{"id":4832,"date":"2010-05-03T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=4832"},"modified":"2017-06-22T11:30:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T16:30:59","slug":"anderson-determined-to-prove-critics-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2010\/05\/03\/anderson-determined-to-prove-critics-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Anderson determined to prove critics wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Thinking his team just lost a pick-up game at one of Sinclair Community College\u2019s open gyms, former Sinclair basketball star Mark Anderson sits on the gym floor anxious to finally tell his side of the story when teammate Damon Dillard yells, \u201cWhat are you doing getting interviewed right now, Mark! We\u2019re still playing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson gets back up to play and his team proceeds to win four straight games. He still wears the red and white he sported just a year ago when he was an All-American for the Tartan Pride, but it\u2019s no longer a Sinclair uniform. With his eligibility gone, the shorts are Jordan and the shirt is Fruit of the Loom. After going undefeated in seven games Anderson finally sits down to talk. Between losing a scholarship to Miami University and being criticized in the media, it\u2019s been a tough year for the former Sinclair basketball star.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want people to know that I wasn\u2019t as stupid as the media made me out to be,\u201d Anderson said about a May 12 2009 article in the Dayton Daily News that suggested he lost his scholarship due to poor academics. \u201cI don\u2019t get bad grades; I\u2019m not an F student. I never have been and I never will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hitting some road blocks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anderson said the real reason he was unable to transfer was because he only had \u201csixty something\u201d credits instead of the 94 that were required.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to (get 94 credit hours) in two years. When you\u2019re trying to graduate up out of (Sinclair) and go Division I (in two years), you got to take as many (credit) hours as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I could go back I would have taken 18 hours max both summers.\u201d<\/p>\n

After realizing that Miami was out of the picture, Anderson signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Charleston in West Virginia, but the NCAA caught him by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of nowhere a new NCAA rule change came in saying that you had to have passed so many (credit) hours during spring quarter because for some reason they don\u2019t count summer as a regular quarter, they count it as extra quarter,\u201d he said. \u201cI was prepared to take and pass as many (classes) as I needed to get down there, but then that rule came out and I was like, \u2018Man what am I suppose to do now?\u2019 It was like I hit another road block.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not giving up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feeling frustrated and disappointed that he couldn\u2019t transfer, Anderson said he tried to keep his emotions bottled up inside until someone gave him advice that really hit home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never forget when I was sitting down in the athletic office and there was a tap on my shoulder,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt was Ms. Peavy. I guess she had just got news about what was going on and she told me, \u2018Don\u2019t quit, you\u2019re not going to be considered a failure unless you quit. Move on from this, start fresh and stay focused.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by those words along with the support from his family, Anderson said his mindset improved dramatically. Upon the advice of Sinclair basketball coach Jeff Price, Anderson re-enrolled in classes at Sinclair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had got word from coach (Price) that a lot of Division II schools were interested in me and that I needed to just come back (to Sinclair) and take care of a few classes,\u201d he said. \u201cI still had some Division I offers, but with how the NCAA works I would have only had one year of eligibility so I said whatever, I\u2019ll just go to Division II so I can have two years (of eligibility).\u201d<\/p>\n

Majoring in Physical Education, Anderson took classes part-time both fall and winter quarters and said his grades were good. With his academics solid, Anderson said he currently has offers from Walsh University, Urbana University, Saginaw Valley State University and Glenville State University. He plans on making a choice on which school he will attend by the middle of spring quarter so he can take summer classes and work out with the team at the school he chooses. Anderson said there\u2019s just one more thing he has to do before he transfers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I\u2019ll admit that my game isn\u2019t as sharp as it was because I wasn\u2019t really playing ball much during winter quarter,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s just about getting my timing and my wind back, just the little things like that that go away when you don\u2019t play for a little bit no matter how good you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson said while this last year has been tough, he used it as a learning experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest lesson I learned from all of this is don\u2019t take anything for granted and listen to the ones that are in your circle because they\u2019re not going to steer you wrong. Just know who your real people are that will stick with you no matter what you are going through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thinking his team just lost a pick-up game at one of Sinclair Community College\u2019s open gyms, former Sinclair basketball star Mark Anderson sits on the gym floor anxious to finally tell his side of the story when teammate Damon Dillard yells, \u201cWhat are you doing getting interviewed right now, Mark! We\u2019re still playing!\u201d Anderson gets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1392,248,1402,276,930],"class_list":["post-4832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-basketball","tag-mark-anderson","tag-samuel-huist","tag-sinclair-community-college","tag-tartan-pride"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1fW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4834,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832\/revisions\/4834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}