Senior Highlight: Marcus Viscardi
At the end of each season, the Rudy Scholz player of the year award is given to one outstanding collegiate rugby player, and this year Marcus Viscardi has unsurprisingly been nominated for the accolade.
Marcus began his rugby journey in middle school. Inspired by his friends, he joined the Marin Highlanders Rugby Club. Marcus grew with the game and soon it was time to move onto college, but he had to decide whether rugby or football was his calling, a choice he did not mull over for long.
“It was a pretty easy choice for me to stick with rugby,” Viscardi said. “I figured that I was not going to fit in at a larger school, both academically and on the rugby pitch. Saint Mary’s was one of the first schools I was interested in for rugby and the Bay Area campus was hard to pass up.”
Excited to see what Gael Rugby was all about, Marcus attended the match between Saint Mary’s and Cal Berkeley in 2014. At that time, the Gael’s played on Pat Vincent Field, and the energy of the fans convinced Marcus that SMC was the school for him.
“I think it was at this game that I realized I want to play for Tim and Johnny,” Viscardi said. “Plus the atmosphere down at that old field was electric, fans screaming their hearts out right on the sideline and even in the try zone.”
Now, five years later, Marcus is quickly approaching the end of his Gael Rugby career, but this determined flanker’s work is not done yet.
Marcus and the Gaels take on Cal this Saturday March, 30. This is the test of the season, and he understands what it means to the program when this match rolls around each year.
“Keeping our nose to the grindstone and keeping practice intensity high is the key,” Viscardi said. “Cal is a fast, physical, and smart team which will make for a great matchup against our side. It is awesome to be able to play a game of this caliber every year.”
The classic rivalry can only be won with a full team effort. As Marcus knows, winning tough games begins in the preseason, where fitness and skill work combined with team building is essential.
“This team is made up of a group of guys that I would fight, claw and bleed for,” Viscardi said. “All the crazy stuff we get into in the off-season up in the hills and down on the pitch just solidifies the group that we have. I have lived, practiced, suffered, won, and lost with these guys for the last five years. It is really unlike any team I have ever been a part of.”
Marcus is a natural leader and sets the bar with his performance on the pitch. Marcus leads the team in tackles this season and recorded a team high of 22 tackles in the match against Navy (4) on March 23. Assistant coach Brendan O’Meara has been with Marcus for more than a few seasons now and has come to understand the importance of Marcus’s role on the team.
“Marcus is an incredible teammate,” O’Meara said. “People may not notice the dirty work put in by guys like Marcus who make it possible to play that style of rugby. You need guys to do the not-so-flashy stuff, hitting rucks, making tackles, slowing down opposition ball. Marcus is immense for us in those areas.”
All of the seniors play a unique part in the success of the program as a whole. There is no doubt that this leadership will trickle down to all of the new members of the team who will take away many lessons from those graduating in May.
“We have quite a group of seniors that work together as leaders and push the team forward with Marcus being a key member of that group,” O’Meara said. “Any success we have this year will come down to that group and how they push us forward.”
When asked what he will take away from his time with the club, Marcus’s answer was simple.
“So much.”
