By Todd Bradley, DCSportsFan.com
Special to MaxPreps.com
Over the past 10 games, Georgetown Prep has won seven times by an average of 18 points per game. The Little Hoyas only loss was by six points against a tough Miami Springs (Fla.) team that would eventually win the Junior Orange Bowl Classic over the Christmas holiday.
Since then, Prep has defeated Coconut Creek (Fla.) by 34, St. Albans by 31, St. Stephen's/St. Agnes by 20, Jeffersontown (Ky.) by 14 and Landon by 14. The success can be attributed to a number of things, one of which is the play of sophomore guard Markel Starks.
Starks arrived at Georgetown Prep, in North Bethesda, in the fall of 2006 after transferring to Mater Dei in Potomac for his eighth grade year. The decision to attend Prep was difficult, especially considering he was on the brink of becoming at student at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C.
"At the time, I was pretty much set to go to Gonzaga, but my dad got in with Coach (Dwayne) Bryant," Starks said. "He does a great job of coaching, and I felt like it was going to be the best fit for me. I ended up going to Mater Dei, which often feeds into Prep. Ever since then, the sky has been the limit."
Georgetown Prep's academic reputation factored into Starks' decision.
"I was looking for something besides basketball," Starks said. "I figured that I was pretty gifted, and that I could use my basketball talents to translate into the classroom. I could have went to Gonzaga, I could have went to DeMatha, I could have went anywhere in the country, but I chose Georgetown Prep because it was a great academic school."
Starks' recent success, including scoring in double figures in nine of the last 10 games, has garnered the attention of dozens of Division I schools. He has already received offers from at least nine colleges, but Starks isn't just looking to play basketball in college.
"I'm looking for academics," Starks said. "Coach Bryant, my dad and my family always talk about `beside basketball.' First of all, I want to be able to go to a college where I can excel academically as well as athletically. A lot of schools try and recruit you so they can use you. I want to use them. I want to get what's best out of them, and that's an education."
Starks is often compared in the area to fellow sophomores Kendall Marshall (O'Connell) and Tyler Thornton (Gonzaga). Marshall has already committed to the University of North Carolina and Thornton has a number of offers from Division I schools.
"I think Markel is as good if not better (than Kendall and Tyler)," Coach Bryant said. "He can do a lot of things on the floor, from shooting the ball to breaking down defenses. He's an excellent passer.
"I think they're all different players. Markel is a little more of a scoring point guard, Tyler is more of a defensive-minded point guard and he does a great job of distributing the ball, and Kendall is kind of like a Jason Kidd type of point guard. I think they're all different styles, but Markel is a little bit more explosive as a scorer. He could probably put up 25 or 30 points per game, but it wouldn't help us win."
Winning is something Starks takes very seriously. It doesn't matter if it's a two-point victory or a 20-point victory. Just competing against schools in the Washington, D.C. area is a big enough feat in itself.
"It means something to beat any school," Starks said. "We're talking about the best competition in the country. When people think of D.C., you think of guys that can play. We have players and we've shown that. There's Tywon Lawson (UNC), Kevin Durant (Seattle Supersonics), Michael Beasley (Kansas State), so whenever we play a team in the area, it's a big game for us. We don't take any team lightly."
Todd Bradley is the Editor-in-Chief of www.dcsportsfan.com, which covers high school athletics in the Washington, D.C. area. E-mail Todd at editor@dcsportsfan.com.