By Ryan Nagelhout Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Mon Sep 26, 2011, 07:34 PM EDT
NIAGARA FALLS — Citing a number of concerns with the Niagara Falls wrestling program, 21-year veteran coach Israel Martinez will not return to coach the Wolverines this winter.
Martinez said the lack of practice space, the standing of the modified program and storage issues in the school became too much to handle.
“It got frustrating for me, and unfortunately I don’t want to deal with that anymore,” Martinez said. “We’ve had some administrators who have tried to help us, but me being on the athletic council for the past 11 years, I see how we’ve spun our tires and not gotten anything done.”
Niagara Falls athletic director John Forcucci said Martinez has not submitted a written resignation but has told him he will not continue coaching.
“Nothing’s official but when the posting closes on Friday if he’s not one of the applicants I’m guessing he’s not continuing as coach,” Forcucci said.
Martinez, who also coaches cross country, has manned the varsity wrestling team at Niagara Falls since the school opened in 2000. The program has practiced in the school’s smaller auxiliary gym since the building opened.
“It’s funny because when they built this school we were told ‘0h, we’re going to put in a wrestling room and this and that,’” Martinez said. “When the school was finished we knew that wasn’t the case.”
Because the gym is used for various classes and activities, Martinez said setting up for practice involved sweeping the gym floor each day, then laying nine wrestling mats out and washing them before practice could begin.
“We’re losing 30-plus minutes a day just setting up, waiting for the mats to dry,” Martinez said. “Then when we’re cleaning up, we have other teams coming in. We run the shortest practices in the area because we’re limited by setup and cleanup time.”
Despite the daily chores, the Wolverines have thrived under Martinez. His team has averaged a fifth-place finish in Section VI over the last 11 years and has never finished worse than third in the Niagara Frontier League.
“We’ve made it look easy, even if it wasn’t,” Martinez said. “I think people have seen how successful our program has been and they’re like ‘If you guys can do it without a wrestling room, why do you guys need a wrestling room?’”
Martinez said he feels the program could have done more with a better practice situation.
“I honestly think we could have been so much better,” Martinez said. “We’re doing the right things, we’re getting kids into college, we’re making sure they’re doing the right things in school and we’re winning on top of that. So what more could you ask for from that perspective? Well, in our opinion we could have done better if we had our own practice facility.”
Martinez, who started coaching with LaSalle’s wrestling program in 1991, said the now-demolished school had a dedicated room that allowed wrestling mats to be laid out all winter.
Forcucci, who took over as Niagara Falls athletic director last August, said there isn’t much he can do to satisfy Martinez’s concerns.
“I’m a little disappointed that at this point he is not continuing,” Forcucci said. “I’ve only done the job a year so give me a chance to get something in the works. But from what he says, this is several years in the making and there’s a lot of frustration.”
Another concern is the district’s modified program, which Martinez has lobbied to put in one of the preparatory schools. He said both LaSalle and Gaskill resisted the move, and with Forcucci’s help they were eventually placed in the district’s Community Education Center on Lindbergh Avenue.
“Nobody wanted to help. I’m thinking, wait a minute, these are your kids, why don’t you want to help them?” Martinez said. “For the longest time, they practiced with us, which was a safety issue. I literally had to keep the kids at one end of the gym and tell my team ‘Don’t go near these kids. Don’t touch them, they’re not on our team.’”
Martinez said his wrestlers also don’t feel comfortable in the school’s locker rooms, making for cramped conditions in the auxiliary gym. He also said the school lacks storage space.
“It’s a design flaw in this building. They built a school of this size with absolutely no storage,” Martinez said. “You can go in the building right now and you’ll see high jump pits in the hallway, swim lane markers in the hallway. That’s not where that stuff is supposed to be.”
With equipment sitting out, Martinez said damage and additional cost to the district is inevitable.
“These mats are huge and they’ve gotten pretty beat up from sitting on the gym floor rolled up because kids will sit on them and peel paint off them,” he said. “We’re pulling pens and pencils out of them, for crying out loud, because there’s nowhere to put them.”
Martinez said he’s far from retiring and hopes to coach somewhere next season.
“I’ve got a lot left in me still,” he said. “I’ve dedicated 21 years to creating a strong program here. ... these kids can win the league this year, they’re going to have the bodies to do it and I will definitely come back if changes are made.”
Martinez will continue to serve as Section VI wrestling chairmen, but said he wants to coach again and get win No. 200.
“The door would always be open to him,” Forcucci said. “With his expertise in wrestling and his participation in the state committees and programs I really hate to see him leave. We have a fantastic program, fantastic boosters and it’s going to be a big loss.”
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