Years after daughter's death, Pocola's Mark McKenzie found joy in loss at state tournament

Each time Pocola girls basketball coach Mark McKenzie steps into State Fair Arena, he sees his daughter.

In the very spot along the steel rail near the court she stood 16 years ago, he pictures Hannah’s giant grin. There is pure joy in the moment for her father and hometown after the unlikeliest of comebacks led to a state championship.

Back then, Hannah was the first person Mark saw during the celebration.

“She was my little girl,” Mark said as he fought back tears.

Seven years ago, Hannah McKenzie died as the result of a methadone overdose. The only child of Mark and Shana McKenzie was 23.

A family’s world was wrecked.

So, it was only natural that Mark had another conversation with his daughter Wednesday morning in the Big House moments before Pocola opened the Class 2A state quarterfinals against Merritt.

He looked upward like he had throughout the playoffs.

“I asked my daughter to look over these girls,” he said.

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Pocola’s season ended with a 56-48 loss but Mark McKenzie still smiled. He’s been to the highest point twice in the high school basketball world. The improbable comeback over Walters in the 2008 title game. A 2022 championship.

But after a year away from coaching to help pass legislation known as the Hannah McKenzie Act to require more oversight for opioid substitution treatment programs, McKenzie was back in State Fair Arena.

This time, he had an unlikely group of nine players, including no seniors. Only the starting five played. Despite trailing by as much as 18 points, they battled.

It was McKenzie’s first loss in the arena, coming in his eighth trip to the state tournament over 12 coaching seasons. He grew up in Pocola, a small community near Fort Smith, Arkansas, and 193 miles east of the Big House.

He’s worked 31 years at the school, stepping away multiple times from his coaching role.

He keeps getting pushed back onto the hardwood.

“This coaching, it gets your mind off a lot of other things,” McKenzie said.

He first stepped away after the 2008 championship. Hannah was entering high school and he wanted to spend more time with her.

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But on a summer night in 2017, she died at a party after passing out and then being injected with methadone, her mom, Shana, said. According to court documents, Jeremy Odom was convicted for second degree manslaughter and possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance. He was sentenced to three years on the first charge and up to three years with five years of probation on the second.

At that point, neither Mark or Shana had heard of methadone, a drug used for pain relief and treatment of drug addiction.

They discovered a lack of regulations for the distribution of the drug.

“How can that be on something that kills people?” Mark asked.

Mark had returned to coaching a few years after Hannah’s death. He had already disassembled and rebuilt her Honda Accord.

“I was just going crazy,” he said.

Coaching was an escape. But McKenzie also had another purpose. He began to push legislators to make a change.

He spent countless hours at the state capitol meeting and talking with anyone who would listen. In the 2021-22 season, he realized he needed to focus even more. He decided to walk away after the season.

Naturally, Pocola won the state title.

Even with four starters returning, McKenzie still turned his focus to the capitol while serving as the middle school principal. Last year, the bill passed without a single vote against it.

“As a parent, the worst thing you can ever do is not be able to fix your child’s problems or help them through it,” Shana said. “With this, we had to depend on other people to be Hannah’s voice. We are so grateful.”

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Mark thought his coaching days were done. He wants to push for more legislation.

But two days before the school year, Pocola coach Shane Amos abruptly left. McKenzie was poked and prodded by players, parents, administrators and everyone in between to take the program over.

He did.

While the community rallied round him even more — children of his former players refer to him as their grandfather — the small roster brought perhaps one of the most fulfilling season’s he’s coached. Together, they beat the odds.

“He knew we needed him in this moment and we honestly needed him, too,” said junior Allyssa Parker, an OU softball commit who averaged nearly 30 points per game.

Next season is likely McKenzie’s last. He hopes to push for more legislation in Hannah’s honor.

But one more return trip to State Fair Arena is in order.

“These kids have saved me,” McKenzie said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma high school basketball Pocola's Mark McKenzie returns to state