jack915

SoCalHoops High School News

Find Waldo: Where's
Jack Martinez? --(Sept 15, 1998)

Our friend and correspondent, Jason Day, was curious this past weekend concerning the whereabouts of Artesia's Jack Martinez (6'-7" So. PF), who seemed to be AWOL at the 1998 dada Long Beach Fall Hoops Classic. He wasn't the only one, and several college coaches, including Silvey Dominguez asked us if we knew anything about him, like "where is he."

We looked around, and while we thought we saw him, it was obviously an optical illusion. So we went to the mountain, and here it is, straight from Wayne Merino's mouth: "Jack hurt his back this summer, and went back to South America. I expect to see him back at school next week, and hopefully he'll have had a chance to recover and get well."

Wayne also told us that he's got a completely different philosophy than many schools, who like to run year-round programs.: "We take the entire month of August off. I don't want the kids playing in any tournaments, and of course, while they're free to do whatever they want, they're still kids, and they need time to decompress from the summer tournaments and all the action. And of course, we also don't play during the fall either. That's the reason that we, as a team, don't do anything besides the usual fall conditioning until the season starts and we're allowed to practice and play. These guys need some time off, and I want to see that they get it."

We'll be looking to see if Jack is back this weekend, either at the Pump Shootout, or at Dart Stamps Southern Pacific Shootout at the Los Angeles Southwest College, both of which occur on September 19-20, Saturday and Sunday. But then QBL isn't on the lists to play at either event, so the mystery may still be unsolved.