Unleashing a Prodigious Talent : Thousand Oaks’ Marion Jones Nearly Matches Track Feats on Basketball Court

One memory of Marion Jones is indelibly etched in Thousand Oaks High Coach Chuck Brown’s mind. It came in a first-round state playoff game this season against Rancho Bernardo. The Lancers trailed for most of the game but rallied and drew to within one point.

Jones made a spinning reverse layup along the baseline that gave Thousand Oaks a lead it never relinquished and left onlookers gaping in wonder.

“We were playing down there and their fans went wild,” Brown said of the play. “You just don’t see that very often in girls’ basketball. It’s one that I’ll never forget.”

A Rancho Bernardo player said of Jones’ shot: “It was like a knife in the heart. . . . It was an unbelievable shot. I’ve never seen anything like that in high school.”

Not too many people have seen anything like Jones, one of the most dominant athletes in area history.

Though perhaps better known for being the preeminent high school girls’ sprinter in the United States, the senior forward’s basketball accomplishments and huge potential are eye-popping.

Jones, The Times’ Ventura County player of the year, was the focal point of a Thousand Oaks team ranked first in the state for much of the season. Playing center, the 5-foot-11 Jones compensated for her lack of height and bulk with speed, quickness and jumping ability all but unseen in girls’ basketball. “She’s one of the best athletes that I’ve seen,” Buena Coach Joe Vaughn said. “She’s a pure athletic talent.”

Vaughn watched Jones nearly defeat his Bulldog team single-handedly in the Southern Section Division I-A championship. She had 23 points, 15 rebounds and scored Thousand Oaks’ final eight points, but Buena won, 44-43, on Michelle Giordano’s two free throws with no time left.

“She came through in the bigger games,” Brown said. “It was probably our fault for not getting her the ball more. “

Jones averaged 22.8 points and 14.2 rebounds and narrowly missed being selected as the California high school girls’ player of the year, though she made the all-state team and was the Division I player of the year.

But Jones has excelled in track to an even greater degree. She won the high school state championship in the 100- and 200-meter dashes her first three years, an unprecedented feat, and

will try for her fourth consecutive title in each event this spring.

Her personal-best time of 11.14 seconds in the 100 is the second-fastest mark in U.S. high school history, and her 22.58 clocking in the 200 is the fastest American high school time ever.

Most impressively, Jones was invited to be an alternate on the 1992 U.S. Olympic team in the 400 relay after finishing fifth in the 100 at the Olympic trials last spring. She declined the invitation for personal reasons.

Still, a chance to be on the Olympic team at age 16? Isn’t track unquestionably her athletic future? Nope. At least not yet. “I consider it even,” she said of track and basketball.

She insisted upon a college scholarship that would allow her to participate in both sports, and signed a track/basketball letter of intent with North Carolina.

“I’m looking long term for either track or basketball,” Jones said. Her basketball game will be refined in college.

“I definitely think I can improve if I have the time to concentrate on one sport,” she said. “The sky’s the limit. When I get to North Carolina the coaches will be more than willing to help me out.”

“Once she gets to college, she’ll get better,” Brown said. “I’m sure the college folks will work on her doing some more things with her (left) hand and work on outside shooting. We didn’t require her to do much with outside shooting--although in one game she had five three-pointers.”

There is little that Jones hasn’t done at Thousand Oaks, though this is only her second year at the school. She went to Rio Mesa her freshman and sophomore year before transferring.

At Rio Mesa she led the Spartans in scoring, rebounding and steals both seasons, and was Channel League player of the year as a sophomore.

Rio Mesa Coach Al Walker said he had plans to switch Jones from forward to point guard in her final two seasons to better prepare her for the college game.

He thinks Jones eventually will play shooting guard and joins the chorus of those paying homage to her prodigious ability.

“I think the sky’s the limit,” he said. “You know (Texas Tech’s NCAA player of the year Sheryl) Swoopes? That’s the type of potential Marion has.”

Her speed is unparalleled in basketball circles. Brown tells of a game in which Jones grabbed a defensive rebound while standing under the basket. A girl on the other team, standing at the top of the key, turned and immediately sprinted back down the court. She reached the opposite top of the key just as Jones laid the ball in.

“She seems to do things, make these fantastically athletic moves without thinking about it,” Brown said. “It just happened. That was what was so amazing.”

Marion Jones specializes in amazing.

Her latest example: In a track meet three weeks ago, Jones participated in the long jump for the first time in high school, and won the event with a leap of 19 feet 10 3/4 inches, the top high school mark in the nation this year.

So is there any sporting frontier she doesn’t want to conquer?

“I hate golf,” she laughed. “That’s the worst.”