SPRINGDALE — Marcus Monk was teaching football and German at the same time.
“I like helping kids,” Monk said recently while taking a break from coaching at the recent Northwest Arkansas Passing Academy at Shiloh Christian High School. “I want to help them learn things.”
Monk, who played football and basketball at the University of Arkansas, has picked up a new language while playing professional basketball in Germany the past few years. He taught kids at the football camp words like victory (sieg) and team (gespann).
“I’m not real fluent in German, but I can have a conversation,” Monk said. “I understand it more than I can speak it. I can get by.”
Monk, a 6-6 forward, has done more than just get by on the basketball courts in Germany.
In May, Monk was selected as the German Pro A League MVP after leading the Gotha Big Oettinger Rockets to the league title while averaging 15.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.
Last year while playing for Herten, Monk averaged 22.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game and was voted to the league’s All-Pro first team and selected as its defensive player of the year.
“It’s a little bit different playing in Germany,” Monk said. “But basketball is basketball, and it’s been fun.”
What hasn’t been fun for Monk is being away from home for 10 months out of the year. He said he misses his girlfriend, his mother and his brother and sisters as well as other family members and friends.
“I’m real family-oriented, and it’s tough for me to be overseas for so long,” said Monk, who grew up in Lepanto and lives in Jonesboro. “I don’t like being away from everyone.”
Monk, 26, said he has a contract offer from Gotha to play next season, but he’s considering retiring from pro basketball if he can land a coaching job and be home year-round.
“I’m not saying I won’t play again,” Monk said. “I’ve got until August to decide, but I’d like to find a coaching job.”
Coaching basketball or coaching football?
“Either one, I love both sports,” Monk said. “I just want to coach, and I feel like it’s time for me to try and get my foot in the door.”
Monk had two brief stints with the Arkansas basketball team as a true freshman and f ifth-year senior, but he focused on football as a Razorback, playing wide receiver and finishing his career with 138 catches for 2,151 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2004-2007.
A knee injury limited Monk’s senior season to six games, and he was a seventhround pick by the Chicago Bears in the 2008 NFL Draft. He was cut by the Bears, then had brief stints with the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers.
Monk then went to Germany in 2010 after a basketball tryout was arranged with the help of a friend who had played in the league.
“I never thought I’d be playing overseas, but it’s given me the chance to see places I wouldn’t have been able to visit otherwise,” Monk said. “I’ve traveled all over Europe — Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt.
“I was in Prague for New Year’s, and it was fun. It was just wild with tons of people.”
Monk said the German Pro A League offers good competition.
“It’s definitely pro ball,” he said. “A real top-tier college team could compete, but it’s men playing, so it’s tough.”
Monk said he doesn’t wonder how good of a basketball player he might be if he had focused on that sport instead of football at Arkansas.
“No, because I enjoyed myself a ton playing football at Arkansas and representing the state,” he said. “I had a blast, so I don’t regret it at all.”
Sports, Pages 28 on 06/24/2012