PORT ANGELES — A desire to stay close to home and play basketball for coaches who already have invested time in his success led Forks’ Marky Adams to sign a letter of intent to play for the Peninsula College Pirates.
“I wanted to stay close with family and didn’t want to go too far,” Adams, the Peninsula Daily News All-Peninsula Boys Basketball MVP and a Class 1A All-State selection by the Associated Press, said.
“The idea of being 4 or 5 hours away from home [at a different school] is kind of hard to grasp. And I really like [head coach] Mitch Freeman and [assistant] coach [Donald] Rollman. I really like them as people, really nice guys, and the program has had a lot of success.”
Adams has been a familiar face in the crowd the past few seasons at Peninsula home games and Freeman has always found time to talk with him, his Forks teammates and Spartans head coach Rick Gooding, after games.
Happy to have him
Freeman and Peninsula College also hosted summer and fall high school hoops leagues on the Pirates home court.
“We are excited to announce that Marky has committed to our basketball program,” Freeman said.
“Marky is big-strong player who is becoming more aggressive since we have been following him the past four years. He will bring so much to our team including depth at the post position. [He is a] high character student-athlete and a quality student.”
Adams averaged 17 points on nearly 70 percent shooting from the floor and 12 rebounds per game his senior season.
He said he and Freeman haven’t worked out exactly what his role will be on the team, but he expects his game to grow under the tutelage of the coaching staff.
“We’ve talked a lot about playing inside-out, working through double teams in the post and passing out of them, and I have to develop a jump shot,” Adams said. “That’s something I definitely need to work on. And getting in better shape.”
He’s been working at getting acclimated to the higher-tempo pace of Northwest Athletic Conference basketball by attending open gym sessions and running.
“I’ll be running a lot more this summer and working out to get the strength in my legs to run like that [at the NWAC’s pace.],” Adams said.
Support system
Gooding was going to support Adams’ college decision regardless of destination. But he was thrilled to learn Adams picked Peninsula.
”[I’m] excited that he will be close by,” Gooding said. “He is a great kid, going to a great program. He is a part of our [Spartan basketball] family and all of our guys are excited for him. Everyone knows how I feel about Marky [and] now another coach gets the pleasure of having a great kid.”
Adams had plenty of people to thank in helping him get to this point in his career.
“It’s a long list, but I’d like to start with my family, my grandfather Don Adams drove me to every away game this year so I didn’t have to ride on the bus. My team has been really helpful and supportive and the coaching staff, Keith Weekes, Mark Raben, coach Gooding and past players, guys I looked up to my freshman year that really pushed me hard to get where I’m at right now.”
Adams mentioned former Forks stars Colton Raben and big man Leo Gonzalez as the those doing the pushing.
“Leo took me under his wing freshman and sophomore years and would take me to work out with him and helped build me up,” Adams said.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
