| Webmasters Note: Kim Martin was
a 3 year coach for the CT Shamrocks. During her time
with the Shamrocks her team won consecutive state titles.
By Bryant Carpenter, Record-Journal staff
WEST HARTFORD — The videotape turned up recently, almost
10 years since Kim Martin and Tara Carriero last faced
off on the basketball court.
Vintage
1995-96: Martin and Cheshire
vs. Carriero and Sheehan.
Carriero
was just a sophomore, but already Sheehan’s
best player, the one Martin and the Rams had to stop.
They
did not. “I think she scored 30 in that game,”
said Martin.
“Yeah
but we lost, so it doesn’t matter,” Carriero
replied. “She didn’t play defense and
I didn’t play defense.”
“You
know,” Martin sighed, “I really thought
I was one hell of a defender. As soon as I watched
that tape, I don’t know why I thought that.”
Carriero
laughed an infectious laugh. “We’re not
really sure why we ended up playing basketball in
college after seeing the tape.”
But
they did — Martin at Temple,
Carriero at St. Michael’s in Burlington,
Vt.
A
decade removed from their high school showdowns, their
college days behind them, the two ex-rivals now share
the same sideline and coaching office at St. Joseph College. Martin is the head coach,
Carriero her assistant.
They
arrived by different roads. Carriero, back home last
year after spending a few seasons coaching JV at Burlington’s
Rice High
School, was enrolled in a Masters
program at St. Joseph and
signed on as a volunteer under head man Gary Sirois.
Martin,
coaching at Bloomfield
after spending two years at Lyman Hall, was anticipating
making a move to the college ranks. She had even contacted
Sirois about doing some assistant coaching. She wound
up replacing him, instead.
“This
was a career goal for me,” Martin said. “I
love it. Good kids, good people to work with, full-time
job, sweats, T-shirt.”
Martin
asked Carriero to stick around. At first glance, they’re
a contrast. Martin is tall and blonde, Carriero short
and dark-haired. Carriero occupies a seat at the head
of the bench, clipboard in hand. Martin never sits
during a game, her empty hands crossed or clapping.
Yet
when it comes to driving the Division III program
— literally, Martin and Carriero drive the Blue
Jays in school vans to road games less than an hour
away — they’re on the same page.
“I
think we complement each other pretty well,”
said Carriero. “We kind of see things the same
way.”
“She’s
not one of those overpowering, vocal people. She’ll
talk to the kids; she knows what’s right and
wrong. She knows when a kid comes out why I took them
out, so whatever they need to know she knows what
I’m thinking,” said Martin. “She
definitely picks up on the littler things in the game
that I might not see because I’m looking at
a bigger picture. It is a good complement to each
other.”
Martin
and Carriero have the Blue Jays at 9-9 after a 50-44
loss Wednesday to Norwich, the No.
2 team in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.
St. Joe’s is angling for a top five GNAC finish,
which would net a home game in the conference tournament.
That would be a first for the current cast of Blue
Jays.
Among
them are two freshmen from Meriden,
Jen Gorley and Allison Richards. Gorley attended Lyman
Hall, where she was coached by . . . Martin.
It’s
different the second time around, Gorley said. The
change is measured not in the coach, but the player,
who now sees the finer nuances in the game
“It’s
easier to understand her. She’s a coach, but
she’s also like a friend. In high school you
were more scared of her. I mean, you could always
come to her for anything, but now it’s a lot
easier being older. We just seem closer,” Gorley
said. “Both ways she’s been a great coach
because she knows the game; she’s been a player.”
And
still is. Last summer, Martin played in a pro-am league
in Springfield, Mass.
Among her teammates was Kara Wolters.
Martin
is active on the St.
Joseph hardwood, too. In practice,
she and Carriero often simulate upcoming opponents.
St. Joseph’s
lack of depth is one reason for that. There is also
another.
“Sometimes
I do it to get respect,” Martin said. “If
I keep telling you something, I have to prove to you
I know what I’m doing.”
Amid
the screens and swished 3-pointers, Martin has won
hearts and minds.
“Kim’s
come in and done a phenomenal job,” said Carriero.
“The kids love her. With girls, that’s
such a big thing, the fact that they love their coach.
They really take to her competitive spirit. They know
she wants to win just as bad as anyone else. Her expectations
for them are really high. They like that.”
The
college game has required an obvious adjustment from
high school. The talent level is higher, preparation
more involved. Where once it was sometimes enough
just to track boxscores in the newspaper, hours of
tape review are now indispensable.
There’s
recruiting. Martin was apprehensive about that, but
she and Carriero have the touch. Every high school
player they’ve approached has visited campus.
More
dedication is demanded, more strategizing before games,
more thinking once the opening tip goes up.
“I
love every second of it,” said Martin. “For
me to stay here or scout a game or recruit, to work
till nine is not work.”
Coming
out of Temple in 2000,
Martin thought work would be suit-and-tie stuff. She
didn’t consider coaching until then-Lyman Hall
coach Al Lewis asked her to help out.
“I
was just going to do the corporate thing,” said
Martin, who worked at St. Paul Traveler’s in
Hartford.
“For whatever reason, I thought that would satisfy
me. Not one bit, though. I worked for great people
in the corporate world, but it’s not my niche
in life.”
For
now the niche is here, in the basketball office at
the O’Connell Center, which bustles with a swim
meet the same night St. Joseph
plays Norwich
in its brightly lit, echoing gym before a small but
lively crowd.
Martin’s
style is her own, yet it’s been influenced by
those for whom she’s played — Joe Ticotsky
at Cheshire, Nick Economopoulos in AAU, Kristen Foley
at Temple.
The
learning goes on. Watching defending Division I champ
Baylor on TV recently, Martin spotted an isolation
post play she incorporated into her own playbook.
In time, she figures to move to Division I, breaking
in as an assistant.
“You
have to, at some point, make that next career step,”
Martin said. “In the meantime, this is a great
place to learn.”
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