STARKVILLE — Chris Marve pulled a pen from behind his right ear.
Walking through the glass door to the media room at the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex, the pen continued to dance around Marve’s fingertips, sputtering and eventually falling to the floor.
“Oops,” he said, leaning down to scoop it from the carpet.
Donning a blue and white hatched quarter-zip that was partially masked by a black vest zipped nearly to his chin and a pair of black and gold horn rimmed glasses, Marve took his spot behind the podium.
Class was in session.
Just a few months into his first year as the linebackers coach at Mississippi State, Marve bears plenty of monikers. But whether it be coach, mentor, or motivator, one title holds more personal pride than all others — teacher.
“When you’re a teacher it always seems like you’re on,” Shannon Fransen, Marve’s former co-worker at LEAD Academy in Nashville told The Dispatch. “There’s always these little eyes that are watching you move and I think the very best teachers never really ever leave that role of constant improvement and encouragement and kind of being an overall role model and I think Chris really embodies that.”
‘Nervous as all get out’
Marve’s heart raced.
He shouldn’t have been nervous. He’d spent the past five years trading blows with behemoth offensive linemen at Georgia and LSU. He’d played under the raucous tones of fans at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville or Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.
It didn’t matter.
Instead of a muscle-bound running back or speedy receiver bearing down on him that morning in the Mississippi Delta, it was a classroom full of fourth graders that made his heart skip a few beats.
“That first time I walked into the classroom I was nervous as all get out,” he conceded through a laugh.
A double major in sociology and human and organizational development during his undergraduate years, teaching wasn’t a readily apparent career choice.
For one, the NFL was assuredly an option. A four-time All-SEC selection at Vanderbilt, he was a projected late round pick due to his undersized frame.
But rather than chase professional aspirations, Marve felt distanced from the game. Football was no longer his passion. For years the sport had defined him. That was no longer the case.
He was also accepted to both business and law school, but neither felt quite right.
“I believe life’s too short not to be passionate about what you’re doing,” he said.
Teach For America, as Marve puts it, was highly visible on campus at Vanderbilt. Founded in 1990, TFA employs applicants for two years to teach in underserved communities around the country. As of 2019, the organization boasted nearly 60,000 alumni.
Debating the two-year commitment, Marve conversed and prayed with his then girlfriend and now wife, Lauren. He applied and was accepted.
“The more and more I thought about it and the more and more literature I read I figured it suited my skill set pretty well,” he said. “But also I felt called to do it.”
Upon acceptance, corps members are put through an intensive summer program in which they learn the ins-and-outs teaching.
Marve’s training began as a fourth grade math teacher in the Delta.
Standing at the front of the class following his redshirt senior season at Vanderbilt, his nerves persisted.
Having traded in his cleats for a pencil and his helmet for a desk, Mr. Marve took attendance.
Mr. Marve returns to Nashville
Just days into her first week at LEAD Academy, Fransen drew lunch duty alongside Marve.
Helping monitor mealtime and the ensuing 20 minutes of recess, the duo stood watch in the gym.
As the free period crept along, a basketball game turned testy. A fight broke out.
Given both students towered over her frame, Fransen yelled across the room for backup.
“Marve!” she exclaimed in panic.
Racing down the sideline, the one-time linebacker reached the opposite side of the room in a flash.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, where did this guy come from,'” Fransen, unaware of Marve’s football history at the time, said. “It was like a blur.”
Momentary athletic feats aside, Marve quickly carved out a role in the classroom during his two years at LEAD Academy.
Wandering the halls of the school, stomping, clapping and yelling reverberated throughout the corridors. The noises originated from Marve’s room.
Just one of the activities he employed, the boisterous exercise was a way to reinforce positive affirmations amongst his students.
“It went so far beyond teaching mathematics,” Fransen said of the activity. “It was really about shaping kids’ lives.”
Marve complemented his fun-loving nature with a level of discipline developed during his years on the gridiron.
Gym teacher Rebekah Bolston joked she would meander by Marve’s classroom, marching like a drill sergeant in jest.
“Every time I walked by the kids were sitting straight up, listening, looking forward — there were no games in there,” Bolston said.
Honing his ability as a teacher, Marve became the seventh-grade team lead — organizing social outings and monthly meetings among other administrative duties.
Most notably, he planned an Atlanta college tour in which students explored Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Morehouse College and Spelman College.
“Chris really stood out as someone that was there early, staying late, was always willing to step in,” Samantha Brickman, a seventh grade geography teacher at the time, said.
And while his academic responsibilities grew, so too did his athletic obligations.
Needing an assistant coach for the seventh grade basketball team, Lee Mayo approached Marve about the position.
“Absolutely — I’d love to help,” Marve said through his effervescent smile.
Seventh grade is a time of change. Physically, puberty begins. Marve saw similar parallels on the basketball court. As the season crossed over between the fall and spring semesters, he noticed a marked difference amongst the players from the season’s beginnings to end.
“You can see the kids mature, you can see the kids develop and start to really appreciate the things you’re trying to teach them or the things you’re trying to get them to see and see that different perspective,” he said.
Helping guide the Panthers to the playoffs, it was this lone season of middle school basketball that drove Marve back to football
“We’re at a school that wasn’t a basketball powerhouse,” he conceded. “But the kids just bought in and worked and they took instruction and they had fun and they built community and those things that you can’t really put a metric on or aren’t very tangible and very real. That’s what I love about sports — that’s what we all love about sports.”
Coach by employment, teacher at heart
MSU football practices are rarely, if ever, quiet. Whether it’s music, simulated stadium noise, or coaches yelling, each semblance of momentary silence is emphatically filled with sound.
Plenty of that comes from Marve.
“Where does the Energizer Bunny rank? — If he’s a 10, then (Marve) is a 10,” coach Joe Moorhead quipped of Marve’s energy level. “I don’t know if he still has any eligibility left or has hopes of going to the next level, but if you watch him coach kids during individuals, he is drenched in sweat by the end of period two.”
Following five years in varying roles at Vanderbilt, Bulldog defensive coordinator Bob Shoop — Marve’s former coach in Nashville — approached him regarding MSU’s vacated linebackers coach position.
Marve didn’t hesitate.
“I know for a fact I always wanted to work with (Shoop) and for him in some capacity,” he said. “The opportunity presented itself and so here we are.”
Under his guidance, junior Erroll Thompson and senior Leo Lewis rank second and fourth on the team in tackles, respectively, through two games this season while the Bulldogs are surrendering just 136.5 rushing yards per game.
“He’s not that much older than us and he’s done it at a high level so he’s a guy we can relate to,” Thompson said.
Saturday, the unit will face another test as Kansas State’s six-headed rushing attack comes to Starkville.
Armed with a pen in his ear and a play sheet in his pocket, Marve’s livelihood has shifted from math equations to defensive schemes. Yet at his core, he remains a teacher — one that is intrinsically motivated at the hope of improving young lives.
“(Teach for America) really taught me that I love to teach,” Marve said. “I love to impact and impart knowledge in a classroom setting but also you can impact lives away from the confines of a classroom or in this profession specifically in coaching. Had I not taught for those two years, I can’t say with confidence that I would be in coaching.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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