Marcus Alston
Marcus was born and raised in Howard County, Maryland. His parents divorced when he was 4 years old. The divorce left him with a lot of psychological trauma, which would later lead to his enrollment in tackle football at the age of 7. Marcus attended Mount Saint Joseph’s High School, where he played basketball and football. He was a member of the 2011 BCL championship team. He also received 1st team All-MIAA and 1st team Private School All-State honors in 2011.
Marcus suffered a lisfranc fracture his senior season in 2012. Despite the severity of his injury, he was still fortunate enough to receive a scholarship to play D1-AA football at Saint Francis University, where he was a member of the 2016 NEC championship team. He graduated from Saint Francis in May of 2018 with a major in Management Information Systems and a minor in Cyber Security Administration. In September 2018, he was diagnosed with several underlying mental illnesses, which he was dealing with for a decade. This put Marcus in a dark phase, but it helped him find his purpose in life. A year later, Marcus founded Alston for Athletes (AfA), a fiscally sponsored project whose mission is to advocate for student-athlete mental health awareness through policy change and providing access to mental health services.
Due to Marcus’ advocacy efforts, he was nominated to Mental Health America’s Young Mental Health Leaders Council in September 2020. In January of 2022, Marcus was appointed to the Board of Directors for NAMI MD. He was also announced as a participant in MTV’s Inaugural Mental Health Youth Action Forum in May of 2022. In 2024, Marcus worked with Maryland’s Senator Shelly Hettleman and Delegate Dayla Attar on SB165/HB204, which would require public schools and public institutions that offer athletic programs to provide mental health first aid training to coaches. Outside of AfA, Marcus is passionate about comics, eSports, and collecting sports memorabilia & sneakers
