Jason Marquis was in the third grade when Roger Bolin came into his life.

Roger married Marquis’ mom, Denise, and became an influential person in the future Storm’s basketball coach’s life.

The Bolins had been married for more than 28 years until Roger’s death on Jan. 1. Roger, 71, was a longtime fixture as official scorer at the scorer’s table at the Storm Cellar.

Friday’s game with Abingdon-Avon was the first night back for game night at the Storm Cellar for the Storm coach since his stepdad’s passing. Bureau Valley had played a week before at home on the night of Roger’s visitation which the Storm attended as a team, defeating Knoxville with the coach attending to his family affairs.

Marquis said Roger highly impacted his life.

“He coached us in sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade in all those Tampico leagues for travel ball. He loves sports and he’s a competitor and that makes it extra fun to do sports together,” Marquis said.

“There’s a family here at BV and he was absolutely a part of that family. When you make small families you have exponential impact on people’s lives. So this family at the school and basketball program I was thankful he was invested in me.”

In the pregame, Marquis said he really didn’t take a look at the scorer’s table where Roger had occupied for years, but was rather focused as he routinely does, paying tribute to his stepbrother Matt, a vet, during the national anthem.

“That’s when I give my prayer of thankfulness that we get to do this. We get to play basketball for fun and have people cheer for us and officials sacrifice their nights to do that,” Marquis said. “Star Spangled Banner is when you think of those things. At Amboy the first night back, that’s what hit me because Roger was a patriot.

“During the game, he wouldn’t want me to focus on (his passing) during the game. I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted us playing basketball.”

BV senior Blake Foster said the Storm wanted to be there for their coach in a time of need and pay respects to Roger at the visitation for his dedication to the program.

“We all went to the visitation,” Foster said. “(Roger) was really a nice guy. And he told me about my Grandpa Dennis (Hartz). They were in the same class and told me a lot of stories.”

Foster is a team leader

It was not a coincidence that Foster got the ball in his hands to shoot and make the game-tying basket in the final minute of Friday’s game. He’s grown into a team leader in many ways.

“Every day we walk into the gym for practice, Blake is the first one to say, ‘Here’s who’s here. This is what’s up. This is what we’ve got going,’ ” Marquis said. ”He’s got an immense focus on becoming a leader. He’s coachable. That’s one of those kids that loves his teammates. There’s not an ask of Blake that’s too significant. That’s why he leads our team in charges. Our kids have confidence in him.”

Girls-boys doubleheaders

Princeton basketball fans will be treated for a bonus this week with a pair of girls-boys doubleheaders at Prouty.

The Princeton cagers will square off against their old rivals from the NCIC, Ottawa, on Tuesday with the girls tipping off at 5:30 p.m. and the boys at 7 p.m.

Four nights later, Princeton will welcome Three Rivers rival Newman for a twin bill with the girls slated for 5 p.m. Saturday and the boys at 6:30 p.m.

The Princeton girls are 15-3, 3-2 after a school-record 14-0 start. The Tigers stand 3-16, 0-5 after a couple of weekend defeats.

Ottawa’s girls come in at 10-7 with the boys at 8-8.

Both of the Newman teams lead the Three Rivers East, with the girls at 15-5, 5-0 and the boys, ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, undefeated at 21-0, 4-0.