UMASS Men's Head Basketball Coach Frank Martin Joins The 23rd Annual WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon

WEEI-FM / WEEI

Transcript

00:00is uh frank martin the umass men's basketball head coach um to talk about some of his experiences

00:06um and if you've seen there was a sports center special on him he's dealt with uh some of these

00:11issues in his own life so frank martin head coach of umass basketball uh passing uh passing uh

00:18lisa sherber the uh little bundle of energy the pocket of energy bringer hey frank how are you

00:23nice to meet you nice to meet you my man pleasure we'll get his uh his i was like a man i was like

00:29a man who comes in wearing a handsome cuban shirt and a socks cap andy yeah he looks good he looks

00:33good look yeah you're looking good sir how you feeling it's the heritage i can't help myself

00:38so um you know we i watched the sports center um special on you which was really enlightening and

00:47it's interesting bringing that perspective to this world where miracles are needed whether they're

00:53miracles whether they're financial miracles because i'm a believer that if you can get a lot of people

00:57to give a lot of money that can help miracles along or you can get geniuses that really have

01:02some knowledge that can spread that with that money what does all this mean to you um means a lot

01:10it's uh um uh you know when you you go through a situation like i went through and you know i i'm a

01:16my life's pretty public the way it is because of my job and right and i always felt that that was a

01:22chapter that i need to keep private and my wife who's here uh she's over here somewhere she uh i got

01:27home one day and um you know and i said to her i got a call about sharing this story and uh

01:36steve lapis the old basketball coach his daughter was uh doing those kind of shows for espn

01:44and um and she says you're being selfish not sharing your story and i was like come on and

01:51she's like you're being so you need to do that so i thought about it and she's right and uh i released

01:57it and uh the amount of feedback i got was unbelievable as far as people thanking me uh for

02:05giving them hope for for sharing that chapter of my life publicly um and uh shortly after uh my

02:13mother-in-law uh was diagnosed with breast cancer so um i just felt that there was a calling uh from

02:21that moment uh that i needed and my wife and i connected uh to get as involved as we can with

02:28anything to do fighting cancer and uh so from that point on uh i've been fortunate uh my wife put on

02:35an incredible event when we're down in columbia south carolina uh we raised uh close to a million

02:40dollars in our time down there um i'm on the board of directors of coaches versus cancer which is a

02:46fabulous uh organization where all those college basketball coaches you know we're uh we're

02:52competitive in recruiting we're competitive in trying to beat each other up uh but we when it

02:58comes to this we join forces and uh uh so anything i can ever do uh to be of help for such a great

03:04organization like the jimmy fund i was telling ken laird uh because you know he was at northeastern

03:09student northeastern when i started and uh 25 years ago when i started working over there and uh

03:15i i just moved up here from miami i was used to like my cuban shirts and all that i get to boston i

03:20don't know a soul up here other than leo papil and um and i keep hearing about the jimmy fund the

03:26jimmy fund i had no idea what it was and now we hit fast forward 25 years and i'm sitting here with

03:31you guys and uh super excited to be here in support of it well it's great you know obviously

03:36you know for a lot of people they may think of cancer and college basketball coaches and obviously

03:40when your ranks uh several decades ago jimmy valvano absolutely is taken from us and he becomes

03:46an icon and a a a peak of inspiration himself as well um it's it's incredible it's incredible work

03:54to keep doing but you know on a regular basis your job is to affect the lives of many younger people

04:00young men as well to try to lead them and inspire them and you know what i'd like to just sort of

04:06know like what from the jimmy fund have you learned that has sort of like affected you as you know a

04:11person and as a coach and how you're able to sort of like take their message and their positivity and

04:15then spread it to others yeah it's uh when you get this world of coaching and we're in such a

04:22difficult time in the in the profession of coaching because there's an expectation that

04:28everything is about wins and losses and we sign up for the job so we understand that that comes with

04:33it of course but the reality when you get involved with something like the jimmy fund or the jimmy v

04:40foundation or all these incredible cancer foundations um you realize the power of giving

04:47and that's all i try to share with our players because teenagers and i got three of them right now

04:53one 25 the other two are teenagers but children that is their whole world revolves around look at me

05:00look at me look at me and uh getting our players involved in as many environments as i possibly can

05:07and i've learned that being a father uh to so then they so they can comprehend that at the end of the day

05:15the power is who you can help not how many wins and losses they put next to your name you know that's

05:22that's who that's who that's wins and losses professionally that's my job uh as a human being

05:30the day my time is over if they only speak about my career basketball record that's pretty sad and

05:37and that's what i try to share with our players so they can make sure that they comprehend that the

05:41more they give the more they're going to get back as they go on their journey wherever it takes them

05:46through their sports it's funny when i'm hearing you talk and we visited the the dana-farber clinic a few

05:51weeks ago and you saw just the teamwork and the start to finish and you hear the the parents talk

05:57about it's the people the the guy in the parking garage or whoever let you up all the way to the

06:01top and i feel like that's what you as a coach that's what mike vrabel that's what alex core it

06:07doesn't matter what sport a coach wants to build a culture where the star player respects the equipment

06:13guy respects the trainer and they're all working in one direction and i i feel like that's something

06:18that you know you'd think well dana-farber is nothing like umass hoops is nothing like pay but

06:24it's all teamwork you all there's a goal in mind you know yours is to win games theirs is to treat the

06:29patient and get them to the next step and i think that culture word is really interesting that's such

06:33a part of the jimmy fund and dana-farber absolutely we're all trying to win right right whatever our

06:39competition is we're trying to win and with the uh with the the the folks like everyone like

06:45it used to be let's be cancer and then it became let's create the knowledge so people can get

06:54checked up so the quicker we find that we've made incredible progress and all that um and and the one

07:00thing that no one ever talks about is the family members that have to support the person that's going

07:05through the fight they a lot of times they got to leave their jobs and and when you have places like

07:11the dana-farber uh uh place where where they that care that's provided for the individual uh for that

07:19family uh that's going through a difficult moment they might lose their jobs it's like there's there's

07:25so much that goes into it um that that support and that spirit so much needed and uh um but as coaches

07:32we we want to win and that's where i'm telling you we we will you go on the recruiting trail of college

07:38basketball and it's hard man it's we we're in a fight with each other to go sign the next best

07:43player and and now in today's world you're trying to keep your player so after every year you're like

07:48fighting guys off your team and um that same competitive edge that we all have we we we bond

07:56and i think as coaches when i say coaches i'm i'm talking in general uh whether it's an nfl coach like

08:02vrabel or or or or or cora or um you know any of these guys it doesn't matter i think everyone

08:11comes together uh because we want to bring our think about it we've put people on the moon we've

08:17we've created the internet uh i i can figure out where i'm at some back street in oklahoma through

08:24my phone how to get to some palm tree somewhere twinkies with twinkies think about that and and

08:31here we are years and years and years and we still haven't been able to find that cure but

08:35we've made incredible progress and it's like everything else this ain't the time to stop the

08:39fight you got to turn this thing up even more now because we're so much closer and we got to go

08:44finish this job well i got to tell you listening to you makes me just want to buy some season

08:48tickets to umass basketball and get behind you and i know it's like you said it's a very challenging

08:52landscape these days obviously transfer portal and more schools that came from out of nowhere

08:57becoming competitive these days uh how is the program looking right now and what do fans have

09:02to look forward to this year from umass basketball yeah it's um i'm super excited i mean last year was a

09:08unfortunately the moment we're in right now uh you can take a step back because you lose all your

09:14good players like we did a year ago yep but you can fix it right away too it's uh it's a two-way street i

09:22know our administration and the people who run the umass school system uh i'm fortunate that they

09:29came calling and gave me this opportunity i started my college coaching career at northeastern right down

09:33the road here yep uh i remember a rod was playing with seattle at the time and i knew him since he was

09:39a little kid he actually would come in and practice with my team when i was a high school coach out in

09:43south florida and uh i came to his first game not his first game his first game here while i'm living in town

09:52uh and i remember walking and i'll never forget they're playing seattle he's a great

09:56guy not from up here not understanding anything and everyone's chanting yankee suck

10:02and we played the mariners i'm like what's going on here i i learned real quick what was going on but uh

10:09uh but uh it's it's uh it's it's it's a great time uh the people had hired me they want us to be good

10:15again they they you think about jack lehman and julius irving and al skinner and all the greatness

10:21marcus can be a lot of great players what calipari did there you know cal's become a friend

10:27and uh i leaned on him before i made my decision to take the job and listening to him the love he

10:32had for this place for the state this area of the state uh i said i got to do this and my wife's an

10:37alum so one of the great things that that uh because my children uh because of my career they've always

10:45heard frank this frank this frank this final fours and championship and this and that whatever

10:51they didn't understand like how successful their mother was and she gave up her career to help me

10:57chase mine and uh going to massachusetts and having them see how successful an athlete she was and

11:05uh in her past and what she's all about it's it's even solidified her family even more so it's uh

11:12i'm super excited two years ago we we finished top four in the eight ten for the first time and

11:17since like oh four or something like that uh unfortunately we lost uh our two all-conference

11:23players and our best three-point shooter it's part of the new world uh but we've we've got a fun

11:28team coming in this year and uh i i'm i'm super excited i think we got a chance to be really good

11:34all right coach uh frank martin umass hoops we appreciate you joining us we'll be uh we'll be

11:38watching we'll be rooting and we appreciate the passion you bring to the uh the show today the

11:42jimmy fund and everything that's going absolutely thank you guys appreciate you good luck this season

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