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Unique reunion gets high Marks Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Junior guard Sara Marks, shown during Tuesday's practice, transferred to SOU last season to be closer to her parents and instantly found a familiar face when head coach Kevin Wilson, whom she knew from her playing days at Eastern Utah, was hired by the Raiders last summer. By TIM PYLE Mail Tribune Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental. - "Sleepless in Seattle" ASHLAND - Quite a coincidence occurred last summer on the Southern Oregon University campus. That's when and where Kevin Wilson and Sara Marks met again, each as key newcomers to the Raiders' women's basketball program. Wilson, the first-year SOU head coach, and Marks, a junior point guard in her first season as a Raider, have known each other since Marks was a senior at Hunter High School in West Valley City, Utah. Then the head coach at Colorado Northwestern Community College, Wilson tried to recruit Marks to join his program, but she had already agreed to attend the College of Eastern Utah, a junior college in Price, Utah. The story, however, does not end there. Colorado Northwestern and Eastern Utah competed in the same conference, and the two teams often stayed in the same hotel on road trips. Wilson and Eastern Utah head coach Dave Paur became friends. So when Marks transferred to SOU last summer to get closer to her parents, who live in Portland, and then Wilson replaced Shirley Huyett as the Raiders' coach, both were pleasantly surprised. "I was so happy that she was here when I found out," Wilson says. "I guess the old coach that was here took the point guard with her to Idaho State. And everybody said, 'Oh, we're in trouble, we're in trouble.' "Then they said, 'We've got this girl Sara from Eastern Utah.' And I go, 'You're kidding me. We're set.'" As fate would have have it, Marks and Wilson have developed a bond that is the driving force behind SOU's quest for a postseason berth this season. Heading into Friday night's game at Concordia, the Raiders are 9-9 overall and 5-3 in the Cascade Conference, good for fifth place behind a three-way tie for second among 6-2 teams. With a 78-65 victory over Warner Pacific in Ashland on Saturday night, SOU finished off a four-game Cascade homestand with three wins. In that stretch, Marks recorded a career high in points three times, culminating with a 31-point outburst against Warner Pacific. She averaged 25 points, six rebounds and nearly five assists during the homestand, shooting 51 percent from the field. "Everyone's gonna have a good game once in awhile," says the 5-foot-5 Marks, who is using quickness and aggression to average a team-high 16.2 points per outing overall and also leads the Raiders in steals and minutes played. "When you see that someone's on fire or whatever, I think it's good to let that person keep going 'cause they might have the game of their life." Although her life at SOU has been short, Marks has etched an indelible mark on the Raiders, Wilson says. "She fits," he says. "She's someone that I would like to have every year to help the team along, to learn how to run this program. That's the kind of person we need to run the running game and to run the show. She understands it." Marks, for her part, knows Wilson and his up-tempo, player-friendly coaching style have much to do with her explosion onto the SOU scene. "Coach Wilson lets us take any shot because he thinks that if you take the shot, obviously you think you can make it," says Marks, who paced Eastern Utah in scoring with an average of 12.5 points per game and also led in assists and steals last season. "He wants the run-and-gun type of game, and I'm that type of player." More comfortable in a methodical pace under Huyett's direction, the Raiders are scoring 73.4 points per game for Wilson, a jump of 10 points from last season. "My philosophy is to let the players play," Wilson says. "It's a game. They say 'play ball' at the beginning of it. They don't say 'go work ball.' So it's fun, and it's supposed to be fun. "Those people who have come to a game have seen how fun it is when we run. They're playing basketball. They're using all their skills. They're not having me dictate whether it's a pass or whatever. And with Sara, that's the way she's the best." The system suits Marks' talents, but peace of mind may be the biggest reason for her eruption with the Raiders. The ninth of 10 children, Marks made her father, Terry, proud by developing into his only kid to play sports collegiately. A former football player at the University of Montana, Terry Marks moved with his wife to Portland when Sara was a freshman at Eastern Utah. Heart problems limited Terry to seeing Sara play in person just three times during each of her two seasons at Eastern Utah. Now, the Markses are regulars at SOU games. "He's been to just about every game and been supporting me really well, and I enjoy it," Marks says. "It makes me feel good that I can be close to them. Because even outside of basketball, when I have a chance to go home or to visit, then I can, and it makes it a lot easier." For fans, it doesn't get much easier than watching the style of basketball Marks enjoys. "The kind of basketball I like to play is run, gun and have fun," she says. "To me, basketball is supposed to be exciting. And if you're gonna have the fans come and watch, you might as well put on a show." Speaking of shows, the Marks-Wilson reunion in Ashland may be accidental, but it's putting more points on a scoreboard than Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan ever could. Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.