Run leads Miseri to tourney
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| Ethan Eichhorst, top, and
Jesse Robinson, bottom, have helped lead Misericordia to the NCAA
Tournament. Misericordia athletics photos |
Dave Martin has spent more than 20 years at Misericordia, and while he always believed a day like Saturday was possible, he never thought it would happen the way it did.
Yet, there was Martin, the interim head coach of the women’s basketball team, coaching the Cougars to a MAC Freedom conference tournament championship and berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Misericordia knocked off King’s 64-54 after being tied at 21-21 at halftime.
On that same day, the men’s team that Martin once coached, a team now coached by one of his former players (Trevor Woodruff), was also punching its ticket to the NCAA tournament with a MAC Freedom tourney championship. The Cougars dominated the second half of its game, outscoring Wilkes 45-15 en route to a 65-42 win.
This is why sports is the best reality in the world. You can’t write scripts for moments like this. For Martin, who is also the school’s director of athletics, this was a day he will remember forever, a day that was years in the making.
Misericordia began competing as an NCAA Division III program in 1992. The journey had been filed with ups and downs along the way, all leading up to a day for the ages in school history.
“It’s been a long haul for us,” Martin said. “The way it happened is what makes it so special. Both teams beat rivals in the conference championship game and both teams worked hard to get to where they are today. It’s a big deal for the school.”
Martin wasn’t expecting to be a part of the history from a coaching standpoint. He spent 14 seasons as the men’s coach, and during Woodruff’s senior season, the Cougars lost in the conference title game.
He had spent the last eight as the AD, but when Tom Griffith resigned as the head coach of the women’s team, Martin took over. The Cougars were 9-7 at the time. They are now 17-10 .
It’s not easy coaching to begin with. To take over a team with less than a month to go in the season, well, that just seems like mission impossible.
“I just tried to keep us focused on going forward,” Martin said. “I didn’t want to change too much because it was so late in the season. The transition was very smooth and that is a tribute to the players and the...
