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Blitzkrieg
4/13/2007, 09:27 AM
Inside Frank Martin's Miami High
By ROBERT ANDREW POWELL
Special to The Star
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As soon as I saw that Bob Huggins ditched the Kansas State basketball team to coach his hometown West Virginia Mountaineers, I watched the Web closely. Huggins holds one of the worst reputations in college sports, and his sudden departure left K-State officials furious at his opportunism.

But that’s not what I was interested in. I wanted to see who would get the top job at Kansas State. Within a day, and as I expected, there came the news: Frank Martin, Huggins’ assistant, had been elevated to the Wildcats’ head coach position. I found the official press release at the K-State Web site. Please, I thought to myself, clicking the link. Please tell the truth.

I know Martin from his days as a high school coach in Florida. He had been the head coach at Miami Senior High when I was a staff writer at the Miami New Times newspaper. His team was a perennial superpower, marching to two state championships in a row and on track for a third when I started looking at it, in 1998.

I’d read Martin’s complaints that his team, known as the Stingarees, had become so dominant they could no longer find competition in Miami; almost every game was a boring blowout. I noticed that the Stingarees reloaded every year with stud transfers from around the state. I saw that Martin’s 1997-98 team at Miami High, a public school located in Little Havana just a couple of blocks from Elian Gonzalez’s temporary home, somehow featured three African-American players 6 feet 8 or taller. I wondered how that was possible.

“Some people like to say that our program is one of cheaters and underachievers,” Martin told the Miami Herald, in that paper’s 1997-98 high school basketball preseason preview. “But it’s not that way at all. Miami High has always had a great basketball tradition. We work hard to earn it. Some kids in the past have legally transferred to Miami High because they want to play for the best program in town. I can’t help that. Every kid on this team is legally registered.”

Not exactly. By going into the school system database and simply looking up the given home addresses of the players, I found a nest of rules violations.

•A star point guard, Steve Blake, who now plays for the Denver Nuggets, claimed to live with Joyce Lund, a Stingarees booster who owned a home a few blocks from Miami High. Blake actually lived with his family in Miami Lakes, an upscale suburb miles outside the school district.

•Another player, Udonis Haslem, who now plays for the Miami Heat, claimed to live with the team’s scorekeeper in a studio near Miami High. In truth, he lived with his father and stepmother in Miramar, Fla., in a different county.

•Forward Antonio Latimer, a 6-10 Puerto Rican, claimed to live in an apartment owned by a secretary in the Miami High athletic department. One-third of the team — an entire starting lineup — claimed to live with a school employee, a coach or a team booster.

That’s against the rules in Florida. My article came out just before the state playoffs that Miami High easily won. Almost as soon as Martin and his squad cut down the nets, the Florida High School Activities Association (FHSAA), the agency that oversees scholastic sports, launched its own investigation. It confirmed my findings and then some. Miami High was fined $2,500 and forced to reimburse more than $5,000 in expenses incurred during the FHSAA’s investigation. Five players, including Haslem and Blake, were barred from playing at Miami High again. Blake was actually banned from playing high school ball in Florida, and ended up transferring to Oak Hill in Virginia. Miami High was required to return the 1998 state championship trophy. Martin was fired, along with the school’s athletic director.

“This is one of the most, if not the most, blatant violations of FHSAA rules against recruiting that I have encountered in my seven years as commissioner of this association,” said Ron Davis when he handed down the penalties in August 1998.

After the basketball team was stripped of its title, I endured a period of harassment from Miami High boosters, including the obligatory death threats. “You’re dead, buddy,” said one caller, which I took to be a mixed message. At a Boys and Girls Club charity dinner, I sat near a table where Martin sat, and spent the evening watching him point me out to his friends.

In time I moved on, and so did Martin. He took a job as an assistant coach at Boston’s Northeastern University, a basketball nonentity he stocked with south Florida players. He soon tapped his Miami High contacts to hook up with Huggins at the University of Cincinnati. After Huggins moved to Kansas State, Martin joined him. The press release announcing Martin’s promotion to the top job started simply enough.

“Frank has played an invaluable role in the turnaround of Kansas State basketball,” stated school president Jon Wefald. “I have the utmost confidence in Frank’s ability to lead this program while continuing to attract high-caliber student-athletes who can compete for championships in the Big 12 Conference.”

I scanned down farther, looking for anything on Martin’s Miami High past. I didn’t see how they could ignore his time in Florida, since he’s never served as a head coach above the high school level. A few paragraphs down, I got to the part I’d hoped not to see.

“During his three-year stint with the Stingarees, (Martin) posted a stellar 102-10 (.911) overall record and captured three consecutive Florida 6A State Championships (1996, 1997, 1998). Martin’s last two squads compiled impressive 36-1 records and finished among the nation’s top 5 in the USA Today Top 25 poll, including a program-best No. 2 following the 1997-98 season.”

Oh, gosh. That’s just wrong. Martin did not win three state championships at Miami High. In his last year at the school, his team did not finish 36-1, the record advertised on his bio. That year, 1997-98, the Stingarees actually finished with a record of 0-37. They forfeited every single game, and Martin was fired. As Stephen Colbert might say: You can look it up.

After Martin’s promotion was announced last week, friends came out to sing his praises. In a long profile in one Kansas newspaper, Martin was often described by those who know him best as a man of high character. For a reference to this character, and to address the Miami High scandal, the reporter turned to Art Alvarez, the head coach of the Miami Tropics AAU basketball team.

“A lot of it was blown out of proportion,” Alvarez said. “When you win state titles back-to-back-to-back, it becomes a jealousy issue. Everybody wants to start coming to your school because you win. The problem is, the FHSAA is something of a monopoly. After so many titles, it wasn’t fair. Nothing was ever proved.”

There was no mention of Alvarez’s own scandalous past. In 2003, the FHSAA determined that tiny powerhouse Miami Christian Academy, where Alvarez was the head coach, was guilty of illegal recruiting. His team was banned from postseason play.

Nice character reference.

I’d always seen my story about Miami High as a companion to stories about voter fraud in Miami elections. At around the same time Martin’s team was cheating to win at basketball, people from outside the city were caught using fake addresses to vote for Miami’s mayor. At least one voter was dead. Such skullduggery is rooted in the culture of Miami, a city where hustle rules above all else.

I recognize that Kansas State, while not a famously corrupt program, is not on the vanguard of sports ethics. For one thing, it hired Huggins, whose Cincinnati program was once put on probation for a lack of institutional control. Then, it hired assistant coach Dalonte Hill to land prize recruit Michael Beasley. Finally, it promoted Martin and Hill in a desperate attempt to keep its recruits and salvage next season.

It’s not the worst choice. As far as I know, Martin has never held up a liquor store, or ripped off anyone in a ponzi scheme. He just cheated at basketball and got caught, nine years ago. That’s a black mark, but it’s not the end of the world, nor does it need to be the end of his career. Over the last decade, he’s logged countless hours in the trenches of college basketball, coaching practices, crossing the country on recruiting trips, and persuading talented players from sunny Florida to attend a snowbound college on the prairie. He has a pregnant wife and two kids. I don’t want to deny him basketball. I don’t want to deny him his livelihood, either.

What bothers me is the blatant and ongoing denial. Martin continues to assert his innocence, but his assertions — an entire starting lineup, including a couple of future NBA players, were all transfer students who enrolled at my school with fake addresses somehow obtained from boosters or coaches, but I never “recruited” — dodge the point, the rules, and any semblance of personal responsibility.

“I wish he would have just said something like, ‘Look, that was a long time ago and I made some mistakes. I learned from them and nothing like that has ever happened again,’ ” Ron Boyd, the former FHSAA commissioner, told me on Tuesday.

For the record, Martin was not “cleared of all wrongdoing” by the FHSAA, as several papers reported. The FHSAA never investigated Martin specifically. The basketball program he ran was investigated, and was found to be guilty of illegal recruiting. Again, Martin was fired. That doesn’t happen randomly.

All of us, as humans who’ve survived into adulthood, have accumulated blunders. These things don’t go away. They can’t. They shouldn’t, either. Without mistakes, it’s harder to know what is right. Accountability is what matters most. Ask Barack Obama whether he’s snorted cocaine and see what he says. Then check the huge amounts of money Obama has collected for his run at the presidency. All we ask for is honesty, for some ownership of actions.

“We’re going to roll up our sleeves and hold people accountable,” Martin said in 2005, in an interview about his then-assistant coaching duties.

Please do, Coach. Now is a good time to start.

Robert Andrew Powell, a journalist in Miami for the last 15 years, is the author of the book, “We Own This Game,” which Sports Illustrated named a Best Book of 2003. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, PLAY, on Public Radio’s “This American Life with Ira Glass,” and in the “Best American Sports Writing” anthology. His reporting on Frank Martin and Miami High, for the Miami New Times newspaper, was the basis for a chapter in the book: “Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of America’s Youth.” He recently moved to Boulder, Colo., to work on his second book.

King Crimson
4/13/2007, 09:28 AM
i saw that article over at the genius site. great hire K State. i hope Beasley is worth it.

i heard the author, Powell, on the radio when Sole Influence came out. seemed like a pretty sharp guy who was genuinely concerned about the integrity of American sporting life. FWIW.

Rhino
4/13/2007, 10:22 AM
Yikes.

skycat
4/13/2007, 03:07 PM
Very old news.

Salient point.


The FHSAA never investigated Martin specifically. The basketball program he ran was investigated, and was found to be guilty of illegal recruiting. Again, Martin was fired. That doesn’t happen randomly.

And the guy that fired him (the principal) had to sign off on all of the transfer papers.

I wouldn't think that Sooner fans would want to start an argument that a head coach should know everything that goes on inside his program.

The guy is no angel, but K-State fans shouldn't, and this one won't, apologize for wanting to win.

bri
4/13/2007, 06:42 PM
Yeah, I'm sure it's awfully f*cking hard to keep track of twelve guys.

King Crimson
4/13/2007, 07:16 PM
The guy is no angel, but K-State fans shouldn't, and this one won't, apologize for wanting to win.

so, you hired a guy with no head coach experience but high school to keep two recruits who might be in Manhattan for a year or maybe two.

cool.

tulsaoilerfan
4/13/2007, 09:50 PM
Very old news.

Salient point.



And the guy that fired him (the principal) had to sign off on all of the transfer papers.

I wouldn't think that Sooner fans would want to start an argument that a head coach should know everything that goes on inside his program.

The guy is no angel, but K-State fans shouldn't, and this one won't, apologize for wanting to win.

You can't even compare running a High School Hoops program to major college football; this guy sounds like he really has a lot of integrity. :rolleyes:

skycat
4/13/2007, 10:44 PM
Hilarious.

bri
4/13/2007, 11:07 PM
The fact that you guys hired this guy? Yeah, it's chuckle-worthy.

birddog
4/13/2007, 11:08 PM
we didn't hire stoops knowing he had been investigated for possible infractions.

but hey, i'd be defensive if i were you.

birddog
4/13/2007, 11:10 PM
Hilarious.

and what makes it even funnier is that you hired this guy after "baggage bob".

Ash
4/13/2007, 11:44 PM
sounds like a sleazeball...no wonder he was with Huggy Bear...

This is a tough situation, KSU fans, but you made your bed. I expect this coach to be gone or under sanctions within two years.

If I could use my vCash I put a wager on it.

skycat
4/14/2007, 09:26 AM
Yeah, with 120 players it's easy to see how the star quaterback with a propensity for getting into trouble got lost in the shuffle. And what kind of car was AD driving while still a scholarship athlete? And your athletic director immediately fired Sampson when it came out that he had personally committed multiple NCAA infractions. Right?

This message board pretense by any group of fans (including K-State fans) that their program is squeaky clean and everyone else has coaches and boosters that are vile rennegades cracks me up.

If you want to know why I think this was clearly the best feasible hire for K-State look at the other thread. If you don't care, that's cool too.

OSUAggie
4/14/2007, 09:32 AM
:pop:

starrca23
4/14/2007, 12:03 PM
Skycat, you can't seriously think what you said makes any sense. Do you really think a football team can follow every player around and make sure they are not in trouble? If so what happened the last time you guys went to a bcs bowl? I know you won't answer that, but it's cool. As for the principal since when does two wrongs make a right? And lastly, OU has never knowingly hired someone with the character of Huggins or whats-his-face. Furthermore, you can't seriously think this guy can actually coach.

skycat
4/14/2007, 01:20 PM
Skycat, you can't seriously think what you said makes any sense. Do you really think a football team can follow every player around and make sure they are not in trouble? If so what happened the last time you guys went to a bcs bowl? I know you won't answer that, but it's cool. As for the principal since when does two wrongs make a right? And lastly, OU has never knowingly hired someone with the character of Huggins or whats-his-face. Furthermore, you can't seriously think this guy can actually coach.

Well, since Roberson got busted within hours of his dumbassery, I think that actually supports what I'm saying.

But see, I'm not holding up my athletic department as some paragon of virtue. On the other hand, I'm not too worried about stuff that happened 11 years ago, none of which was ever directly attributed to our new head coach. If he ends up cheating at K-State, we'll end up paying the price for it. I don't think he will, although I could very well be wrong. Why are you guys worried about it?

I'm not going to get into any further debate as to the spotlessness of the Sooner athletic department's reputation. Everyone that reads this has already made up their mind about that one way or the other. And like I said, I find those kinds of discussions more funny than anything else anyway.

King Crimson
4/14/2007, 03:25 PM
the real issue you are obfuscating is that you hired a guy with no experience to keep Beasley. and the guy you hired to keep Beasley has a pretty iffy record.

so, the point is that your hoops program and AD are hostage to Beasley and short term *potential* success. no?

skycat
4/14/2007, 03:30 PM
the real issue you are obfuscating is that you hired a guy with no experience to keep Beasley. and the guy you hired to keep Beasley has a pretty iffy record.

so, the point is that your hoops program and AD are hostage to Beasley and short term *potential* success. no?

If you really want to know how I feel about this, look at the Huggins to WVU thread. I've gone on enough about it already.

But in short, the alternatives to hiring Martin were extraordinarily bad.

Ash
4/14/2007, 08:49 PM
Maybe the problem has been taken care of for you:

Huggins Rumored to Have Lured Martin from KSU (http://thebrushback.com/huggins_full.htm)

Guess it's hard to get along without your top recruiter.

skycat
4/14/2007, 08:51 PM
Maybe the problem has been taken care of for you:

Huggins Rumored to Have Lured Martin from KSU (http://thebrushback.com/huggins_full.htm)

Guess it's hard to get along without your top recruiter.

:D

tulsaoilerfan
4/14/2007, 09:02 PM
LOL, that's funny even if it isn't true.

tulsaoilerfan
4/14/2007, 09:09 PM
Nevermind.

Ash
4/14/2007, 09:58 PM
:D

SoonerShark
4/20/2007, 09:54 PM
Well, since Roberson got busted within hours of his dumbassery, I think that actually supports what I'm saying.

But see, I'm not holding up my athletic department as some paragon of virtue. On the other hand, I'm not too worried about stuff that happened 11 years ago, none of which was ever directly attributed to our new head coach. If he ends up cheating at K-State, we'll end up paying the price for it. I don't think he will, although I could very well be wrong. Why are you guys worried about it?

I'm not going to get into any further debate as to the spotlessness of the Sooner athletic department's reputation. Everyone that reads this has already made up their mind about that one way or the other. And like I said, I find those kinds of discussions more funny than anything else anyway.

Face it, most just see the K-States of the world as second class citizens. This is unfair, perhaps, but I have fond memories of K-State fans in Kansas City in 2003 screaming for the team to bust Jason White in the knees to take him out for good . I asked if they truly meant that, since it would take either a horrid person or a stupid person to feel that way. I was assured that they actually wanted Jason hurt so his career would be over. Go Cats.

KStatePike
4/21/2007, 02:06 PM
So, are all OU fans stand up gentlemen then? I can assure you not all are. Face it, every fan base has a$$holes. I've met good and bad fans from every big 12 school, and its all the same... except colorado... they're all bad.

Cam
4/21/2007, 09:36 PM
none of which was ever directly attributed to our new head coach.
If you honestly believe he had zero knowledge of what was going on, I've got some ocean front property just north of Park City, Ks that I'd love to show you.

OUAndy1807
4/21/2007, 11:21 PM
So, are all OU fans stand up gentlemen then? I can assure you not all are. Face it, every fan base has a$$holes. I've met good and bad fans from every big 12 school, and its all the same... except colorado... they're all bad.
yeah, every school has a-holes, but some schools are known for having a disproportionate amount of them and K state happens to be near the top of that list.

starrca23
4/22/2007, 08:39 PM
Agreed Andy. When we went to the Big XII title game in 03 there were way to many Kat fans that didnt win gracefully. The opposite of that was seen this year when we beat nebbish, they shook our hands and said good game (most not all) when we left (actually when they left, we stayed for the trophy presentation!!!)

skycat
4/23/2007, 10:57 AM
If you honestly believe he had zero knowledge of what was going on, I've got some ocean front property just north of Park City, Ks that I'd love to show you.

I don't believe that he actively recruited onto his high school team. But I do believe that he didn't ask any questions when he saw a bunch of D-1 prospects show up on his team, because he didn't want to know where they came from.



I'm not sure how you guys segued to the fanbase stuff, but everybody knows that K-State fans are 18.4% more classless than the average college fan. Rigorous studies have proven this to be the case time and again.

OSUAggie
4/23/2007, 11:00 AM
I've never had a problem with a K-State fan.

OU fans started hating them around, when, mid-90s? Is that when K-State became classless?

Cam
4/25/2007, 09:37 PM
I don't believe that he actively recruited onto his high school team. But I do believe that he didn't ask any questions when he saw a bunch of D-1 prospects show up on his team, because he didn't want to know where they came from.
Kind of tough not to know when 3/5 of your starting rotation just shows up out of nowhere. I'd be that he and 90% of the student body knew.


OU fans started hating them around, when, mid-90s? Is that when K-State became classless?
Since most people who are K-State fans today wouldn't admit it publicly until the mid-90's, you'd be correct.

When I moved to Ks there were more OU fans than KU and K-State fans combined, at least publicly. Once they started winning more than a game or two a year, "they've always been fans".

The toilet bowl t-shirts were usually pretty damn funny.

King Crimson
4/25/2007, 09:53 PM
I'm not sure how you guys segued to the fanbase stuff,

kinda like you segued into the "everybody cheats" to win thing.

King Crimson
4/25/2007, 09:58 PM
I've never had a problem with a K-State fan.

OU fans started hating them around, when, mid-90s? Is that when K-State became classless?

you are pushing an indirect cheesebag aggy point as usual, but KSU fan is not well regarded by many Big XII fanbases (and old Big 8), trust me. not just us.

Missouri, KU, NU, CU dont' seem to like KSU fan...maybe you ags all get along....

skycat
4/25/2007, 09:59 PM
When I moved to Ks there were more OU fans than KU and K-State fans combined, at least publicly. Once they started winning more than a game or two a year, "they've always been fans".


Where did you live? I didn't know a single OU fan all the way through high school in Topeka. There were plenty of KU and K-State fans, most of them just were pretty quiet until basketball season.

I'll scan in my ticket stub from Snyder's first win against North Texas if that will make you feel better though.

skycat
4/25/2007, 10:00 PM
maybe you ags all get along....

Pretty much.

Despite '98 there's usually a bunch of aTm - K-State lovefests on the message boards when we play each other.

King Crimson
4/25/2007, 10:02 PM
Pretty much.

Despite '98 there's usually a bunch of aTm K-State love.


ick. :eek: :D

skycat
4/25/2007, 10:04 PM
kinda like you segued into the "everybody cheats" to win thing.

That's not really what I said, or even quite what I was getting at.

usmc-sooner
4/25/2007, 10:40 PM
I've never had a problem with a K-State fan.

OU fans started hating them around, when, mid-90s? Is that when K-State became classless?

I wonder if OSU fans will ever be labeled classless? If it depends on their football team I guess not.

Cam
4/30/2007, 09:32 PM
Where did you live? I didn't know a single OU fan all the way through high school in Topeka. There were plenty of KU and K-State fans, most of them just were pretty quiet until basketball season.

I'll scan in my ticket stub from Snyder's first win against North Texas if that will make you feel better though.
Wichita. You never saw purple in the 70's thru mid 80's, not even during basketball season.

The toilet bowl was around long before Snyder came along. My guess is that you weren't very old then.

OSUAggie
4/30/2007, 10:10 PM
you are pushing an indirect cheesebag aggy point as usual, but KSU fan is not well regarded by many Big XII fanbases (and old Big 8), trust me. not just us.

Missouri, KU, NU, CU dont' seem to like KSU fan...maybe you ags all get along....

Perhaps the ag schools do get along. Of course, Missouri and Nebraska are also "ag schools" since their inception was part of the Morrill Act as well...

I just want to know why they're "classless" to you...

B/c they have an ag school? B/c they won 5 straight in the mid-90s? Alleged negative recruiting?

Just wondering why a fanbase would hate another fanbase when they own a 50+ game advantage over them in the series...

Ash
4/30/2007, 10:14 PM
Perhaps the ag schools do get along. Of course, Missouri and Nebraska are also "ag schools" since their inception was part of the Morrill Act as well...

I just want to know why they're "classless" to you...

B/c they have an ag school? B/c they won 5 straight in the mid-90s? Alleged negative recruiting?

Just wondering why a fanbase would hate another fanbase when they own a 50+ game advantage over them in the series...

*cough*troll on a fishing expedition*cough*

OSUAggie
4/30/2007, 10:15 PM
*cough*just trying to hear a logical explanation*cough*

(or read)

sanantoniosooner
4/30/2007, 10:18 PM
Just wondering why a fanbase would hate another fanbase when they own a 50+ game advantage over them in the series...
Same reason I hate chihuahuas.

OSUAggie
4/30/2007, 10:19 PM
Too small and yap a lot?

Ash
4/30/2007, 10:22 PM
Same reason I hate chihuahuas.

what's not to love?
http://www.jsu.edu/depart/psychology/sebac/Gorby/jpeg/dog.jpg

sanantoniosooner
4/30/2007, 10:26 PM
http://www.big12warzone.com/forums/Smileys/big12warzone/mjrod.gif

OSUAggie
4/30/2007, 10:27 PM
http://www.impactguns.com/store/swsemi.html

Cute.

sanantoniosooner
4/30/2007, 10:31 PM
Cute.
glad to see some aggys are versatile.

Sheep isn't the only animal that gives you wood.

OSUAggie
4/30/2007, 10:37 PM
Red X's are better than sheep.

sanantoniosooner
4/30/2007, 10:41 PM
If you've still got a red X after 4 hours give the Doc a call.

OSUAggie
4/30/2007, 10:42 PM
He told me he loved me.