Support for Varsity Head Coach Mike Martinez

As a child, Patrick Henry HS Head Coach Mike Martinez grew up in the Allied Gardens and San Carlos neighborhoods.  He went to Lewis MS and went onto Patrick Henry HS for his sophomore year starting in the fall of 1979.  He played JV football for Coach Walt Baranski as a sophomore, played running back as a junior on the varsity for Coach Dale Twombley.  As a senior, Mike was voted team Captain by the players of the PHHS 1981 team, was a starting middle linebacker and helped lead the Patriots to it's third Eastern League Championship in five years.  Mike is a graduate from Henry's class of 1982.

After graduating, Mike and I coached the 1982 season on the JV at Henry with our mentor, Coach Walt Baranski.

Mike went onto the University of Arizona.  He graduated from U of A and got into teaching.  He became an assistant coach at Pueblo HS in Tucson.  Pueblo was riddled with the inner city problems of gangs, drugs, lack of parental support and academic indifference. 

Mike was eventually promoted to the position as the Head Coach at Pueblo HS.  Mike worked hard to change the culture at Pueblo by holding his players to higher standards both on and off the field.  Pueblo did not have a winning record for many years.  Mike turned the program around and made kids believe in themselves.  Pueblo made it into the Arizona State Football playoffs.

Mike, along with his wife Mia, daughter Sophie and son Max, moved back to San Diego to raise their family back where he grew up.  Mike got a teaching job at Bonita HS in Chula Vista.  In 2005, Mike earned the job as the Head Coach at Southwest HS in the San Ysidro/Nestor communities of San Diego.

Once again, Mike was faced with a school that did not have a winning culture in it's football program.  once again, Mike had to deal with the same problems he faced at Pueblo HS in Tucson.  His first year at Southwest was a hard transition earning only one win that season.

But Mike worked at it and kept telling his players that hard work in the weight room and in the class room would eventually pay off.  In 2006, I joined up with Mike and coached the Freshmen team for him and assisted him with the Varsity. 

The hard work paid off and Southwest had it's first winning season in 19 years going 5-4 and making an appearance in the San Diego Section CIF Playoffs.

Mike and I went onto Hilltop HS in 2007 and in 2009, the coaching job at Patrick Henry came open.  Mike interviewed for the Head Coaching job at Henry and was hired in the Spring of 2009.  It was a dream come true for the two of us: to coach football at our Alma mater. 

So Mike brought me to Henry and I begged him to let me coach the Freshmen Team because I wanted to set the tempo in those young men from the first time the set foot on the campus.  He relented and let me coach the Freshmen.

The first two years, Mike had to start all over again by changing the culture at Patrick Henry.  There had been no weight training program, so Mike had to start that from scratch.

At first, there was some resistance.  Some of the players applied themselves, but there was always a small group that would not do the work that others were doing and it created a division within the team.  Now with two groups of players that went through our Freshman Program and Mike trimming the team down to players that want to work out and take care of their studies.  Gone are the malcontents, the lazy, or as one of the seniors said to me, "cancers".

The off-season workouts have been high in attendance and intensity.  Alex Cordoni, a senior Safety who will be a three year starter on the Varsity, told me that workouts are fun because everybody gets along, everybody works hard and they all see improvement in their performance.  The team is finally beginning gel as a unit and as a family.

This year at the SDSU Passing Tournament, the Varsity won several games and for the first time in several years, were able to play on day 2 of the Tournament.  (In the past, Henry would lose two game and were out of the Tournament)

As it stands right now, Mike Martinez IS NOT the head coach at Patrick Henry.  The recent budget from the SDUSD called for 800 layoffs.  Mike got his pink slip back in May.  Even though Mike has over 17 years of teaching under his belt, he is at the bottom of the totem pole as far as seniority goes.  There is a possibility that the District might reascend 400 of those layoffs.

I am asking for your help.  WE as a community of parents, players, alumni and coaches need to come to the support of Mike Martinez.  He would never ask this because it is his nature not to seek outside help.  Well, he is my friend, a mentor to our kids and more important, a builder of men.

Tuesday July 12th, there is going to be a SDUSD Board of Directors meeting at 4100 Normal St.in North Park.  I need every parent, every student, every player to attend that meeting in the hopes of saving Mike's job. Heck, the marching band did the same for their teacher!

It is very important to the growth of the football program at Patrick Henry HS.  We are about to turn the corner and restore Patriot football to what it once was.  And the only person that can finish the job is Mike Martinez.

By the way, if Mike is not hired back, I WILL NOT coach on the Varsity.  I have a  full time job and a family to take care of...