ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FERRUM
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
MARLO FERGUSON was in no rush to begin her college career. Ferrum College is glad she took her time.
She might as well have been going to the dentist or to a funeral for a favorite pet.
When they pulled in to the Liberty University campus in 1989, Wanda and Buster Ferguson's car was full of boxes and tears. They belonged to their daughter, Marlo.
She had a full scholarship to attend Liberty and play women's basketball, but she had a lot of bad feelings about it, too. Ferguson was coming off an all-Group AA season at Magna Vista High School. After starring for the Warriors, she was expected to make a bigger name for herself in the Big South Conference.
But Ferguson wasn't ready.
``The more I thought about it, the more I knew,'' Marlo said. ``I don't know if it was a cop-out or not, but that's the way I felt at the time.''
So Ferguson, at her parents' invitation, got back in the car and went back home.
``I didn't force her into it, although everybody said I should have,'' said Buster Ferguson. ``I can't do my child like that.''
Four years later, Marlo felt she was ready to give another try. Since 1993, she's been at Ferrum College, where she's been a four-year starter at point guard for the Panthers. Nearly a decade after she graduated from Magna Vista, Ferguson, 25, will graduate from Ferrum. Many changes can occur in that time.
In 1989, for example, high school girls' basketball wasn't nearly as established as it is now. In 1989, Ferguson and the Magna Vista girls' team had to use men's regulation-size basketballs. Now, Ferguson uses a slightly smaller basketball designed for women.
In 1989, the 3-point line had just been added to high school basketball. Ferguson's high school coach, a former Ferrum star named Lenora Compton, said Ferguson could make the shot, but the team wouldn't utilize the 3-pointer in its gameplan. In 1997, Ferguson holds the Ferrum single-game, season and career records for 3-pointers.
In 1989, she was known as Marlo Ferguson. In 1997, she is known as Marlo Ferguson. Big change there, huh? Actually, there is. From 1990 to 1996, she was married and went by the name Marlo Ferguson-Jamison. She was divorced last year.
The name Marlo Ferguson still is known in the Martinsville area, although until she resurfaced at Ferrum, most mentions of it were preceded by the phrase, ``Whatever happened to ....''
``I had a pretty big name coming out of high school, and then they didn't hear from me for four years,'' Ferguson said. ``Rumor had it I had babies, probably. I didn't. I worked.''
As frustrating as it was to have to explain herself and the life she chose over a full athletic scholarship, the questions didn't drive her back to college. It was the void of not playing basketball and the desire to create a better situation for herself.
``I thought that I loved the game, and that's when I knew I loved it,'' Ferguson said. ``There would be nights when I'd cry because I missed it. For women, what do you do? They don't have rec leagues or anything.''
Ferguson had the community center her father and mother operate in Collinsville, but most of her workouts there came from serving as a referee for men's games. The time she used to spend playing sports was spent taking naps in a state of depression or eating (Ferguson gained 50 pounds before she enrolled at Ferrum). The rest of her time was spent working at a printing company in Martinsville, where she wasn't making much money. So she decided to go back to school.
Her first plan was to attend Patrick Henry Community College for a year or so. An informal visit to Ferrum, however, ended with her admission into school there.
Ferrum coach Donna Doonan remembers the day Ferguson visited because Ferguson showed up under yet another different name. ``It was on my desk,'' Doonan said. ``She came as Christy Jamison.'' Christy is Ferguson's given first name.
``I couldn't remember a Christy Jamison at Magna Vista, and that was a real hot area for a while. When she walked in, I remembered her. It was Marlo Ferguson.''
Ferguson had sought out Ferrum four years after a pack of Division I schools had sought her. Most of the in-state schools recruited her. Coaches from as far as the U.S. Military Academy, Clemson and Brown University saw her play either at Magna Vista or in AAU games. A coach from Howard University, where former teammate Shaun Valentine had gone to play, asked Ferguson, ``How would you like to continue playing on an all-black team?''
Those coaches probably would be as surprised that Ferguson went to Ferrum, a Division III, non-scholarship athletic program, as Doonan was the day Ferguson showed up. ``I was excited,'' Doonan said. ``I was just hoping she still had it. Some people didn't think so, but I think she proved them wrong.''
Ferguson leads the Panthers in scoring at 15.7 points per game and in assists at 3.2 per game. She was an all-Dixie Conference second-teamer in 1995-96. Ferguson also played softball in 1996 and made the Dixie Conference women's tennis second team in 1995 despite playing the sport for the first time in her life.
``Division III's great,'' Ferguson said. ``I think this is me. The only thing I regret is I always would have liked to have played one game on Division I floors just to compete against other Division I players. Other than that, I think this is where I belonged to start with.''
It took Ferguson longer to find her place than she or anyone else expected. But she did end up in the right place.
``After going to Liberty, we gave up all hope,'' said Buster Ferguson. ``And then one day she said she was going up to Ferrum. We were tickled that she did. It's easy to quit and never go back.''
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: FERRUM COLLEGE. Marlo Ferguson, who starred at Magnaby CNBVista High School, is Ferrum College's all-time leader in single
game, season and career 3-point field goals. color.