As the rhythmic cords of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by the Rolling Stones bellow across the freshly cut grass of Edgar H. McBane Field, it declares the entrance of one of Guilford’s finest all-around Guilfordians. Jackson Marcellus ’24, MBA ’25 trots atop the mound he’s called home the past five years.

Jackson broke Guilford’s record for career appearances on April 19 against Eastern Mennonite University, making his 73rd career appearance in the midst of his finest season to date, and it is by no accident. After spending the previous four seasons as a swingman on the Guilford College pitching staff, the graduate student has shown his Quaker character this year by welcoming a spot within the team’s bullpen.

“Last year, I had actually asked (Baseball Head Coach Zach) Booker to move me into a bullpen role, it was a pretty clear that this is going to be what's best for the team and we agreed,” Marcellus said. “When I was a freshman, I was a weekend starter, I really thought that I was the greatest baseball player ever. Now that I'm in a relief role, and I'm really comfortable with who I am as an athlete. I really enjoy it. I come in in big leverage situations, and I try to get outs. I'm going at batters 100%, as hard as I possibly can. So, it's a big difference mentality-wise and I'm really happy with it.”

For Jackson, his evolution has been equally drastic off the field as it has been on it. Now within the Guilford MBA program and a Presidential Fellow, he finished his undergraduate degree having double-majored in Political Science and Religious Studies with a double minor in Japanese and U.S. History. This, on top of the athletic rigors, did not come without hardships.

The nation was in the middle of the COVID pandemic and all of Jackson’s classes were online. “I wasn't really all that big of a fan of school,” he says.

Then he met with Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jill Peterfeso.

“She really showed me that if I study what I'm interested in, I can enjoy what I'm doing, and I can do a lot of work. And so, majoring in religious studies was a big turning point for me. Mormonism, Jesus in Film and Pop Culture, History of Christianity, those classes all really turned me into a scholar, and thinking of myself as a scholar rather than just like a student, and I think that was a big shift.”

Now, he has turned into a well-rounded student-athlete as a three-time All-Academic Old Dominion Athletic Conference honoree and a 2024 Collegiate Sports Communicators Academic All-District selection, Jackson has embraced Guilford and gives back as a Presidential Fellow with the Career, Academic, and Personal Exploration (CAPE) team. He is heavily involved in the Guilford RISE program, a pre-college program designed to get rising seniors in high school to come to Guilford, and live on campus for three weeks.

“It's been really great to be able to give back to Guilford,” Marcellus says.

Soon, Jackson hopes to lead another fellowship at the University of North Carolina School of Government called DEEP North Carolina. This role would place him with a local government municipality in North Carolina, working with government leaders to solve whatever issues persist within that municipality. But first, he will focus on the task at hand, finishing the season strong alongside the teammates with whom he has grown so close to, having transformed the culture of Quakers baseball.

“All the guys who were there, me and Chase (Wade) and Jordan (Burrough) were all on the three-win team in 2021 and then all the seniors who were there in 2022 when we only won 11 games, we really focused on really changing the culture on the baseball team and being a team who's really committed to winning games,” Marcellus remarked. “We're here to play baseball. And so that's been really important to us, and I think we've done a really good job, especially with the pitching staff. We are always out there on our off days, getting our throwing in, getting our work in. Pitching wins ball games, and we are pitching really well this year.”