THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310395
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
Each night for the past five months, Marvin Rodgers has folded his 6-foot-8, 225-pound frame into bed, stared at a newspaper clipping and reflected on his status as the poster child for Portsmouth's new academic standards.
The story announced Rodgers' academic ineligibility, detailing his failure the previous semester to achieve the 1.3 grade-point average required to play high school sports in the city. Its publication last August angered and embarrassed Rodgers so much he taped a copy to the ceiling above his bed.
``I realized I'd gotten myself into that situation, so it was time I got myself out of it,'' he said.
Sometime last week, that story came down. And after missing the first 16 games of his senior season, Marvin Rodgers is back. The first-team All-Tidewater forward will be in uniform tonight when Churchland entertains Oscar Smith at 7:30 p.m.
``I was talking to Joe Smith during the summer,'' Rodgers said of the Maury graduate, now a star at Maryland. ``He told me he had the torch in high school ball around here, and now it's time to see what I'm going to do with it.
``I had a little setback, but now, forget the old. Here comes the new Marvin Rodgers.''
Still, this second chance might never have come unless a sizable part of the ``old'' Marvin Rodgers - dedicated family man and devout Christian - had never gone away.
Anyone scheduling a pickup game on a Sunday morning shouldn't bother to look for Rodgers. He'll be in one of the three churches he has attended regularly ``as long as I've been walking.''
``Everything's not all about basketball,'' said Rodgers, flashing the smile that has become one of his on-court trademarks. ``My religion helps me think about different things. It makes me look at life in different ways.''
Rodgers' religious views have helped him foster a close relationship with his family, so much so that he makes no apologies for often not having time to hang out with the fellas.
``You know, a lot of teenagers don't really want to be around their families too much,'' said Gloria Miller, the aunt who accompanied Marvin to a church service Sunday. ``But Marvin really likes to be around us. He's really something special.
``And if I want my refrigerator raided, all I have to do is call.''
The combination of family and religion has also provided an outlet for Rodgers' musical interests. Four years ago, Rodgers took up the bass guitar to plug a hole in the lineup of the gospel-oriented Rodgers Family Band. He's been a featured player in the 11-player, all-family-member unit ever since.
Rodgers' brother and Churchland teammate Dion Langley - Marvin kept his mother's maiden name - plays drums. His mother, Shirley Langley, sings.
Rodgers' faith and familial support, he said, also helped him gather the strength to lift his GPA close to the 2.0 mark for the just-completed semester.
``When all the stuff came out about me not being able to play, it really hurt me,'' he said. ``But my family stuck with me, and I believed in God. No way was I going to blow this opportunity.''
Had Rodgers been in high school 20 years ago, having to sit out the first semester of his senior year might have been a devastating blow to his college scholarship prospects. Especially since Rodgers, 17, has been ineligible or injured for all or part of four of his seven high school semesters.
As a freshman at Cradock, he scored 12 points against Smith in his first varsity game. Two games later, he dislocated a kneecap and was lost for the season. The following year, a late transfer to Churchland made him ineligible for the first semester.
But to many college recruiters, summer camps and AAU tournaments weigh more heavily than high school performance. And Rodgers has definitely shone in the summertime.
He was the youngest member of Boo Williams AAU national championship team in 1992, a team that featured Smith and Georgetown freshman Allen Iverson. Last summer, playing predominantly as a wing forward, Rodgers was named MVP of the Junior Capital Classic in Washington - thanks to a 32-point, 11-rebound, eight-assist performance - and excelled at a Nike All-Star camp.
At least two recruiting services rank him among the top 50 seniors in the country, and Rodgers says he's already been selected for Magic Johnson's Roundball Classic, the Capital Classic and the Kentucky Derby all-star games, in addition to being among the top 40 candidates for the McDonald's All-Star Game.
It's all made Rodgers so confident in his ability to play at the next level that he doesn't even mind people knowing he's actually 6-8, not 6-9, as previously reported.
``They'll just add the inch back in college anyway,'' he said.
He already has visited West Virginia, and says Massachusetts, Virginia, Wake Forest and Nevada-Las Vegas are on his short list.
``Of course they want him,'' Boo Williams said. ``He's a 6-9 kid with skills. Kids like that don't fall out of the sky.''
All Rodgers has to do now is qualify. Prayer might help, but Rodgers must also improve his GPA and attain the required minimum on one of the required college board tests to play Division I ball next year.
Prep school is an option. In fact, Rodgers considered attending a prep school this year before being talked out of it by, among others, Churchland point guard Mike Holland. And Truckers coach Mac Carroll said five of the top 10 junior colleges in the country are also hot on Rodgers' trail.
``I'd like to play (Division I) next year, but we'll just have to see what happens,'' Rodgers said.
Rodgers may not know what's in his future collegiately, but he's confident in making a smooth transition back into what will now be essentially the same lineup that won the Eastern Region title last year.
``How long will it take to get back in sync with the guys? By the end of (Monday's) practice,'' Rodgers said. ``We're that close.''
Otherwise, Rodgers expects to perform at a slightly more advanced level than the player who averaged 15.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.4 blocks a game last season. Twenty additional pounds of muscle should make him more of a force on the blocks, although Carroll still plans to make extensive use of Rodgers' abilities both in transition and facing the basket.
Three-hour daily workouts at the Western Branch Community Center have Rodgers also promising more quickness, better ballhandling skills and NBA range on his jumper.
How many of these new wrinkles will be in evidence tonight remains to be seen. But one thing remains clear - tonight's tipoff will signal the end of a long journey for Rodgers, one which left him clipping a newspaper article to help him find his way.
``He was struggling there for a little bit,'' Carroll said. ``So I told him, `You know that story you've got above your bed? Tape a blank piece of paper next to it, with a question mark. Then think about what the next story is going to be. Is it going to be `Marvin's back and doing well,' or is it going to be about how `Marvin couldn't get it done'?
``I don't know if he put it up there, but I do know that he doesn't need either of them anymore.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BETH BERGMAN/Staff
Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff file
All-Tidewater forward Marvin Rodgers will be in uniform tonight when
Churchland entertains Oscar Smith at 7:30 p.m.
by CNB