FORKS — Crammed into a yellow school bus, the Forks boys basketball team racked up thousands of miles along U.S. Highway 101, state highway 8, even Interstate 5 on its longest trips to away games this season.
Uncomfortable for most taller individuals, the cramped conditions on those long journeys must have been brutal for the Spartans’ 6-foot-9-inch post Marky Adams.
But Adams stretched out and balled out in his final season for Forks, averaging a double-double in points and rebounds, as the Spartans (16-7) advanced in the postseason to within one game of a state regional berth.
Adams was good for 17.7 points per game on 68 percent shooting from the floor and also brought down 12.4 rebounds per game, 5.8 of those coming on the offensive glass.
Basically, if Adams received the ball in the low block, good things were likely to happen.
The ultimate rim protector, Adams also totaled 2.6 blocks per game for Forks in earning Evergreen 1A League Co-MVP honors with Hoquiam’s Jack Adams, the Bobcats’ all-time career scoring leader.
Adams was picked for the Associated Press Class 1A all-state team in a vote of statewide sports reporters. He’s also the All-Peninsula MVP as determined by area coaches and the sports staff of the Peninsula Daily News.
Both Adams and Forks head coach Rick Gooding pointed to an increased confidence level as reason for the big man’s success.
Gooding pointed to the team’s busy summer schedule, which included camp trips to the University of Washington, Eastern Washington and Centralia and summer league games at Peninsula College to learn from college coaches and face opponents from around the state.
“His confidence just came from playing so much in the summertime,” Gooding said. “And from the encouragement he received from his teammates. Marky is a humble, nice, genuine kid, and he’s not going to demand the basketball. He won’t tell his teammates, ‘give me the ball, I’m the best player in the world.’
“But I think [his teammates] were good at realizing we were at our best when we were playing through him.”
Adams said all that summer work built up the confidence in and chemistry between team members.
“It helped us come together,” Adams said.
“Last year we had a tough time, we got into a lot of fights. We came together this year and gave our fans what they deserved.”
Adams knows the team couldn’t have gotten far without the help of shooting guard Parker Browning, sharpshooter Cort Prose and a heady point guard in Jeffrey Shumack to name a few.
“I couldn’t dribble on my own, I couldn’t pass the ball to myself,” he joked.
“Parker and Cort took a lot of pressure off of me by taking away the help-side defense that teams would use to try and double and triple team me. And Jeffrey was a true point guard and really worked hard to get the ball down to me. He was a really good passer.”
Gooding said there were times he would challenge the good-natured Adams to be more assertive.
“He’s such a nice kid its hard to get mad at him,” Gooding said.
“He told me a couple of times that I made him angry when I demanded more of him. And he does have a little mean streak. He doesn’t get boisterous, doesn’t talk trash, or push or shove but nobody is going to push him around in the post.”
Adams said the message was often the same.
“At halftime of the games where I would start off a little slow, he would come in and start making me angry. He would tell me to shoot the ball more, and stop passing the ball out because it wasn’t helping us at the time. To go up strong.”
Adams was mighty strong in a tight Forks loss to Neah Bay, scoring 30 of his team’s 64 points and blocking numerous shots in the best game and best atmosphere of the season in late January.
Adams stepped up as the season wore on, averaging 26 points per game in the team’s final five regular season games, including a 68-54 road win over Hoquiam, previously unbeaten in league play and ranked No. 6 in state at the time.
Needing a win to stay alive in the fight for the Evergreen 1A League title, Adams produced his finest performance yet, totaling 32 points, 22 rebounds and blocking seven shots.
“We went there on their senior night, that was a big game, Hoquiam is the cream of the crop in our league and we beat them by 14,” Gooding said.
“Marky had 30-plus points, 20-plus rebounds, a heap of blocked shots. You want to talk about when you need to shine? I knew we had something special, but I think that was if they didn’t know Marky was a beast before then, shame on them. He dominated. He was the best player on the court.”
And Adams, once a clumsy freshman who struggled to score in junior varsity games, is looking to play at the next level. A number of Northwest Athletic Conference teams, including Peninsula College, are in the recruiting mix.
“I want to go as far as the game will take me,” Adams said. “So I’m looking for a school that will help me fulfill my potential and get to that next level and where I can have some fun and win some games.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
Lonnie Archibald/for Peninsula Daily News Forks’ Marky Adams sends home a two-hand slam dunk in a nonleague game against North Beach. Adams has been selected as the All-Peninsula Boys Basketball MVP in a vote of area coaches and the sports staff of the Peninsula Daily News.
