Deep in the heart of Marquand, Missouri, a small remote town with a population of 200 people, lies a rectangular patch of concrete, two hoops, and one basketball.
Aidan Homan grew up on that concrete draining shots and killing time until his parents came home from running their trucking business.
"I kind of just fell in love with playing basketball," Homan said. "I'd go there almost every day after school and just shoot around until they got off work."
Basketball was the only sport he ever loved, and the only team sport Marquand-Zion High School had to offer for boys. After four years and over 1,000 points, Homan made history by becoming the first student-athlete from Marquand-Zion to sign a letter of intent at a four-year college. He signed to play at Missouri Valley College on Wednesday with a glittering golden curtain draped behind him to provide the proper backdrop.
"It means a lot," Homan said. "Coming from Marquand, it's a big thing around here."
"He was pretty much the heart and soul of our team," said Kaylee Stafford, who along with playing on the girls' volleyball team and track team also played on the boys' basketball team with Homan.
Remarkably, Homan didn't get recruited. He had to earn his spot at their tryouts in April. He emailed the MVC athletic program about trying out and when he got there, he managed to stand out among a crowd of 40 high school players to make the team.
Homan believes he is prepared for the challenge, should he get playing time as a college freshman, but is aware that his game will need to change by the time he arrives at the MVC campus in Marshall, Missouri.
"It's gonna be a tough time, and the courts are 10 feet longer, and the three-point lines are two-three feet back," Homan said. "I never really focused on three-point shooting. I could shoot, but I was mostly getting to the rim or getting mid-range by the elbows. I might have to learn to shoot from deep better."
Marquand-Zion is not known for basketball success. Since 2009, the Tigers have posted two winning seasons and three straight winless seasons. Two of the three winless seasons were during Homan's freshman and sophomore years.
"Coming from Marquan, it's hard to get noticed and stuff because not a lot of people look at Marquand as like a great team and all that," Homan said. "The first two years were rough. We didn't really have a lot of team chemistry."
Homan didn't win his first game until Dec. 3, 2021, when the Tigers defeated Viburnum 57-47 in the seventh-place game of the 2021 Valley Tournament, snapping an 82-game losing streak that dated back to Jan. 22, 2018.
"It felt like that fourth quarter took forever," said Homan, who scored 26 points during that game. "Whenever that final buzzer went off, there was just so much emotion among the whole team. Everybody was hugging each other, shouting like we won the NBA Finals. I mean it was a big thing.
Homan would end his high school career with a total of nine wins, but those wins led to two plaques from the Mississippi Valley Conference Tournament; third place in 2022 and second place in 2023. Both awards still stand out in the small school's trophy case.
"He got hurt in one of the tournaments," Stafford said. "We thought he was going to be down for a while, but he came right back and we knew we needed him for sure."
Homan, who is one of six seniors graduating from Marquand-Zion this year, said chemistry was the key to the Tigers' turnaround.
"In my junior year, we came around, and we played all summer before the season, and we got a lot of chemistry built in," Homan said. "We started playing really good together, and senior year we had a lot of chemistry. Everybody knew what the role was."
Homan plans to pursue a degree in physical education at MVC, and to return to Marquand-Zion as a coach once he graduates.
"I'm planning on coming back here and bringing what I learned from college back here to make our team better," Homan said. "I'm also thinking about becoming a physical trainer for athletes."
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