Gerald is a county treasure

On Oct. 4, at about 10am, there was a gathering at Mullins High School to celebrate the birthday of Mullins High School Head Basketball Coach and Marion County Treasure, Mark Gerald. The crowd that showed up for this event at this time on a Saturday morning was a testament to the man and what he means to a whole heap of people.

I woke up Saturday and was my usual lazy self. Normally, I would not even get out of bed until 11:30 a.m. That gives me time to get myself ready for my 12:30 program at the radio station. That Saturday was different in that I did not have until 11:30 if I wanted to get to the party on time. I set and hit the snooze on my cell and regular phone about four times each. I told myself, "Ok! Enough! You gotta get moving." So I got myself together and headed right to the school. The parking lot was jammed as if it was a game night. The crazy thing is, I did not see any long sleepy faces. People were there and they were pumped.

They were rip-roaring ready to show Mark, just how much they love him. All the speakers and events that followed were nothing more than a reaffirmation of it. When you see Marion (high school) people show up to honor this man, you know that he transcends school affiliation.

Of all the wrangling that has gone on between Marion and Mullins people, I have not once heard anybody from Marion have anything negative to say about him. This is why I say "Marion County Treasure." From Britton's Neck to Mullins and every part of this county in between, he is special -- an icon. I want to say a few things about Mark. First, I love the man. I also respect him as a coach and as a molder of men.

That is what he has done in his 20-plus years as a coach at Mullins. He has been a terrific coach, as is evident by has astounding coaching record. I would bet that during his entire tenure as head coach, he has never had a losing season. I have been here 20 years and I have not known his teams to not be in the playoff. Are there any other coaches you know of out there who can say that? I did not think so!

Maybe some of you are thinking that if you had the type of talent that Mark had, then you, too, could have accomplished these things. Let me stop you in your tracks. I have looked over some of Mark's teams during the start of their training and have often wondered, "How is he going to make it work with what he has!?" Not to worry -- that’s where his brilliance as a coach comes in. With smoke, mirrors and whatever else he has to do, he gets it done.

His coaching career did not come without great disappointments along with the enormous success. Crushing defeats have dotted the landscape. I have seen him cry and I have cried with him ... Yeah, he wanted to win as much as anybody and as hard as he worked, it seems almost cruel for him to have to suffer any of those setbacks. But he did, and then moved on to the next season.
I was only getting to know him when he suffered, what I might consider the mother of all of his loses. That was the 1995-96 team of Dawani Fladger, Cedric Smith, Curtis Williams and John Johnson. In my estimation, this was the best team he ever had.

They played in a tough 3A region with powerful teams from Marion, Darlington and Myrtle Beach. They lost a couple of games down the stretch that season and were forced to be road warriors when the playoff started. They went to Columbia and beat a tough CA Johnson team. They won that game and turned around and went to Darlington to face a team who had just beaten them a week or so before in Mullins.

Mullins won that game in a war against the likes of Brian Scott, Brandon Rouse and Orlando Hudson. After the CA Johnson win, one of their fans, a young student uttered these words, “Wait until they have to play Eau Claire.” She was prophetic because that is exactly what Mullins was up against next -- Jermaine O’Neal and the three-time defending Class 3A Champ Shamrocks the next Friday.
It would take an almost perfect game for Mullins to go to Columbia and dethrone the champs. They played a perfect game and dethroned the champs.

Everybody played brilliantly but the game was still tight in front of an overflow, pro-Shamrock throng at AC Flora High School. Ryan White came up with a big steal in the backcourt and converted a pressure lay-up to seal it. One game left for the Lower-state against Holly Hill Roberts. You know the rest of the story as Mullins, playing without point guard John Johnson, who had broken his wrist a few games earlier, lost.

The next season, Mullins won the Class 2A State Championship. Jarod Gerald, Mark's 13-year-old son was the starting Point Guard.

Now the hard part, I guess you know, is that my friend is sick. He has been sick for a while. In fact he told me some time ago that he has been sick for the better part of a year. He coached the whole season last year, basically in a struggle for his life. That fight continues in earnest now, every day. If love conquers all, I am confidant he will be ok. He has lots of that. He is a fighter, too, and will fight. He has a lot to fight for.

The team needs him, his wife needs him, his kids need him, his grand babies need him, his mamma needs him, his siblings need him, and God knows we need him. God bless you and I love you Mark. You are our very own treasure.