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Small In Stature, Cretin RB Makes A Big Impact For Raiders

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Spend two minutes at Cretin-Derham Hall football practice, and the size difference is obvious immediately.

At 5 feet zero, 136 pounds, Marquez Thompson doesn't exactly strike the figure of a varsity football player. And you figure he must be a freshman, just here to take a beating in practice.

"You look at him, and it's like, noooo, the package just isn't there," coach Mike Scanlan said. "And then you watch the things that he can do. He's a very impressive young man."

Thompson -- who's a junior by the way -- has been surprising people his entire life.

"Guys think you're small and they can just run you over," he said. "But I think I'm just gonna hit you in the teeth."

It's simple genetics, really. His dad is 5-foot-5, his mom 5-foot-1. For as long as he's been playing football, Thompson has always been the smallest guy on the team.

"Always," he says with a laugh.

So he's always had to do a little extra, to show his coaches he could hang. What's funny, is that extra effort really paid off in another way.

He got pretty good.

"Perseverance, tenacity, I mean, things like that," Scanlan said. "This is a young man that works really hard."

And will keep working hard, to make a big impact.

"It's a big season," Thompson said. "Biiiiiig."

Even if he isn't.

"You just gotta play the same way, the same intensity," he said. "Just working hard. Just every day, improving. Every day."

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