Tampa, Fla. - Whenever Gaither’s Mario Eugenio is on the football field, he’s always having a good time. “This is what happens in practice, the big dog will eat the little dog,” Mario jokingly said to one of his coaches. But Mario doesn’t just talk the talk, the four-star edge rusher also walks the walk. As a junior, he racked up 17 sacks in just 10 games.

“He’s a pass rushing demon,” said Gaither head coach Kirk Karsen. “In Mario’s career he’s 23-3 and in those 26 games I think we’ve had 10 running clocks. So that means he wasn’t playing in the second half of those games so his sack total could be a lot more but Mario’s the type of kid that’s so unselfish he’s like coach, put the other guys in they work just as hard as I do.”

But before Mario was getting after the quarterback, he was playing a different contact sport.

“I used to play rugby when I lived with my mom back in France,” said Mario.

Mario was born in the Dominican Republic and like many Dominicans started off playing baseball before moving to France and picking up rugby.

“Just running around and getting muddy, that was just my thing. I was pretty strong as a kid, I was a beast.”

Mario moved to Tampa when he was 11 and made the transition from rugby to football, which was challenging at first.

“Well it was very confusing because I didn’t really speak English but I’m a pretty smart kid so I learned English in about five months and I started playing with my friends. I think that’s why I learned so quickly was because I was just around so many kids.”

Once he got to high school, it didn’t take Mario long to attract the attention of college coaches. He landed his first two scholarship offers as a freshman.

“I didn’t even understand what an offer was my freshman year,” Mario said. “I was like, what does this mean? I asked coach Karsen and he just smiled at me and laughed and was like, they want you to play for their school. I was shocked. I called my dad and he cried.”

But it wasn’t until his sophomore year when things really started to click for him.

“So I had a senior (teammate) who was also a defensive end and we made a bet before the season who’s going to have more sacks. It was a $40 bet and I bet that using my dad’s money because I didn’t have no money. Every game I used to hustle because I knew at the end of the season that $40 was on the line. I ended up beating him by two sacks and I was like yeah, I can play this.”

Mario now holds more than 30 offers from some of the top college football programs in the country. But in July, he shut down his recruitment and announced his commitment to the University of Michigan live on Instagram.

“It was crazy because I was nervous. I practiced in the bathroom like four times because I didn’t want to stutter where I was committing to. I wanted to be in a family environment. I spoke to the coaches but I also wanted to hear from the players so I spoke to all the players and asked them how it was living there and being around the team and they said it was a brotherhood. It just felt like home.”