Puerto Rico native, USC coach felt impact of Hurricane Maria

José Martin was born June 28, 1969, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “Chuck” Martin was born a short time later in New York City.

“A common nickname for someone named José in our culture is Che – C-h-e,” Martin said. “So back in the Bronx, a long time ago, people mispronounced Che and just started calling me Chuck.

“Three decades later, it’s still Chuck. My mom still calls me Che.”

On Sunday at Colonial Life Arena, South Carolina and Virginia Tech’s basketball teams will play a game they’re calling “Hoops 4 Hurricane Relief.”

Perhaps no one in the building will appreciate the exhibition’s significance more than Martin.

The Gamecocks assistant coach, newly hired in June, went a three-day stretch in September without connecting with loved ones. Martin’s aunts, uncles and cousins – all of his family minus his mother, wife and three kids who live stateside – are residents of Caguas, Puerto Rico, a city pummeled by Hurricane Maria. (Martin moved to New York at a young age.)

“I think the toughest thing for me was the lack of communication,” Martin said Wednesday. “So the cell towers did not work on the island. There was no communication in terms of phone calls or social media. Usually if I can’t get in touch with someone over the phone, you can get in contact with them through social media, but obviously there was no communication at all for about 72 hours.

“That made it difficult because you don’t know. You’re here in the States and you’re watching the news and you’re watching updates to see how tragic the situation is there and there’s no communication with your family. Your imagination starts to get the best of you.”

Once the silence finally ended, Martin learned an aunt and uncle lost their home and other relatives lost material things.

“But luckily they’re still alive and doing well,” he said.

That displaced aunt and uncle have since moved in with other Martin family members to “try to regroup and put their lives back together,” Martin said.

Here in Columbia, some 1,400 miles from Caguas, Martin has helped the best he can. He and his wife, Lee, flew relatives to New York to “get them off the island for as long as they need to be.” The couple also participated in a local donation drive.

“Tons of people showed up on a Saturday afternoon and were really, really generous and really came from a great place and donated money and clothes and canned foods,” Martin said. “It was tremendous to see the amount of people that attended and how much they really, really cared.”

Sunday represents a further step in this area’s commitment to storm victims. Tickets for the Gamecocks-Hokies matchup are $10, with all proceeds going toward hurricane relief efforts in Texas, South Florida and Puerto Rico.

The game was developed through conversations between USC coach Frank Martin (no relation) and Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams.

“I wasn’t involved in any of the discussions to do it or not do it,” Chuck Martin said. “But obviously when you’re going through something like this and it affects you and our immediate family, there’s a sense of helplessness. You want to help, right? You don’t know how to do it, it’s such a devastating natural disaster, you just don’t know how to go about helping anyone.

“And when Frank and Buzz came together and the news came out, I thought it was tremendous because there’s a big need for financial help and donations and awareness, bringing awareness to the island.

“I though it was tremendous.”

Che was grateful.

“Obviously for me,” Martin said, “it meant a lot.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Puerto Rico native, USC coach felt impact of Hurricane Maria."