Summer will be key for BHS basketball

Despite injury and quarantine difficulties this season, Yarnell Marks is pleased with the direction of his basketball programs in Bruce.
This was Marks’ first season leading both the boys’ and girls’ programs, and even though he lost his top three girl scorers to torn ACLs in the course of the season, his teams made the playoffs and are building for the future.
“As far as anything outside of COVID and injuries, it pretty much went like I expected,” Marks said. “I guess I underestimated COVID, and I didn’t anticipate how injuries would affect the team. I would say I was kind of blindsided on that, but as far as running both programs, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would have been.”
After facing the adversity of losing three leaders on the girls’ team, the Lady Trojans made the playoffs anyway, albeit briefly. Still, Marks is looking at the positives of having to rely on some youth this season with that squad.
“I knew after losing those seniors, we were going to be very young [moving forward],” Marks said. “You can’t plan for injuries, but you can’t whine about it either. Every team has injuries. To lose three players to ACLs was definitely something that caught me off guard, but I do believe in the overall health of the girls’ program because I had to play a lot of young girls.”
Different than the girls, the boys’ team was in the midst of a planned rebuild this year, but Marks also believes that program is on the right track.
“As for the guys, we knew we were in a rebuild anyway,” Marks said. “When we started building some chemistry, that’s when COVID hit. I think out of the 12 games we played, we might have played five full-strength. I’ve got a lot of eighth graders that got some valuable minutes. I think, now, we are definitely moving upward.”
With this positive mindset, Marks believes that this summer is crucial to the furtherment of both of his Bruce programs.
“What we do with the next year is yet to be seen,” Marks said. “This summer is really going to tell the tale with how committed they are to the program. But, if they’re committed, the boys are in great shape for years to come.”