‘The first recruit I got in the Northeast.’ How Frank Martin courted his wife
It was well past 10 p.m. and one Mullins Center staffer was eager to clear the arena. “All right, folks,” he said to three groups of people scattered beyond the baseline of UMass’ home court, ”just a few more minutes.”
The game was long over, but fans were still milling about, hugging players and taking photos with the coach. It was like the final scene to a floor-storming but if the rowdy college students were replaced by smiling parents — and if the celebration was for the visiting team.
Some 880 miles from Colonial Life Arena, South Carolina was greeted by plenty of familiar faces following its 84-80 over UMass on Dec. 4. This is what happens when your roster has representation from New York (Jair Bolden), New Jersey (Justin Minaya, Alanzo Frink) and Massachusetts (Wildens Leveque) and you schedule a game close to home.
USC coach Frank Martin is from Miami, but he, too, was feeling the local love in a building covered in snow on the outside. This region of the country is where he landed his first college job and where he continues to mine for players. It’s been good to him so far. Chris Silva was courted out of Roselle Catholic High School in Jersey before starring for the Gamecocks. Rakym Felder came out of Brooklyn to assist Carolina’s Final Four run. Michael Beasley and Rodney McGruder, two of Martin’s best at Kansas State, were Washington, D.C., products.
But you never forget the one who got it all started. That’s the person Martin held tightest.
Anya Forrest, the five-star from Queens.
“She’s the first recruit I got in the Northeast,” Martin said.
Unofficial visit to PF Chang’s
Over a foot of snow was dumped on Amherst during the first week of December. The roads were plowed, but the UMass track, down the street from the Mullins Center, was blanketed and not visible.
On warmer days Anya Forrest would run here. The New Yorker was recruited to UMass in the 1990s and excelled as a hurdles and relay specialist. She had a decorated career that included two school records and an Atlantic 10 conference title in the indoor 55 meter hurdles event.
A teammate of hers convinced Forrest to move a couple hours east to Boston after graduation. It’s there where she received her master’s degree and became assistant director of financial aid for athletics at Northeastern University.
Good work earned Forrest rewards from the various coaching staffs — gift cards, lunches, etc. But one men’s basketball assistant took it to the next level.
Unbeknownst to Forrest.
“We went out,” Forrest said, “but it was one of those feelings of, ‘So, it’s not the entire staff, actually just you.’ So I began to feel it was a date. This whole time I thought it was just a staff appreciation thing because I had never been out with any of the other coaches or sports teams without the entire staff. So I thought this is what it was.”
Frank Martin’s first date with his future wife was at a PF Chang’s. He wore a black leather coat over a black sweater and had on blue jeans with a crease down the middle. A mini basketball hung from the chain around his neck. His hair was slicked back.
Anya still remembers the details.
“You got to picture Frank when he used to walk around campus,” she told The State. “He had this thing about washing clothes and leaving them in the washer for a few days and deciding, ‘OK, well, I’ll put them in the dryer.’ And you put them in the dryer and you leave the clothes in the dryer for a couple days and then he would just throw them on.
“So he was always wrinkly. We’re talking about stuff that shouldn’t be wrinkled, like basketball shorts and T-shirts.
“But that day he was probably the finest dressed man I’ve ever seen. There were no wrinkles. He smelled fantastic.”
This was February 2004, Martin’s fourth season on the Northeastern staff. That was apparently long enough to get recognized in a local chain restaurant.
Anya learned this the hard way.
The two were seated in a booth and when three female Northeastern students were placed next to them. Noticing who was nearby, the girls started whispering and giggling with one another.
That’s Coach Martin.
“I was pretty pissed,” Anya said.
Rage only grew when the girls wanted a photo with Martin — and asked Anya to take it.
“And I said, ‘No, I don’t take pictures.’”
Not of these girls and her new man, at least.
“I knew I really liked him because it bothered me,” Anya said.
Martin had earned a second date.
Warming up
Anya is a self-proclaimed “football girl at heart,” but now had reason to get into a new sport.
The first Northeastern basketball game Martin wanted her to attend, she missed. She arrived 10 to 15 minutes before tip-off against Boston University and the gym was already at capacity.
A persistent Martin gave her another try. The Huskies were hosting Vermont and Anya took no chances. She got there early had a clear view of Martin — and his perspiration.
“I just remember him wiping his forehead a lot,” Anya said, “and I was like, ‘Oh my God, he cannot be sweating that much.’”
Because of the game? No, Martin told her. It was because “he knew I was watching him and couldn’t see me,” Anya said. “He was just trying to figure out a way to get the sweat off and grab a towel.”
A fiery coach, but a hopeless romantic. Anya was seeing two sides to Frank Martin.
A commitment was nearing.
Commitment No. 1
Like any prospect, Anya studied film of what the future could look like. VHS tapes of Martin’s days as a high school head coach in Miami gave her a glimpse of what he might be as a head coach in college.
“That was intense,” she said. “I was just like, ‘Oh my goodness.’”
But behind the barking and intimidating stare-downs was a man driven for success. Anya knew this. He left Northeastern for an assistant job at Cincinnati before the 2004-05 season.
“I remember the day he left,” Anya said, “and I remember I was sitting down talking and I said, ‘Oh, they got planes.’
“At this time it had only been a few months (of dating) and I didn’t want him to feel like I was holding him back. It had been a dream of his. And I said, ‘Look, you got to make this decision not based on me, but based on what you think is going to be good for you long-term.’”
Martin chose both. He proposed in early January 2005 and Anya Forrest became Anya Martin that April.
The wedding was in Boston. Their lives have taken them to Ohio to Kansas to South Carolina. It’s an established program now with three kids.
Anya Martin wore garnet and back to the Dec. 4 game, colors for the Gamecocks, sure, but perhaps too for UMass, her alma mater and the place that led her to her husband.
Frank Martin’s first commitment in the Northeast.
“He always tells people I’m the best recruiting job he’s ever done,” Anya said.
