By MIKE BOGEN
The Republican

For the past four years, American International College's Marlon Beckles has spent his fall running around, through and over people, a ritual of Saturdays made that much more interesting because a dozen years ago, he spent his time running away from them.

"Yeah, I was bullied when I was a kid," says Beckles, who will end his college career Saturday at Bentley, assured of leaving as the second-leading rusher in the history of the school's football program."There were kids from other schools who would pick on other kids and, lucky me, they found me."

Extorted for money he really did not have, Beckles found he had a talent with which he extricate himself from those situations with his peers, a talent that would come to define his life - he could run.

"I was stubborn. They'd try to beat me up and I'd run. It worked most of the time, but there were times when it didn't and it finally got to the point where I stopped going to school," Beckles recalls. "To this day, I haven't told my mom why."

 Indeed, when Cherlyann Johnson found out her son wasn't attending school, she didn't waste time looking for explanations.

"My mom, she gave me a beating and sent me back to school," Beckles says. "I went every day after that. I'd rather get the beating from the kids than my mom."

Now, before anyone starts call the cold-case division of Youth Services, it should be noted that the thread that runs through Marlon Beckles' young life is, was, and always will be, Cherlyann Johnson.

Beckles' father ("I could walk by him on the street and I wouldn't know him," he says) left his young wife and child in their native Guyana when the boy was three months old.He was replaced by a strong extended family, one that became particularly important when Belckles' aunt moved to New York and sent for Johnson and his grandmother.

"I stayed with my other aunt for two or three years, and my mom and me couldn't keep in touch much because of the cost of phone calls. But she'd write, and I'd try to write back," Beckles says.

Johnson, a home care nurse, settled in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn and was reunited with her son when he was nine. They lived with family, upgraded to their own studio apartment and depended on each other.Johnson's influence is no less great now than it was then.

"Marlon's different, not just for football, either," says AIC football coach Art Wilkins. "He's a teetotaler, for instance."

He beats to a different drummer that supercedes football. He's really a family guy, your All-American boy.

"That's because of his mother, I really believe."Beckles' road to AIC went through Sheepshead Bay High School, where he played football for the first time ("Pop Warner was expensive and we didn't have the money; we were just getting by.").

According to Beckles, head coach Michael Dinkins looked at him as the team's next quarterback - for a while.

"I didn't understand the language of football, and I was just lost. I had a good arm, but quarterback was where you had to know everything," Beckles says.

Beckles learned the plays, but "while I was learning, another kid came around, and he had played Pop Warner."

Beckles was moved to running back, where he found good use for skills learned from when he'd been bullied.

"When I started playing, I was scared out of my mind. Everyone was so much bigger than me," says Beckles, who even now tops out at only 5-foot-11, 200 pounds. "But I used the fear for the extra boost, to get away from people."

Even though he suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee during the summer following his freshman year, Beckles started all four years of high school.
His college choices were severely limited by his less-than-inspiring grades, though. When AIC not only wanted him to remain at running back ("UMass and Post wanted to make me a defensive back"), but also offered a full scholarship, Beckles choice was clear.

It's been a beautiful, if sometimes slightly flawed, marriage. Beckles put up good numbers during his first three years, when he suffered from some injuries and, he says, the Yellow Jackets were missing team chemistry.

If Beckles had some issues, they mostly stayed internal. Again, the influence of Cherlyann Johnson.

"My mom wouldn't let me get in trouble, she's very strict," says this 22-year-old man, whose idea of a good time is - mostly - video games in his dorm room.

"I spend a lot of time in my room," Beckles says. "I'm a routine person - room, practice, eating. If you're looking for me, you can find me."

But if there were any problems at all before this, everything has come together in his senior season. Through nine games, Beckles has carried 231 times for 1,377 yards (a 6.0 average), the fourth highest single season total in AIC history, and nine touchdowns.

He began a steady climb up the AIC all-time rushing list that has him firmly ensconced in second place behind all-time leader Kavin Galliard (6,523 yards) with 4,097 yards.

"Marlon has always been outstanding but he's become a great player this year," Wilkins says. "He's not just talented, he's become really motivated."He's a great screen runner and a selfless blocker. He's not one dimensional by any means.

He's also a great team leader ... works behind the scenes to help keep the team focused and on the right track. He has all the right intangibles," Wilkins says.

But, what Beckles just does not have are two things as important to an NFL hopeful as are an IQ and a pocket protector to a nuclear physicist - size and a Division I pedigree.

"I don't believe he'll get drafted. He's talented enough that he might be able to do something (in pro ball), but he's got to show off really great in the Arena league or NFL Europe, and then take it from there," Wilkins says.

All Beckles wants is a chance, a chance to confront a new, different bunch of bigger kids.

But unlike before, this time when Marlon Beckles runs, he'll be running toward something.