Worcester Telegram & Gazette: "Snap Decisions For Worcester State's Scerra, Asum"
A.J. Scerra and Graham Asum started at quarterback for Marlboro High, but for Worcester State, Scerra plays wide receiver and Asum is a cornerback. They miss taking snaps from center
Snap decisions for WSU's Scerra, Asum
August 22, 2012
By Bill Doyle, Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER —
A.J. Scerra and Graham Asum started at quarterback for Marlboro
High, but for Worcester State, Scerra plays wide receiver and Asum
is a cornerback.
They miss taking snaps from center.
“You get to touch the ball every day,” Scerra said.
“The ball is in your hands and you get to decide where it
goes and how your team performs. I had been a quarterback all my
life, so I do miss it.”
“I went from touching the ball every play to barely touching
it,” Asum said.
These days WSU opponents try their best to keep the ball out of
Scerra's and Asum's hands.
Scerra, a 5-foot-6, 165-pound junior, led the New England Football
Conference last season with 10 touchdown catches and Asum, a
5-foot-9, 188-pound senior, has intercepted 11 passes in 27 career
games. Two years ago, Asum picked off six passes, so opponents
stopped throwing on his side of the field as much last fall. Four
of those seven interceptions came against Westfield State and he
returned one of them for a touchdown. So last year, Westfield
didn't throw any passes in his direction until the game went into
overtime. The Owls figured he might have tired by then, but they
were wrong.
“One of their receivers came up to me and told me, 'Our game
plan is to avoid you,' ” Asum said.
WSU ended up winning, 42-40, in three OTs.
Asum started at QB for Marlboro as a senior in 2008 and he threw
one of his touchdown passes to Scerra. The following year, Scerra
called the signals. Their high school coach, Sean Mahoney, played
quarterback for Worcester State's club national championship team
in 1984.
When he came to WSU, Asum shared the quarterback duties with Tony
Tokarz for two games before he missed two with a quad injury. In
his absence, Tokarz established himself in the position, so Asum
asked to switch to cornerback, and he has played it ever since. He
was also the team's top kickoff returner last season, averaging
24.4 yards on 19 returns.
Scerra expected to play cornerback for WSU, but coach Brien Cullen
switched him to wide receiver and he led the team last season with
43 catches and 635 receiving yards.
“He's our Wes Welker,” Cullen said. “He's not
really big, but he works hard, he's very athletic and he's a tough
kid. All those Marlboro guys are tough kids.”
Scerra's younger brother, Adam, another Marlboro High grad,
transferred from Assumption and figures to start in the defensive
backfield. Two other Marlboro High graduates, linebacker Alex
Ferrecchia and wide receiver Mike Tirpak, will be WSU freshmen this
fall.
Skeptics have told Scerra he was too small to play football for
most of his life. As a senior at Marlboro, he weighed only 140
pounds. Scerra admitted that his mother, Lisa, worries about him
every second of every game, but his lack of size hasn't held him
back.
“I make sure I don't leave myself vulnerable as a smaller
player,” Scerra said.
Asum and Scerra, former high school teammates, felt honored to be
elected captains this year along with Cory Spencer and Joe
Sweet.
“It means a lot to the whole town,” Asum said.
“Our coaches are happy, our town's happy, I'm
happy.”
Scerra believes playing quarterback in high school helped mold him
and Asum into leaders.
“I wasn't expecting to be a captain this year as a
junior,” Scerra said, “but it's a compliment to both of
us knowing that our teammates want to have us lead them and respect
us.”
Scerra does whatever he can to improve. Last spring, he and his
brother worked to improve their speed by combining with wide
receiver Justin DeAndrade and running back Kyle White to form a
4-by-100 relay team on the WSU track team. This fall, they hope the
Lancers will outrun the competition again.
