Mark Sanford

Eumarkjah Tywan "Mark" Sanford (born February 7, 1976), is a retired American professional basketball player. Personal life Sanford was born in Dallas, Texas, to Beverley and Richard Sanford. He is the second oldest of five children, Richard, Anthony, Zakirah, and Crystal. In his early years he was a big football fan. He played and was coached by his father Richard until his untimely murder in 1990. Richard Sanford never saw his son play basketball. When he died, Mark was 14 years old, stood 5 feet 8 inches and played football. Mark told his father that he would play in the NFL, but in his heart - even back then - he felt he would never leave the impoverished neighborhood of South Oak Cliff, in Dallas, Texas. In the year following his father's death, Mark grew 8 inches, going from 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet 6 inches. He stopped growing at 6 feet 10 inches. High school career Sanford attended Dallas Carter High School and did not start playing basketball until he was in the tenth grade. In his first year of playing organized basketball Sanford won a share of the Sophomore of the Year award with Maceo Baston of Spruce High School. Halfway through his junior year, he transferred to Carter's cross town rival Kimball High School. That year he led Kimball to an undefeated record the second half of the season while averaging 26ppg 14rebs and 4blk. Their only loss came in the Championship game to Waco High School. Kimball finished the season ranked number 6 in the Southwest. The summer after Sanford's junior year his mother moved him to San Diego California, where he enrolled into Lincoln High School. He led Lincoln Prep to the city of San Diego's first ever State Championship.[2] Along the way he collected numerous honors from California State POY to All-State and All-American. He ranked 22nd nationally by Parade All-America in the class of 1994. Sanford was voted the MVP of the San Diego City All-Star Challenge after managing a record 10 3pts on 13 attempts and amassing 48pts. In 1996 He was inducted into the San Diego Sports Hall of fame. In his brief High School Career he scored 2,373 points, grabbed 1059 rebounds, and 413 blocks.