Mark Gerena Jr.

Mark Gerena Jr.
(Greenland Shark, F)
ID# 942

No. 81 – Alaska Arctics
Position	Forward
Species	Greenland Shark ( Somniosidae )
Gender	Male
Nickname(s)
Amaqjuaq
Personal information
Born	Sachs Harbour, NWT, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Listed height	7 ft 2 in (2.18 m)
Listed weight	325 lb (147 kg)
Shoots	Right
Career information
School	Heritage River Riparian College
FBA draft	2016 / Undrafted
Career history
2016-2018	Alaska Arctics
2018-2019	Seattle Summit
2019-present	Alaska Arctics
Contract information
Contract year	2022
2023 Salary	$6 million
2024 Salary	$7 million
Player Contacts
(IC) Agent	Unknown
(OOC) Creator	MartineauQC
(OOC) Actor	Unknown
(OOC) Usage	Ask me before any use

Mark Gerena Jr. is a Canadian greenland shark professional basketball player with the Alaska Arctics of the Furry Basketball Association (FBA).

Early life

Mark Gerena Jr., son of oil rig foreman Mark Gerena Sr., was borned in the settlement of Sachs Harbour, way up North in the Northwest Territories province of Canada. At a young age, the young shark had to cope with the harsh climate and isolated environment as the community had to help each other in order to sustain a decent living. Mark started to learn trapping and hunting while following his father on his trips across Banks island and also was adept in ice fishing, sometimes diving in the frozen Beaufort sea himself to collect fish. All that hard work soon paid off. As when he got older, Mark become quite a strong and capable young man, which has given him the nickname Amaqjuaq (meaning the strong one ) by friends and families, due to the Inuit heritage in the region. Mark was known to be a very down to earth fellow, not requesting much from people but always happy to lend hand when he was needed and a gentle giant.

Education and interest in basketball

Due to being so far away from major cities in the country, education was hard to come by. Although Mark was enjoying his life living from the sea and earth , He always wished to do more for his community and make his father proud. So he soon begun to go the community school the settlement had to earn a high school degree hoping he could do well enough to get to a college. He also started to learn about the joys of sports, as they where introduced to many of them, such like lacrosse, hockey and practicing soccer indoors. But one sport seemed to ignite a particular interest to him, which was basketball. Being naturally really strong from years of hard work with his father, he was pretty hard to out muscle on the court. When he was on defense, no one could ever pass through him and when he post up against someone, it didn't take long for that person to fall on his butt. Mark received many praises which he really appreciated. The more he trained and played, the more the shark thought maybe his skill will allow him to do more for his future, but also pay back his community and give them something to cheer and be proud about. Then,tutored by the one of the two teachers that ran the community school, Mister Darius Queenton, he worked hard on his studies, while keeping his outdoors activities and take some time to train his basketball skills. Paying from his own pocket, Queenton took Mark his fellow students in several little school tournaments in The Northwest Territories and also Alaska. While on a school trip to Yellowknife, Mark had the chance to visit an orientation convention where several Canadian colleges where there to present their programs. One of the places that seemed to interest Mark was Heritage River Riparian College, famous for emerging Athletes such as Wesley Lachs and Ahti Nereus, both then stars of the basketball team. But alas, with his background and the fees surrounding the enrollment, Mark wasn't sure he be able to go there and left it at that. Not discouraged, Mister Queenton spoke with his parents which in turn mobilized the community in gathering funds for Mark enrollment to Heritage River, as Mr Queenton wrote an heartfelt recommendation letter in order to help him. And low and behold, all their effort was rewarded as Mark received a Heritage River representative at his home to tell the good news; he was accepted.

College career in Heritage River

As Mark enrolled into college for a degree in wildlife and forestry conservation to become a Conservation officer back home, also begun his college basketball career. Mark had the opportunity to join in 2014, the year of the basketball team second of their two consecutive CFIS National championship wins. Of course with Nereus and Lachs leading the way, Gerena Jr didn't had quite a lot of time of the court, but manage to learn a lot from training along both of them. He managed to have better dribbling and work on his stamina and speed, since Greenland shark are known to be slow by nature. But it was undeniable that Mark was a force to be reckoned with down in the kennel. As his post offense and defense was impressive. As the 2013-2014 college season came to a close, He managed decent inside scoring and rebound numbers for about 6.0 Min per games. When 2015 came, with Lachs and Nereus gone, Mark had more minutes to play with, as he became a steady bench player. The 2014-2015 season didn't end with a 3peat however, as they got eliminated in the Quarter finals by eventual winner AUH and finished 7th in the tournament. Not everything was bad, As Mark soon become a rising prospect as Power Forward in the western conference, and was poised to a starting job come the 2015-2016 CFIS season.