South Carolina’s Frank Martin Began His Career in Miami
South Carolina is headed to the Final Four after winning its first NCAA Tournament game since 1973 in the first round. Head Coach Frank Martin began his coaching career as a high school coach in Miami.
Martin is a first generation Cuban-American. He is the son of political exiles from Cuba. Martin grew up in Miami and graduated from Florida International in 1992. Growing up in South Florida in the 1970’s the two sports that grabbed the attention of Latin-American Immigrant families was baseball and football.
Martin’s mentor is former FIU and legendary Miami High School Coach Shakey Rodriguez. Martin spent 15 years as a high school basketball coach and math teacher. He began his career as an assistant at his Alma mater Miami High School. He stayed there for seven seasons.
Martin was working as a bouncer at a night club in addition to coaching the Junior Varsity at Miami High when an incident at the club pushed Martin to decide to pursue becoming a Basketball Coach full time.
One night a group of men that he had kicked out the club he worked at returned to the club with a gun at approximately 2:30 AM and fired shots at Martin.
"Martin told the New York Times in 2010: “It was one of those moments that kind of made me think about what I was doing for a living.” He credits that night for changing his life and added:“I don’t know what path I would have followed. I would have worked because that’s what my family expected and raised me to do. What line of work, where, how, I have no idea”"
Martin left Miami High School for North Miami high school where he spent three seasons. He won three consecutive state titles at North Miami with stars and future NBA Players Udonis Haslem and Steve Blake under his tutelage.
He was fired from Miami High after a scandal broke involving players getting housing benefits. He landed at Booker T. Washington for one season. He then began his college coaching career as an assistant at Northeastern for the 2000-01 season.
Per an article Martin penned in the Players Tribune, Martin credited his time coaching high school basketball in Miami with molding him into the leader he is today.
"I spent 15 years as a high school math teacher. That was the first job where I learned how to help young people grow and develop. Before I even got into college coaching, I had a good understanding of the importance of building trust with the people you’re trying to teach. And the only way you develop trust is through honesty."
Martin’s 1997 team finished 36-1 and fourth in the USA Today national rankings. Fourteen players under Martin’s tutelage would go on to play at Division I programs.