Martin and Lukavsky helping restore winning softball tradition at Mediapolis

MEDIAPOLIS — Jeff Martin and his sister, Michelle (Martin) Lukavsky grew up in the sport of softball.

Their father, Bob, was a legendary player and coach at Columbus Community High School in Columbus Junction. It seemed everything the family did revolved around softball, and Bob Martin's love for the game rubbed off on his children.

Now, Jeff and Michelle are bringing that passion for softball to Mediapolis High School, where they are in their third season as coaches for the Bullettes..

The Martins helped turn Columbus into a state powerhouse in softball during their time together at their alma mater. Now, they are helping to restore the glory to a once-proud Mediapolis team which is on the rise again.

For Jeff and Michelle, there is nothing they would rather be doing than sharing their love for softball with a program striving to get back to the success it enjoyed in its glory years.

“It’s good because these kids give me good effort," Jeff Martin said. "The drawbacks right now is trying to get them to believe that they can be as successful as the coaches would like them to be. We haven’t gotten to that same spot yet, but we will. If you haven’t had success for a long time, it’s hard to envision yourself with having success.”

“We’re just trying to rebuild the program," said Lukavsky, an administrator in the Cedar Rapids school system. "My husband and I had a conversation about when the last time they were competitive and how you get back to that. I remember when I played and I remember when I coached at Columbus. You see the differences. My first year at West Branch it was West Branch and Mepo playing in a regional semifinal. They’ve had success, so trying to get kids to believe that is a big deal.”

When Martin took the reins at Mediapolis, the first call he made was to his sister. And with good reason. Michelle is a member of the Iowa Softball Hall of Fame. She was one of the best pitchers in state history and went on to a successful playing career at Western Illinois University. She since has spent numerous years coaching the sport.

Jeff Martin wanted to tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience his sister has. It has paid big dividends.

“Her playing career speaks for itself. She was one of the best players Iowa has ever seen. I want our girls to experience what that mentality is like," Jeff said of Michelle. “It’s interesting because I’ve always been told you always want the best people possible working with you. I knew the best person possible that could do it was in my family. She does a great job. I would say we are more co-coaches than head and assistant now. She does a lot of the game stuff. My perspective is I have someone who was a Division I assistant and Division I players and a head coach for five or six years. I’m going to use her. I have full trust in what she wants to do.”

“It’s good. He trusts me. I think it’s always nice when you have family as an assistant because it’s someone you can trust," Michelle said. "We’ve coached together before, just the roles were reversed. I remember at Columbus saying I need you to be my assistant because I don;’t know who they will make do it, so you’re doing it. He’s done it before.”

Michelle brings an intensity to the field in everything she does. She works with the pitchers, who have steadily improved under her tutelage.

“She knows everything, so no matter what you are doing, she will find ways to coach you," said senior pitcher Hallie Mohr. “It’s so much fun. She knows so much. She just makes it fun all around. She’s always correcting us to help us become better pitchers, but it’s always positive. That’s helpful as pitchers, especially when you don’t always get the outcome you want. She’ll find the positives in what you did.”

Mediapolis was 1-25 and 0-24 in the two seasons before Jeff and Michelle came on board. After going 4-12 and 2-21 their first two seasons, Mediapolis is 6-16 this season, including Friday's 12-0, four-inning win over Danville in a Class 2A regional first-round game.

Together, Jeff and Michelle are helping turn the program in the right direction, back to the success they haven't enjoyed in more than a decade.

“I’d like to get us to the point where we’re respectable and to the point where we can have a winning season every year and then go as far as we can go," said Jeff Martin, who teaches U.S. and World History at Mediapolis. " We’ve taken some big steps this year. Our record doesn’t reflect it, but we are a lot better than we were a year ago and two years before that.

"For the most part we’re playing full games. When I first got here most of the kids didn’t realize the games were seven innings. There were a lot of five inning games the year before I got there. The first game we played they thought the game was over after five innings. Wapello won, 4-0, but that’s the way it was. You want to win, but you also want to see the program get better, see that we’re competing with some better teams than we have in the past.”

“It is hard and when you’re not getting those immediate results and when your victories come in smaller wins of, ‘Hey, we were competitive tonight. We hit that pitcher,’" Michelle said. "Just trying to get them to believe. I think that’s one of the biggest differences at the varsity level from three years ago was the belief that we can do this. Now getting them to throw in a game like they throw in a gym is the next hurdle.”

Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA TODAY Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 31 years. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Martin and Lukavsky working together to help Mediapolis softball team