Martin a spark for UCC women

It’s impossible not to like Denay Martin.

Driven. Dedicated. Generous. Tough. Great smile. Good player, but even a better person.

The personable 5-foot-2 sophomore point guard for the Umpqua Community College women’s basketball team, a 2005 Roseburg High graduate, has helped the third-ranked Riverhawks to a 25-4 record this season.

The Riverhawks — who finished second to Lane of Eugene in the Southern Region at 11-3 — will play in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges tournament next weekend in Kennewick, Wash., with their sights set on advancing to the championship game.

Martin, 21, is not the Riverhawks’ best player. She’s averaging 5 points a game, and leads the club in assists (4.6) and in minutes played (698).

But who’s more inspirational? The left-hander may be Umpqua’s most important player in terms of her role with the club. She’s averaging less than three turnovers a game, which isn’t too bad considering how much Martin handles the ball over the course of a 40-minute contest.

“Every coach knows you’re not going to win without a good point guard,” said Dave Stricklin, UCC’s 13th year coach. “I’ve seen teams that had all the pieces except a good point guard struggle.

“Denay has been one of the big differences from last year. She has been in big games. She’s been around me for 70 games and she has a good understanding what we want done. The thing I like about her is she goes hard all the time — every minute she’s on the floor.”

This is Martin’s third year with the program. She was a backup to Katie Stephens as a freshman during the 2005-06 season and was looking forward to being the starter at the point as a sophomore in 2006-07. But her season ended three games into the season when she tore the ACL in her right knee.

She graduated from UCC last spring (she’s looking at a career as a physical therapist) and could’ve ended her basketball career, but elected to come back this year and play for Stricklin.

Why?

“It had a lot to do with my respect for Dave and his program,” said Martin, no stranger to adversity after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in June 2005. “He went out on a limb for me ... I wasn’t recruited and I kind of recruited him. He took me in, and not only taught me so much about basketball but myself. I owed it to him for what he’s done for me.”

After a frustrating 11-17 season last year — Stricklin’s worst at UCC — the Umpqua women are back among the top community college teams in the Northwest. Martin is a big reason why.

“This is the best team I’ve ever been on,” Martin said. “I like the team chemistry. This is like my second family. I have 10 sisters.”

Martin’s value to the team can’t be measured in numbers, Stricklin said.

“She wants to win, that’s why she’s here,” the coach said. “The things she does won’t show up in the stats. She’ll take two or three charges a day in practice and nobody ever sees that.”

“I’m not too concerned about scoring,” Martin said. “I’m more concerned about getting the ball to the people I know who can score. I look at my assist to turnover ratio. Overall, I feel I’ve done a pretty good job of getting my teammates the ball and pushing the ball up the floor.”

Along with taking 12 course credits and playing basketball, Martin works 25-30 hours a week at Central Physical Therapy.

“By the end of the day, I get pretty tired,” she admitted.

A giving person she is, too. When a teammate was struggling financially recently, Martin didn’t think twice and gave her $500.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” Martin said. “If I was in the same situation someone would step up and help me as much as they could. My family has always been very generous ... I saw my dad (Dan) and mom (Denise) do that all the time, and it was something that came naturally.”

That speaks volumes about Denay Martin.



• You can reach Sports Editor Tom Eggers at 957-4220 or by e-mail at teggers@newsreview.info