Marcelus Perry was glad when he finally was old enough to try out for the Knightdale High football team. Many thought he still wasn't big enough.

But the Knights have a no-cut policy and so Perry -- all 5-foot-4, 130 pounds of him -- officially became a football player four years ago by showing up and coming back every day.

That's how he made the team, but he earned his starting position by becoming the best cover corner that Knightdale coach Jeff Dunbar says he has ever coached.

Has Perry ever been told he was too small to play high school football?

"All the time," he said. "Especially before I made the team."

The doubters don't consider the biggest reason Perry has been successful on the high school level.

"People just don't understand how much I love the game," he said. "It's my game."

Perry started thinking of himself as a football player after his Dad took him to Tampa Bay Buccaneers games when he was a child growing up in Florida.

His first chance to play in organized games came in middle school. He was among the last players cut at Durant Road Middle School as a seventh- and eighth-grader.

Despite those rejections, he never doubted he could play high school football.

He vowed that given a chance he would never give less than his maximum effort. His mental toughness shows in drills and in games.

During a seven-on-seven drill recently, he raced after receivers on the other side of the field even though he knew the play would be stopped long before he arrived.

Asked how he would defend a 6-5 receiver, Perry says he would hit him and try to knock the ball away.

"I'm going to cover him," Perry said. "Nobody can catch the ball if you're up in their face. And when he pulls the ball in, I'm going to try to knock it down."

Perry, who runs 40 yards in 4.51 seconds, is known as a pass defender, but Knightdale defensive coordinator Joey Worley said Perry is a good tackler and recounted a stop Perry made last season against Garner standout Josh Oglesby.

"They are in the open field and Perry comes up and makes a one-on-one tackle against a Division I tailback," Worley said. "Pretty impressive."

As a freshman, in a scrimmage against Athens Drive, Perry caught the coaches' attention.

"They threw at me first down, second down, third down and they didn't complete any of them," Perry recalled.

That day, one of his teammates called him "The Giant Killer," a moniker that didn't stick even though the sentiment has.

"I tell him every day that he is too little," Dunbar said. "But he is a very good high school player. His effort is tremendous. Everything he has, he gives you on every play."

What would Perry tell someone who is 5-4, weighs 130 pounds and is thinking about playing football.

"Nothing," he said.

"If you are my size and someone has to motivate you to play, you can't play. When you are my size, you have to love it."

Perry said he believes he can play college football.

"All I want is for someone to give me a chance. That they'll let me try out," Perry said. "Just a chance. That's all I want."

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