SOMERSET, New Jersey - According to a recent television documentary on The Learning Channel, Marvadene Anderson is the tallest teenage girl in the world.

The 16-year-old could someday also be one of the world’s most well-known basketball players. Just under 6-foot-11 and apparently still growing, she will make her high school basketball debut at 4:40 p.m. Thursday when Rutgers Prep opens its season at Pennington.

A sophomore transfer from Edwin Allen Comprehensive High in Jamaica, the young lady is just learning the game.

Head coach Mary Klinger has been amazed at the kid’s growth. No pun intended.

“It’s amazing how quickly she’s picked things up. You first look at her and say, “She’s 6-11, Oh my God!’ And the first question is: can she move? If she continues to progress the way she is now, the sky’s the limit. With her size and athleticism, she can change the game.”

Anderson played the game of netball in her native country, not surprisingly a standout on the country’s U-16 national team. Netball is a relative of basketball, basically a game in which players (7-on-7) are allowed to take just a couple of steps before passing or shooting the ball.

Coming to America, as it has been for generations, presented an opportunity not available in her country.

In her case, basketball can be a means to an end, a chance to excel in the classroom and on the basketball court to parlay a college scholarship.

Anderson is from the Prospect District in the parish of Saint Elizabeth. Her parents are both 6-3 and her older sister Kimberley is 6-4.

She is mature beyond her years, is outgoing, bright, ambitious, and by her own definition, “adventurous.”

That is certainly a prerequisite for someone who would agree to leave home a couple of months after her 15th birthday.

The initial contact of relocating came about from Enid Angus, a Somerset County woman who for years has been associated with the Jamaican Basketball program, and who played basketball growing up in Jamaica. She was put in touch with an Anderson relative, who then put her in touch with the girls’ mother.

“We had a commonality,” Angus said of Anderson’s mother. “She grasped the important of getting an opportunity for her daughter like any other mother. But 3,000 miles away? She had to be thinking, “What am I sending my daughter to?’

“We talked about the life-changing opportunity for her daughter, and I committed to treating her like my own. She’s my heart,” Angus said with a warm smile. “My family adores her.”

A good student, Anderson’s teammates have also welcomed her. And not just because of her basketball presence.

“She’s easy to get along with,” offered Rachel McDaniel, a junior from Plainfield. “She and my sister have the same personality. We laugh and joke around and have fun together, so it’s fun.

“She has a lot of potential. She’s gotten much better, her foot work; she doesn’t travel as much. She’s getting the hang of it. And,” she said smiling, “if I get stuck I just throw it up to Bubbles!”

That’s Anderson’s nickname, from childhood. It fits her personality.

When asked about the challenges of being so tall, she shrugged and said, “the only problem is finding long jeans. I have an in-seam of 39-40, so I have to have them custom-made.”

Leaving home was no slam dunk, as Anderson said, “I had mixed feelings. I miss my best friend: my sister. When I first got here I would hear my classmates talking about what fun they had over the weekend and being with their moms. I was a little bit jealous. But I’m getting over it now.

“I’m getting love from Aunt Enid,” as she refers to her guardian. “And I’m making new friends. I like New Jersey. And I like learning basketball. I like being on a team and the team spirit. This is a learning year. I’m working on being tough, but I don’t give up easily.”

Patty Coyle, Klinger’s twin sister, is an assistant coach at Rutgers prep this season. She has dealt with tall players from her days as a coach in the WNBA.

“She’s a blank slate right now, so whatever you teach her is going to be the foundation for her. She has to get in shape,” Coyle said, “but the difference in her in two months is unbelievable. She’s young, she’s raw, but there’s a very high ceiling.”

College coaches have already been in touch (Stanford, Boston College, Syracuse, Penn State and Connecticut among them), but the sophomore is a long way from being an impact player at an NCAA program.

“Everybody says, “Throw it inside.’ Well, you just don’t throw it inside,” Klinger said, “because you have other kids you want to develop also. I have to be honest with you. It’s been tough, in that she’s so new to the game, so it’s baby steps. And you have kids who are beyond that.

“But the kids who surround her have been wonderful. They’re helping her. I don’t know if anybody can stop her with her physical presence,” Klinger added. “The only one who’s going to stop her is herself.”

Marvadene first made local news in April 2008 when the The Star did an article on her. Read it in full here

By Paul Franklyn - Staff Writer