Two voices, and Frank Martin’s drive for honest, hard conversations with his players
South Carolina men’s basketball coach Frank Martin talked about two voices influencing his outlook in these politically charged times.
A friend of his growing up found his way into the world of law enforcement and now is a higher-up in the city of Miami police department. They still talk, and Martin has had his friend speak to the Gamecocks about the dynamics of something like a simple traffic stop and how on edge law enforcement feels in those situations.
“He and I grew up, same neighborhood,” Martin said. “Got in fights with each other and fights with everyone else, did wrong, got in trouble together. And you know we both became teachers together. He became a coach just like me, but then he chose to become a police officer because he felt that would be a bigger calling for what he was trying to do.”
Martin, who is Cuban American, credits the police in his neighborhood as a child for helping take care of him and others, while also acknowledging the realities of racial profiling him and many of his players.
By the same token, he also learned from a close friend in Dayton coach Anthony Grant, who coached with Martin in the high school ranks in their mid-20s.
“I never knew until we were both successful men some of the fears that he lived with” as an African American, Martin said. “And we were together every day. And I started learning, because I know what he’s about.
“There are certain fears that I learned from him when we’re both grown men. It’s important that we communicate that to the people that are around us, so we can best understand one another.”
And both messages go into his task of getting players to open up if they want to or need to talk about hot-button issues.
A few have posted on social media about current events: the killing of George Floyd, the protests that followed and the ever-present questions of racial injustice in America. But Martin has found players often not so forthcoming to discuss those issues with him and the team.
“I’m trying to get them to speak,” Martin said. “I’m gonna tell them, like you guys are so quiet on our Zoom call but yet you’re on social media retweeting and sending these subliminal messages. Awesome, share them with me, man. Share them with me so I can help. You know you can’t give me a blank stare.”
He spoke of a philosophy about life from a track and field perspective. Some people run the 100-yard dash. Others have the obstacles of the 100-yard hurdles brought on in American society by appearance or background.
The coach fondly recalled a serious conversation in his locker room before the 2016-17 season. Not far removed from the killing of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri with the resulting waves of protests, they discussed the meaning of racism and hate for three hours.
That moment required a senior leading things, and Martin is still looking for that moment now. It’s hard, with a group splintered and at times a level of reticence to speak on the topic. But he said that won’t be a deterrent.
“The hardest thing to do is to get them to allow you into their core. So then you can better understand them,” Martin said. “But you have to have the conversations. If you don’t, you’re failing kids.”
