Noles stay positive, looking forward after abrupt end

Mike Martin Jr. has spent 23 years as a baseball coach at his alma mater, including the last nine months as the Seminoles’ head coach.

In all that time, he’d never experienced anything quite like he did late last week, when he walked into the Florida State clubhouse and told his team that they likely wouldn’t be playing again this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Martin Jr. was far from alone. Every corner of organized sports around the world has canceled or postponed its scheduled events.

But that didn’t make the news any easier to take for the Seminoles, who were just 17 games into their campaign, and who just days before had celebrated a victory at rival Florida.

“It was the most difficult (challenge) in my time, in all my years,” Martin Jr. said via teleconference. “Because the guys thought that was it. Some guys were bawling their eyes out in the clubhouse, because they thought they weren’t going to put the uniform on again.”

That fear has since been relieved. The NCAA announced it would implement measures allowing student-athletes from spring sports to maintain a year of eligibility.

Mike Martin Jr. had taken his FSU baseball team through its first 17 games before the season ended abruptly.
Photo special to the Outlook

Martin is anxious to, as he puts it, “put the band back together,” as soon as possible.

But he also can’t help but be disappointed in the way his first season at the helm came to a halt.

FSU holds a 12-5 record, a No. 13 national ranking and recently dealt top-ranked UF its first defeat of the season.

More than that, though, as the Seminoles rounded the quarter-pole of their season, Martin felt like his team was beginning to round into form and was excited to see where the next few weeks and months would lead.

“We were definitely playing better,” Martin said. “It is a shame, because some guys were starting to turn a corner and gain some confidence.”

Martin said that Florida State’s coaches are all part of a big text message group, and that they’ll often share information and ideas for how to be productive while things are otherwise at a standstill.

And there’s plenty of encouragement and good vibes, particularly for the teams whose seasons were either canceled or cut short.

It’s such a weird time,” Martin said.

Even with no games or practices, they’re all keeping busy.

Martin shared that the team’s strength coach, Jamie Burleson, devised a regimen of body-weight workouts for the players, so that they could maintain their fitness while gyms were closed.

Like everyone else, the Seminoles are looking forward to the day that it’s over.

“The fact that things are so uncertain, yeah they’re nervous,” Martin said about his team. “At the same time, they enjoy each other’s company.

“It’s a sad, nervous feeling. I think that’s kind of the way most everybody is. Any time there’s uncertainty, it makes you uncomfortable. Hopefully we can get this thing under control and get back to rolling.”