There is a photo in the Arcidiacono family album of Mark, 10 years old, on Christmas morning. He is wearing a LaVar Arrington Penn State jersey while opening up a box that contains another Penn State shirt.
Eight years later, there’s a jersey in the Lasch Building waiting for Arcidiacono. But before he joins his new Penn State teammates in a few weeks, the towering offensive lineman from Philadelphia will wear the blue-and-white of the Pennsylvania squad in Saturday’s Big 33 Football Classic in Hershey.
One of four future Nittany Lions set to play in the 52nd version of the state’s premier all-star game, Arcidiacono dreamed of playing in Beaver Stadium long before college coaches began sending him letters.
“I’ve always been a big fan, ever since I was little,” Arcidiacono said last week. “It was hard to get to games because I was always playing. The past couple years I went up to a few games to visit, just to see the environment. The packed stadium, the crazy football environment, the whole experience just made me want to go there.”
After a standout junior season at St. Joseph’s Prep, Arcidiacono had written offers from the likes of Florida, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Rutgers. But he didn’t take long to make his decision, becoming the third commitment of the Nittany Lions’ 27-member class on April 30 of last year.
“He looked at a lot of other schools but every time he was comparing it to Penn State,” said his father, Mark Sr. “The University of Florida was beautiful, Rutgers was a great place, Notre Dame ... but his heart was with Penn State the whole time.”
Mark Sr. was a defensive lineman at Temple. His namesake, the oldest of eight children — all five of Mark’s younger brothers play football as well — played on both sides of the line during his early years in the game but stuck to offensive tackle at St. Joseph’s, where he earned first-team all-state honors as a senior in 2008. He has practiced at both tackle spots for Coach Tim Janocko’s Pennsylvania squad but isn’t yet sure where he will wind up at Penn State.
“I can see myself playing all three positions,” he said. “Whatever gets me on the field the fastest.”
To that end, Arcidiacono is taking a proactive approach to his freshman season. He has incorporated some of the speed and agility drills used by the Penn State staff into his workouts and arrived in Hershey a few pounds lighter than his playing weight last fall.
“I’m at about 280, which is right where I want to be,” said the 6-foot-4 Arcidiacono. “The coaches don’t want you gaining a lot of weight to come to school. A lot of guys come in and they’re out of shape and they have to lose the weight anyway.”
First impressions are clearly a big thing with Arcidiacono. His favorite memory from St. Joseph’s 8-3 season, which ended with a three-point loss to Plymouth Whitemarsh in the Philadelphia Catholic League semifinals, was how the Hawks started it. Their first game was at Parkland, which had gone 15-1 and played in the Class AAAA championship game the season before.
“We were kind of a team with a big question mark. No one knew what we were going to be like,” Arcidiacono said. “It was a packed house, a lot of people thought Parkland was going to take it to us.”
The Trojans did — but it didn’t last. St. Joseph’s erased a 13-0 deficit with 20 unanswered points to earn the stunning upset.
“That set up the season for us,” Arcidiacono said. “We got a lot of confidence from that game.”
A solid performance Saturday, particularly against Ohio State-bound Ohio defensive end Melvin Fellows, could give Arcidiacono a confidence boost heading into his first summer in State College. But it probably won’t make him want to get there more than he already does.
“The more he talks about it, the more people ask him about it, the more excited he gets,” said his father.
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