Española Valley boys basketball coach Richard Martinez’s career has been a roller coaster.
Marinez has had success wherever he has coached. He won a state championship in 1996 at Mora, but was gone a year later. He took Coronado to the state tournament in 1998, but was gone after the year was over.
In 2003-2004, Martinez spent the season sharing the boys head-coaching duties with Lenny Roybal, before taking over as sole head coach the next season. The Sundevils had a losing season in 2004-2005 and Roybal, now athletic director at Española Valley, did not recommend that Martinez be rehired.
Martinez fought for his job and was successful in overcoming attempts to remove him. I supported keeping Martinez at that time because I felt he hadn’t been given a legitimate shot at being head coach.
Since that time, Martinez has known nothing but success. After finishing as District 2AAAA runnerup in 2005-06, the Sundevils have won three straight District 2AAAA championships. In no way did I anticipate that kind of success for Martinez.
After the best seasons in Española Valley’s history, however, there are still those who do not support Martinez and who want him replaced. As sad as it sounds, if Martinez doesn’t win the state championship this season, I expect to hear even more of that kind of talk.
One of the things that seems to get the fans riled up is when Martinez has his team stall late in the game when the Sundevils have the lead.
In this year’s District 2AAAA championship game, Española held the ball for over three minutes while clinging to a one-point lead against Los Alamos. Martinez sat star guard Matt Brito down for the final five minutes of the game when Brito didn’t follow Martinez’s plan.
You could sense the fans getting restless and I’ll admit to a bit of uneasiness myself.
The Sundevils ended up winning that game, but it took a tremendous individual play by Luis Alvarado, who came up with a block of a shot by 6-foot-11-inch Alex Kirk, to preserve the victory. I feel confident that if the Sundevils had lost that game, there would have been a chorus of fans calling for Martinez’s job.
Martinez offers no apology for the tactic when I asked him about it.
“I’m not coaching the fans, I’m coaching my team,” he said. “Every coach has a strategy. I feel you succeed by controlling the tempo of the game. If I have the ball and I have the lead, if you want the ball, come and get it.”
Martinez has learned to accept that there will always be fans and people who do not support him, no matter what his success.
“Those people will never be happy,” he said. “I feel sorry for them and pray for them.”
Martinez knows that if he doesn’t win a state championship, there will be more voices calling for his removal, but feels he has already left a legacy even if he doesn’t take state.
“Española is now a powerhouse,” Martinez said. “When teams come here to play they know they better be ready for a battle.”