Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Grandview Investing in Street Repairs
The Grandview Board of Aldermen approved $580,000 in street repairs last Wednesday, February 13, which are on tap to be completed before the end of 2013. Below is a list of projects to be completed:
Monday, February 4, 2013
Marlin’s Milestone a Time for Reflection
The prospect of his 500th career coaching win had hung around Ruskin head basketball coach Gerry Marlin’s neck for weeks. The anticipation of the moment weighed like an albatross.
Last Friday night, when Marlin finally recorded his 500th
career win with a 65-50 victory over Park Hill, the weight rolled off his
shoulders, replaced by a wide grin and an overwhelming sense of relief that the
saga was over.
“This is the number right here by which high school coaches
are judged,” said Marlin in the moments after the milestone win. “So I feel
relieved. I’m glad to finally have the monkey off my back.”
It was a moment 26 years in the making for Marlin, who began
his career in Gainesville, Florida, before taking over the Ruskin program 11
years ago. After the final buzzer sounded Friday night, his memory was flooded
with the players and coaches that came before; the many smaller moments that
had led him to this incredible accomplishment.
Like most basketball coaches, Marlin once had hoop dreams of
his own. An accomplished high school player, Marlin had split his career
between parents, playing in Florida while living with his dad during his
freshman and junior years and in Iowa with his mom during his sophomore and
senior years.
Marlin was good enough to be named All-State during his
senior year in Iowa, talented enough to play at Santa Fe Community College in
Gainesville, Florida after his high school career. But he still remembers the
moment when he realized that his mark would be made on the sidelines instead of
the court.
Marlin was trying out for the University of Florida men’s
basketball team. Although he had a chance to make the roster as a walk-on, the
writing was printed clearly on the wall.
“I tried out for the University of Florida,” remembers
Marlin. “Everybody there was bigger, stronger, and quicker than me. So I gave
up. I started concentrating on my coaching classes, and got my degree.”
According to Marlin, the coaching circuit was not for the
faint of heart.
“Everybody helps out volunteer-wise first, and then you’re
hired for peanuts, and you work your way up from there,” he recalls.
Marlin started out working under a coach in Gainesville
named Greg Meade, initially volunteering his services. But a long conversation
with the coach during a road trip afforded the young coach his first
opportunity to run a team.
“The head coach and I talked a lot, and he was impressed by
my initiative, I would guess, because I didn’t know much at the time,” admitted
Marlin. “But by the time the trip was done, I had been named the junior varsity
coach.”
During that time Marlin operated like a sponge, soaking up
his first coaching lessons from Meade.
“He showed me practice organization,” says Marlin. “By
virtue of me being around and watching him work, I learned the importance of
the off-season programs, and the importance of the feeder programs.”
While appreciative of his time under Meade, Marlin had to
move on to his next job to get his first varsity coaching experience. The
opportunity was in Louisiana, as the top assistant at North Caddo High School.
When the head coach was forced to sit out with an illness, Marlin took over as
coach for his first varsity roster. In that season, Marlin realized that this
was exactly what he wanted to do with his life.
“He kind of had to hand the reins over to me,” says Marlin
of the opportunity. “We went on a tear, and we ended up winning twenty games. I
realized that, hey, I can do this.”
Still, though, Marlin never thought about his place in
history. He just kept working with kids, building successful teams, and moving
up the coaching ladder wherever he went. When he came to Ruskin High School in
2002 to coach the boy’s varsity team, Marlin put his reputation on the line. He
had come to a program that was badly in need of rebuilding.
“We totally changed the image of the program,” said Marlin
about his first years at Ruskin. “We had kind of a zero tolerance policy for
behavior problems in the school. We kind of cleared house, and re-steered the
program in the right direction.”
Matthew Ramsey was a part of Marlin’s first team at Ruskin.
Ramsey, himself now coach of Ruskin’s sophomore team, remembers how Marlin
quickly grabbed control of a disheveled program.
“We quickly realized that he knew
what he talking about,” said Ramsey, a freshman during Marlin’s first season.
“He can be pretty hard, but when you see the results, it makes you appreciate
what he put you through.”
Despite some initial struggles,
the direction of the program was undeniably positive. Marlin had taken Ramsey’s
freshman class under his wing, and begun the hard work of transforming the
Golden Eagles from a basketball team into a family.
“(Ramsey’s) class was the first class that we had that had
been raised by me,” says Marlin now. “I think we were very vocal with them early
on. They were going to be the group that changes the culture of Ruskin
basketball.”
Marlin successfully sold that message because he believed it
wholeheartedly, and his young team couldn’t help but embrace the coach who had
shown such faith in them.
“By the time they were seniors, we had our first 20-win
season,” said Marlin. “And then we had four in our next five years.”
All the while, Marlin just kept marching toward that
illustrious milestone. If he’s to be believed though, Marlin didn’t realize how
close he was getting until the magical 2007 season in which Ruskin won their
final 29 games to take home the Class 4A state title. During that year’s state
tournament, the Missouri State High School Athletics Association (MSHSAA) asked
each participating coach to provide their career win total. At that point,
Marlin realized that he had less than 100 more victories until 500.
“Honest to god, I didn’t even notice,” says Marlin now. “It
just kind of creeps up on you.”
Instead of worrying about his personal victory count, Marlin
was more concerned with sharing that championship with the former players who
had helped build the program during his early years at Ruskin.
“When we won state, that whole group came down there with
us,” says Marlin of Ramsey’s class. “They had laid the groundwork for that.
Without them, we never would have gotten to the top. They are always welcomed
back here, and they know that.”
Over the past few weeks, as the 500-win milestone crept
closer, Marlin heard from many of his former players. A few even spoke to the
team after particularly tough losses. Those closest to the program knew that,
despite their former coach downplaying the gravity of the moment, the weight of
that albatross was growing more burdensome by the day.
And then came Friday, the day that the weight of the world
disappeared amid a flurry of smiling embraces. The extended Ruskin family could
finally enjoy the moment Marlin had been building since he came to the school
eleven years ago looking to incite a program to reach greater heights.
“It means the world to me, I’m so happy for
him,” said Ramsey. “I know he’s happy that it’s over right now.”
Although Marlin was happy, he was not content. He still
hopes for another state championship, another milestone to celebrate with his
Ruskin family. Before the conversation ends, his mind shifts to the future, and
he talks excitedly about the talent coming through the pipeline in the next
couple of years. It is clear in that moment that Marlin is in fact living his
hoop dreams, and that nothing will take him away from the passion he’s found
for coaching.
“They’re going to have to make me stop,” says Marlin about
his future. “I don’t know how long they’ll let me go. If I ever stop, I wouldn’t even know what to
call myself.”
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