Marks' road to Norman took unconventional path
NORMAN — The Marks family had the routine down.
At around 6:30 every morning, Alex Marks would bound to her father's Volkswagen Jetta, stopping to grab the breakfast that her mother, Kerri, made for her to eat on the way.
From the family's home in Cushing, James and Alex would hit the road, with James dropping his daughter off at Dynamo Gymnastics in Oklahoma City before heading to work at the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
Once James got off work, he'd drive to Dynamo and sit in the parking lot until around 6 p.m. whenever Alex finished with her practice day — and the pair would make their way back to Cushing.
Now, about 15 years after the family started the routine, Alex Marks is in her senior season of gymnastics for No. 1 Oklahoma.
Marks and the Sooners will compete against Arizona State, George Washington and Washington at the Perfect 10 Challenge at the Cox Center beginning at 6:45 p.m. Friday.
Primarily a vaulter during her OU career, Marks made the transition to uneven bars this season after an offseason hip surgery.
“I've been having a blast — senior year just trying to go out with a bang,” Marks said. “This year has been huge for me.”
She's the only local product on the team.
Initially, James Marks hoped his daughter would grow up to become a member of the Sooners' pom squad.
“She had her sights set a little higher athletically than that though,” James said.
Her parents signed her up for a tumbling class at Carson Gymnastics in Cushing. It turned out to be a gymnastics class, but Marks, then 3, excelled.
It didn't take long before Marks both fell in love with gymnastics. Almost as quickly, her instructors in Cushing told her parents that there was a limit on how far they could take her. Getting into Dynamo might be a better option.
With her father's job in Oklahoma City, the family's schedule didn't have to change too drastically. The only change was Saturday trips to the gym since practice was six days a week.
Alex's mother set her up with a curriculum with Abeka Academy, an accredited distance-learning program that allowed her to do her school work both at Dynamo between practices and at home.
“As a parent, you just do anything you can do,” James said. “You want your kid to be happy and you want them to be able to pursue what makes them happy.”
Gymnastics — then and now — makes Marks happy.
“I wouldn't have traded it for anything,” she said of her path to OU. “I made some great relationships there and we got so close because we were together all the time.”