An EMT with Lenoir County EMS tends to a man near the intersection of North Herritage Street and West Highland Avenue after someone reportedly hit the victim in the head with a hammer Friday morning.
Man attacked with hammer
Woman allegedly punched after picking up children
Shots fired near Old Snow Hill Road
Scrap metal allegedly stolen
Thousands of dollars in bonds stolen
Police find marijuana on shoplifting suspect
Man runs from police, stashes gun in freezer
Locals get an education in the grocery store
Locals get an education in the grocery store
Beware of card reader fraud
Social workers, unsung heroes, celebrated
Marshall finds way to college basketball
As if it were only yesterday, China Marshall can clearly describe the first game of her senior season at Jones Senior High School.
The Lenoir Community College freshman forward was a team captain during the Trojans' 2011-12 season after averaging a team-leading 16.1 points and 8.9 rebounds her junior year. Jones Senior opened against Jacksonville Northside on Dec. 6, 2011.
“My teammate passed me the ball and the other girl stole it,” Marshall said. “I was running behind her, I go get the block and when I came down, the girl’s under me, so I stepped on her ankle. My ankle rolled and I felt my knee pop. They stretched me, and I tried to walk and I couldn’t walk.
“At the time, it hurt, but I didn’t think nothing of it.”
Through a series of light practices and hospital visits, Marshall didn’t know until three weeks after the season opener that she’d torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus.
“I can remember it was me and my mom. We went (to the hospital),” Marshall said, clutching her left knee. “I’d seen my information on the screen, and I was like, ‘That can’t be me.’ When the doctor told me, I was just crying and crying and crying.”
The Northside loss was just one of three that season. The Trojans posted a 21-3 mark and finished undefeated in the Coastal Plains 1A Conference before falling to Southwest Onslow, 62-43, in the second round of North Carolina High School Athletic Association playoffs.
Jones Senior survived Manteo in a first-round overtime battle two days before.
Though the Trojans fell short that year, they found success without the help of one of their senior captains.
Marshall suspected her injury helped motivate Jones Senior, who she said drew doubts about even being a good team in the first place.
“Everybody would write my name on their hands and say, ‘We’re going to win this game for you,’ ” Marshall recalled. She added about the team's support, “It felt good.”
When the Trojans hung it up on Feb. 22, 2012, Marshall did too.
She was prepared to put the game she loved since 8-years old behind her.
“I had a few looks before,” Marshall said of her recruiting process. “I was looking forward to that, but once I had my injury, I was just like nobody’s going to pick me up — so I was done with basketball.
“Until coach Tad gave me that call.”
Coming back
Marshall attended ECU immediately following her Jones Senior graduation.
She didn’t have plans for athletics.
LCC coach Tad Parson had already watched Marshall in school as a Trojan and decided to reach back out — nearly three years after she’d last touched a basketball. She said the pain of her injury discouraged her from working out even after she recovered.
To this day, she still uses an Ace elastic bandage around her knee.
“She was a player,” Parson said. “I just wanted to lay the opportunity out there in case she didn’t want to go Division I straight out.”
When Parson called Marshall in attempts to get her to LCC last season, Marshall said she immediately accepted the offer.
She was nervous stepping back out on a basketball court April of last year.
“Once I got into the flow of the game,” Marshall said, "everything just came back.”
Marshall averaged a double-double of 11.7 points and a team-best 11.1 rebounds (5.9 defensive and 5.2 offensive) her first season with the Lancers, who lost, 76-48, to Louisburg College to end their season at 11-12.
She scored a season-high 19 points three times over the year.
Marshall picked up right where she left off at Jones Senior.
Repairing the damage
Parson, who has coached the Lancers since 2009 and is also an assistant for the men’s team, said an ACL injury is more common in basketball players today and the recovery depends on the person. He’s seen some of his players come back ahead of schedule, while others took more than a year to get back on the floor.
Additionally, young female athletes are eight times more likely than males to suffer serious ACL injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 46,000 female athletes under 19-years old in 2006 experienced the injury, and nearly 30,000 of the injuries required reconstructive surgery.
Marshall, now 20, said it took four physical therapists to complete her recovery.
“It takes a strong person,” she said of overcoming the setback. “In the beginning, I wanted to give up; it does take a lot. Every time I came down in the beginning of the season, I would get real nervous (about injuring it again). Then, as the season progressed, I wasn’t worried about it.
“It definitely builds character.”
Parson said Marshall surpassed his expectations of her this season because of her mental and physical toughness.
“Being that she hadn’t played basketball in three years, she worked extremely hard,” Parson said. “I told her I was surprised.”
Love of the game
Jones Senior girls’ basketball coach Debbie Philyaw remembers her former player and how devastating her injury was. She said she didn’t know how the other Trojans would take the sidelining of their leader.
But Marshall was with them every game that season. She mentored the younger girls and sat with the coaches during games.
“We ordered wristbands with her initials and number on them,” Philyaw said of Marshall. “We wore them to honor her that season. How we went 21-3: it was mere heart. The rest of the season, I feel like was for China Marshall.
“China’s dream was to play college ball.”
Marshall, who was born in Baton Rouge, La., said she used to watch the boys in her neighborhood play basketball, and it motivated her.
“I wanted to be better than everyone,” she said with a laugh, “so I just started playing.”
Basketball is bigger than a game for Marshall, because she uses it as refuge. Even after an unwanted hiatus, she found her way back.
She said LCC was a good fit for her to return to the game, and she looks forward to next season with the Lancers.
“Basketball means a lot to me,” Marshall said. “Whenever something is going wrong … I know that’s what I can always go to. That’s what I always have.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
Jumping high
Kinston's Ty'Ron Williams, 13, flips over the bar of the high jump in front of instructor Dalton Godette during the Havelock Track and Field Club Spring Camp on Saturday at Havelock High School. The camp brought youth from Goldsboro, Greenville, Kinston and Wilmington to Havelock for instruction on track and field techniques, including the high jump, long jump, shot put, discus and sprints.
Parrott's Rasberry supports the cause
One of Arendell Parrott Academy’s most notable athletes played a different role in a basketball tournament Saturday afternoon.
While 10 three-on-three teams slowly got eliminated throughout the day, Zacchaeus Rasberry split time along the sideline and behind the scorer's table. As teams finished playing two 10-minute halves, he walked out to the court with a light green sheet of paper to manage the bracket.
Rasberry, in an effort to raise money for cancer, heart disease, arthritis and diabetes, organized the Jr./Sr. weekend for C.H.A.D. Proceeds raised from the service project will go to the Cancer Society, Heart Association, Arthritis Foundation and Diabetes Association.
These particular diseases hit home for Rasberry.
“I just thought about all of the different diseases that people in my family have; some of them have more than one,” he said. “I have grandparents; they had all four diseases. It affects not only the older people but younger people. You hear about younger people having cancer, arthritis and diabetes.”
The basketball tournament held at Ellis-Simon Gymnasium featured a variety of age groups and representation from several area schools. Players from Greene Central, Kinston and North Lenoir were among the participants, as one of the North Lenoir teams won the tournament.
Justin Lee of Greene Central said he learned of the event through his church.
“I said, ‘Why not? I’m doing it for a good cause,’ ” he said. “I came out here to have fun and support (Zacchaeus). It turned out well.”
Rasberry said before the event he had raised nearly $4,000 for the organizations.
Although everyone didn’t get on the court to show support, some people came by to give small donations and stop in to recognize the Parrott junior for his event.
“Anything helps, and I really appreciate those people,” Rasberry said. “I was thinking about all the different fundraisers I could do for a service project, and most people, they only do cancer or heart disease. I wanted to be different, and I wanted do more than one. Up to today, it’s been a lot of work getting letters out and getting donations. Earlier, with the registration, people started coming in kind of slow, but we wound up with a pretty good turnout.
“It’s been pretty successful.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan
Photo Page: Naturally Curious
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science brought nature indoors to the La Grange Public Library. The outreach program taught children and patrons how to use their senses to uncover the different clues left behind by animals, mammals and reptiles along with their habitats and life cycle.