head coach Dino Babers brought up Wax’s ability in the backfield. According to Babers, Wax might’ve had an edge on Tucker.

“Marlowe and Sean Tucker had practiced an entire week,” Babers said. “…After seven days, I really didn’t know who was better. Now Sean is going to get mad. They were different, different styles but I really didn’t know who was better. And then on the 10th day, Marlowe said he wanted to play defense and the whole offensive (coaching staff) went crazy.”

Since their high school battles and being teammates at Syracuse, Tucker has rushed for 23 yards over six games with the Buccaneers, while Wax is a defensive captain at SU.

When Wax started to take questions about the games against Tucker, he smiled fondly.

“I miss those times,” Wax said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article’s headline stated that Wax played offensive lineman in middle school. This was incorrect. He only played at the linebacker and running back positions. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

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