Markert’s presence will be invaluable asset as Brown County begins postseason journey

MT. STERLING, Ill. — Brown County girls basketball coach Dave Phelps may not prefer it, but he can live with Hornets senior forward Ashlee Markert leaving a practice early or even missing an occasional team activity.

He knows it’s what Markert needs to do.

Signed to play volleyball at Western Illinois University, the 6-foot-1 Markert continues to train and play with Club Four Volleyball, based in Quincy, and the schedule has forced her to split time between basketball practice with the Hornets and workouts for volleyball when there are conflicts.

“I’ve missed a few games due to volleyball coming on the weekends and big tournaments where they need me,” Markert said. “Having only seven players on the club team is very hard. It’s a lot in the winter for me, but I’m thankful to have basketball allowing me to be in shape.”

She’s a vital component to a Brown County team with big postseason goals, beginning Monday against Pleasant Hill/Western in the Class 1A Bluffs Regional semifinals.

“It’s tough to accept her (splitting time between sports), but in the end it helps us be a better team,” Phelps said.

While volleyball is her focus, basketball gives Markert a bit of a reprieve from the grind of playing volleyball virtually year-round. 

The Club Four 17U Boost team qualified for the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championships in Las Vegas last July, meaning that, including her senior volleyball season at Brown County and the first three months of this select season, Markert has been in “volleyball season” for the last 15 months.

“I’m very thankful that I’m not volleyball all the time because last year I was at the point where I was like, ‘Do I want to continue this journey?’ I wasn’t sure where I was at in my head,” Markert said. “I didn’t have much time off of volleyball, but I found my love back for it, and here I am.”

At the time of that trip to nationals, Markert was slated to head to Bradley University, where her oldest sister, Vanessa, played basketball. Ashlee had committed to Bradley in April, but she decommitted four months later to reconsider her options.

“I was given a full ride, and I was living on cloud nine,” Ashlee Markert said. “How could you say no to a full ride at one of your dream schools? Then I was like, ‘I don’t know. I really need to think about this opportunity, if I want to be somewhere closer to home. Do I want to commute back and forth?’ It took me a little while to make up my mind on where I wanted to go, but at this moment, I knew Western was a good place for me, a good place to start.”

A little convincing from her mother, Melissa, swayed Ashlee to go to WIU, which is roughly 50 minutes from Mt. Sterling, as opposed to going to Bradley, which is about 1 hour, 40 minutes from the Markert residence.

“At the start of my recruiting process, my mom just had that gut feeling that I’d go to Western,” Ashlee Markert said. “She’d always recommend sending that email or responding back to that email, and I was like, ‘I don’t know, Mom. I kind of want to go far away.’ I was between Western, Florida Gulf Coast, Bradley, Nevada State, Old Dominion. 

“I mean, I was all over the place on where I wanted to go, and she was like, ‘I don’t know, maybe you should respond back to Western and maybe that will be your home,’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t know. Let me get through this club season and then we’ll see.’”

As Markert learned, momma knows best.

“Moms are always right, even if I don’t want to admit it,” Ashlee Markert said.

Major life events happening within the Markert family in the near future also helped change Ashlee’s mind on her college destination and prompt her to want to stay closer to home. The second oldest Markert sister, Mariah, is getting married in April, and Claire, the next youngest, will become a bride in September. Vanessa has not set a date for her wedding, but Ashlee said that will happen shortly, as well.

“She’s a person who would just go to the courthouse and sign the document then and tell everyone they were married, so we’re not for sure if she wants to do a big, whole wedding deal,” Ashlee Markert said. “It’s a very exciting moment for my sisters to get married. It’s hard to not have them have the same last name as me, but that’s life.”

Ashlee does not want to miss those moments, and she does not want to miss out on family dinner every Sunday either. All three of Ashlee’s sisters still live just a short drive away from Ashlee, her parents and her brother Bradley, who is a freshman at Brown County.

“We’re able to see everyone and just reconnect with each other and hear about their week,” Ashlee Markert said. “It’s amazing that they didn’t move far away, states away and that they’re all within 10 minutes.”

The tasty meals help, too.

“My mom and dad are very good cooks,” Ashlee Markert said. “They love to cook, so I was very grateful for them to have those cooking skills while I was growing up.”

Those home-cooked meals have provided Ashlee with the fuel to become one of the best athletes in Brown County history and the first to play NCAA Division I volleyball.

In Phelps’ opinion, Ashlee could have played high-level collegiate basketball if she had chosen that path.

“She’s a unique athlete,” Phelps said. “She’s 6-foot-1, and with a 6-1 girl typically comes a little slowness, a little methodicalness, but she has always been the best athlete on the floor since she was a freshman. I truly think if she would have decided, ‘OK, basketball is my sport,’ she would have the ability to be at least a Division II player, maybe a Division I player. She can not only play inside and is a rim protector, but she’s a really good ball handler and she’s the best passer on our team at 6-1.”

Last season, Markert became the first player in Phelps’ coaching career, which has lasted more than two decades, to lead the team in rebounds, assists and steals and is on her way to doing so again this season.

“When she decides, ‘Alright, I’m going to show you what I can do,’ she really can’t be stopped,” Phelps said. “If she wants a rebound, she’s going to go get it. She can guard one through five. She’s a special athlete.”

Phelps, who has coached all four Markert sisters, said while Vanessa — Brown County’s all-time leading scorer who went on to play 114 games and average 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds in four seasons at Bradley — may be the best pure shooter and scorer that he has ever coached, Ashlee surpasses Vanessa in terms of pure athleticism.

“(Vanessa) has the most beautiful, pure shot that just doesn’t have any flaws,” Phelps said. “You shouldn’t change a thing about it. If you want to teach people to shoot, just watch Vanessa Markert shoot. It’s just incredible. She was a good athlete but nowhere close to the pure athlete that Ashlee is.”

That athleticism makes Markert incredibly versatile in both volleyball and basketball.

“I have to supervise a lot of (volleyball) games,” said Phelps, who is also the athletic director at Brown County. “She can really play just about every position on the volleyball court. She’s just one of those kids that can do anything. If I asked her to be my point guard, she could do it.”

Markert’s athleticism and versatility combined with growing confidence as a sort of extra assistant coach make Phelps believe Markert can lead the Hornets, which are receiving votes in the Associated Press Class 1A state poll, on a deep postseason run.

“She is somebody who’s experienced regional championships and played on really good volleyball, basketball and softball teams,” Phelps said. “Her voice matters because she has that credibility. She’s been there and knows what it takes to win. It really changes who we are when she leads like that. 

“When she starts talking, all eyes go to her, and they listen to what she has to say. Sometimes with coaches, it’s just white noise. We talk in a timeout and they do the opposite darn thing, but if one of the leaders on the team says, ‘Hey, let’s get this going right now,’ it has a different impact on their peers.

“We’ll go as far as her athleticism and leadership can take us. She’s going to pull those younger girls along with her. Those 15- and 16-year-old girls who don’t have the experience yet, she has to be the voice they hear and the example they see moving forward. I think she can get us to a special place. She just has to embrace it and take us there.”