Smith answers the call, leads Harper women's team

There are some odd twists in Mark Smith's path to taking over the Harper College women's basketball program.

Smith wasn't even sure he was coming back for a third year as an assistant coach when Harper player Cyndi Smith called. Head coach Rusty Becker was leaving after two years because of schedule conflicts with his new job.

"She said, 'We want you to be the coach,'" Mark Smith said. "I talked to Doug (athletic director Spiwak) and here I am."

One of the oddities is Cyndi Smith is no longer playing. Mark Smith, who starred at Elk Grove in the late 1970s and was the St. Charles North boys head coach for four years, didn't begin with enough players to form a starting five.

But Smith now has a roster of 10 players thanks to some late recruiting work by sophomores Katy Spencer and Emily Vierneisel.

"It's fun," said Smith, whose Michigan State-bound daughter Kelsey is one of the state's top players at St. Charles North. "The girls have been fantastic and very coachable and it's fun to come to practice."

The 5-foot-10 Spencer (Palatine) returns to run the point and the 5-10 Vierneisel (Jacobs) is an outside threat. Freshman Peggie Parhas is another offensive threat who was a three-year varsity player at Lake Zurich.

Smith said Parhas "has got some good game" after she scored 17 and 18 points her first two games.

"We have some girls who can shoot the 3 and we'd like to run as much as we possibly can," Smith said. "With girls from Conant, Palatine and Lake Zurich, you don't have to reteach them everything."

Track athletes Kourtney Chism (6-0) and Brittany Mitchell (5-11) from East St. Louis should help inside.

Noreen Davis (5-7) was one of Conant's top reserves last year, Kim Deuter (5-7) played at Palatine and transferred in from Illinois State and Emilia Alvord (5-4) was at Elk Grove.

Smith said he now envisions staying at Harper and would like to emulate the women's volleyball program making its fourth national tournament trip since 2002. He believes he's in the right neighborhood to make it happen.

"I think we've got one of the best areas in the whole state to draw from," Smith said. "The MSL has great schools and really, really solid basketball coaches on the girls side.

"Doug and I talked and I said if we can get a girl from every other MSL school every year, we're going to build a great program."