Medina County Sports Hall of Fame: Sherry Martin succeeded on court and sand, but found calling coaching volleyball

There isn't much 1983 Medina High graduate Sherry (Gifford) Martin hasn't seen or done when it comes to girls and women's sports. More impressive, especially now that she's a vibrant and fit 60-year-old grandmother, is that the incredibly competitive and dedicated Martin is not only still coaching national level Junior Olympic volleyball, but also remains a highly skilled player on the sand. Toss in earning 10 varsity letters at Medina — two in basketball, four each in volleyball and track and field — and five more at Malone University — four in volleyball and one as a discus thrower — and it's easy to see why Martin will be inducted into the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame during June 20 ceremonies at The Galaxy Conference Center in Wadsworth. "I'm a super competitive person," said Martin, who also coached varsity volleyball at three area high schools, including Medina from 1999-2003 when her married name was O'Callaghan. "Ask anybody in my family and they'll tell you: I'm ruthless at playing games." Brothers Russ and Ryan, husband Jason and children Eric, Erin and Ryan will certainly vouch for that, but so far 4-month-old grandson Drake, Ryan's son, has been spared. That will change, predict Martin's former and current players, many of whom affectionally call her "Sher Bear." "She's very good at being personable with us, but also at meaning business," said setter Kaitlyn Pojman, who is finishing her junior year at Avon and plays on Martin's 18U Cleveland Volleyball Club team, which will travel to Dallas in late June to compete in the JO national championships. "She doesn't put up with crap and she doesn't want excuses. She wants us to do what she says, because every time we run a play she draws up, we get the point. "She's been involved in every aspect of the game as a player and coach. She can help us with the recruiting business and she knows what it's like to be busy in school. She can take everything and help us grow because she has been in our shoes. She has more than 40 years of volleyball knowledge, so I know what she says is true." Just 14 years old when she stepped on the varsity volleyball court in 1979 as a Medina freshman — the Bees went 0-16 that season but were 17-7 and Southwestern Conference champions two years later — Martin's experience is vast and lengthy. She shows no signs of slowing down, but family and job demands — she does a ton of traveling as a technology strategist for Ernst & Young — have led to thoughts about how much longer she will coach and compete. Right now, though, with complete trust in CVC assistant coaches and former players Katie Stansbury and Mandy Leigh to run practice when work takes her out of the country or across it — she has traveled from London and Atlanta straight to tournaments — Martin's competitive juices and love for the game always give her an adrenaline boost when she walks onto the court. "It's incredibly exhausting, but I have two great assistants that I could not do this job without," she said. "I'm going from a highly intense focus at work to a totally different kind of intense focus at volleyball, but it's worth it to me. I'm all in." EARLY DAYS Gifford at the time, Martin and high school teammates like Shelly Miller, Karen (Easterday) Peters, Paula (Piskach) Midlik, Mary Miller and Nancy Mizerik grew up in an era when girls high school sports — Title IX became law in 1972 — were just beginning to take off. Out-of-season opportunities like AAU basketball and JO volleyball weren't anywhere near what they are today, but innovative and driven players managed to make do. Sometimes that meant going to Reagan Park and playing pickup basketball with and against guys like Jay Peters and Brian Stadnik, who under legendary coach Al Darner led Medina to the 1983 Class AAA state semifinals. Other times, it meant piling in a car and traveling to play outdoor volleyball against girls from another school or attending a summer camp instead of hanging out at the pool. "The opportunity exists for high-level play outside of high school way more today than it did in my day," said the 5-foot-8 Martin, an outside hitter in volleyball and guard in basketball. "Across the board, coaching is stronger and at a higher level today. We had to fight our way a bit to play and get recognized as athletes, to show we weren't just girls playing sports. We were athletes, and we took it very seriously. "At the same time, we took more ownership of our athletic journey. I always tell my girls, 'You don't need me to play volleyball.' Shelly Miller and I used to play basketball with the guys at Reagan Park, but we also didn't have as many distractions as there are today. I played all kinds of sports any time I got the opportunity." Martin was gifted enough that she could have played tennis and softball at Medina — the latter wasn't a varsity sport until her junior year — but she chose to concentrate on volleyball, which became her first love, basketball and track. Though the 6-2 Miller, who went on to play a year of volleyball at Penn State and three years of basketball at Kentucky, grabbed a lot of the headlines, the feisty Martin was every bit as important to the Bees' success. "Anything I accomplished in volleyball, I'd have to give a ton of credit to her," said Miller, who was a year ahead of Martin in school. "If she wasn't there, I wouldn't have been able to do half the things I did. She was a great player. She could hit and she was great in the back (row). She was the jell of our team." As a junior in the fall of 1981, Martin set Medina season records for hitting percentage (91), serves (337), aces (110), points (222) and passing percentage (92) while also breaking a number of match records as the Bees won the SWC title. She was first-team all-county twice in that sport and track, where she primarily competed in the 400 and 800 meters, and an honorable mention selection in basketball. In the latter, Medina reached the 1982 Class AAA regional final before falling to Hubbard. The Bees finished 15-4 in Martin's freshman year, followed by 17-4 (13-1 in the SWC), 21-3 (14-0) and 8-13 (6-8) her next three seasons. "She had good court sense and was always very aware in any of her sports," Miller said. "She just had a good mind for it. I'm competitive and loud and a bit of a prima donna. Sherry is super competitive, but she's always in control of her emotions. If I could change who I was as a player, I would be her. She was always a calming influence." Those attributes, Miller realized even as a teenager, were going to make Martin a great coach. "Sherry has that ability to mentor people and get their respect," she said. "Kids play hard for her. Building strong women is a huge part of who she is. She even did that for me. She commands respect. That's a huge skill set, and not everybody has it. She definitely does." COLLEGE YEARS A National Honor Society member at Medina, Martin had the opportunity to play volleyball at bigger schools but chose Malone, which at the time was an NAIA member but routinely held its own against the likes of Akron and Kent State. After five years there — she redshirted in 1983-84 — Martin had successfully completed a double major in computer science and mathematics. She also enjoyed a lot of success playing for the Pioneers, who were ranked as high as fifth in the nation in the fall of 1984. What she liked most, though, was playing with and against other dedicated, competitive and talented players who took the sport as seriously as she did. "In high school I played on some very good teams, but you still had some people that weren't there for the competitive nature," she said. "The one thing I liked the most about college is the level of competition went way up. That was super appealing to me." An all-district, all-conference and two-time Academic All-American for the Pioneers, Martin was a three-year starter, team captain and Malone's most reliable server. Her competitive nature and athletic ability became apparent to Malone coaches in other sports, as she was offered the chance to play basketball and tennis, which she considered before declining. Martin was planning to run track for the Pioneers as a redshirt senior in the spring of 1988, but a sprained ankle prevented her from getting in the proper training. Undeterred by the fact she was going to be 50 to 100 pounds lighter than some competitors, she decided to throw the discus for the first time in her life. "I just decided to pick that up," she said with a laugh. "With my sprained ankle I wasn't going to be able to keep up with my fitness, but I still could tape it up and throw." Other than when she had her children, Martin has never really stopped playing volleyball. Indoors, she competed in multiple USA Volleyball Open Division tournaments, winning a number of them in the Ohio Valley Region and finishing eighth in the "A" division of the USAV Indoor National Championships in 1999. Martin still plays two-women beach volleyball — her primary partners have been Stansbury, Medina resident Kathy Harris and Dayna Roberts, who won a state championship at Olmsted Falls High — and often holds her own or beats players less than half her age. "I've been playing for more than 40 years," said Martin, who credits cross-training for her longevity and ability to avoid injuries. "I just love competing and still being able to play. Am as I as good as I was in my 30s and 40s? I can't jump 30-some inches anymore, but beach volleyball has a lot more strategy to it. You've got more court to cover and so much more endurance is involved. You have to be so much better at reading what other players are going to do. "Over the years I've played, there's no better moment than when you've played 12 matches in 90-degree weather and it comes down to who has the most resiliency and grit. It's a battle of wills at that point. That's what I really love." JUNIOR OLYMPICS When Martin was playing high school and college volleyball, many of her teammates and opponents already knew she'd make a good coach. Now that she's coaching, the teenagers listening to her instructions can just as easily see she was once a very good player. Stansbury, a 2015 Padua High grad who played on Martin's CVC 18U Black team that finished second in the nation in the Open Division and is now in her third season as one of her assistant coaches, has had the opportunity to see what makes her tick — and what makes her successful — from two perspectives. "What makes Sherry such a great coach is she's very good at getting to the kids' levels," said the 27-year-old Stansbury, who went on to play college volleyball at Colgate and now works as a data analyst for American Greetings. "She treats them with respect and as an adult, but she'll get on them if she has to. She gets them to understand the reasoning of what we're trying to do rather than just screaming at them." Prior to committing heavily to JO Volleyball, Martin had stints as the varsity head coach at Bay, Medina and Trinity high schools. She was in charge of the Bees from 1999-2003 and compiled a 43-73 record over five seasons. In those years, Martin didn't have enough hours in the day to accomplish all she wanted and needed to do, but she was fortunate to coach against CVC founder Dana Artman when Artman was in charge at Fairview and Martin was at Bay. Long story short, when Martin was looking for a way to stay involved in high-level volleyball but needed more scheduling freedom than the high school game afforded, Artman offered her a coaching job with CVC in 2001. "I was coaching against her and I could see she was a quality coach," Artman said. "She was very polished and I thought she'd be a perfect fit for our club." Martin was and still is. "She's coached for so many years at so many levels, plus her experiences as a player," said Artman, who graduated from Fairview in 1983, the same year an 18-year-old Sherry Gifford finished at Medina. "When you've done both, you have different insights into the game. "Her communication skills are outstanding. She's able to relate and understand, and she holds her players to a high standard and maintains that standard. Sports and kids have changed over the years, but she's adjusted. She listens and is really able to bring every player to her potential. She's a pillar of CVC." Martin's accomplishments at CVC are eye-popping. More impressive is that when she began compiling them, she was one of the few female head coaches at the upper levels of JO volleyball. "It's still a very male-dominated coaching industry, but going from being a player to coaching with Sherry, she goes into situations with respect and dignity," Stansbury said. "She holds her ground and she's confident. That shows our girls it doesn't matter what field you go into, you have to have confidence. You have to show up and do the job. It really empowers all our girls. I still go to her for a lot of advice to this day." Despite rarely having the tallest athletes, 21 of Martin's JO teams have qualified for nationals, either in the Open (highest) or National divisions. Her 17U Black team, which included Medina hitter Emily Witsaman, won the National championship in 2009, while the 2015 18U team that featured Stansbury was second in the nation in the Open Division. In Martin's 25 years, her CVC teams have consistently won 70% of their matches, with the 2015 group going 67-7. "Sherry understands all aspects of the game," Stansbury said. "When you're a player, you understand your perspective and your position. She does a really good job communicating a player's role and why that role is important. I've learned from Sherry that it's not about comparing yourself to other players, but realizing what you bring to the team. It's worked for years, and I love that I have that perspective now." Martin has done all this, it should be noted, without doing much screaming and yelling. When her team is struggling and she calls a timeout, she already has a logical and practical solution to its problems. "She's very calm and collected," said Pojman, her current setter. "Sherry keeps herself together. She knows when it's time to tell us we're doing bad, but she never says it in a negative way." A more emotional coach when she was younger, Martin now finds it much more productive — and rewarding — when her players can think their way through a tough situation, because that ability will extend well beyond their playing days. "I tend to ask a lot of questions to my players: Why did you make the decision you made?" Martin said. "I need to understand what you saw so I can make it better. I also talk to kids a lot about having a passion for the game. Sometimes one of them will say, 'This coach made me hate the game.' That's bull (crap). The one thing you can't take away from me is how much I love this game. "You can't just love the game when it's good to you. You have to love all the moments. Yeah, there are moments when you might want to quit, but playing through the bad moments is when you find the true beauty of it." With a husband, Jason, who is the head golf pro at Medina Country Club, Martin knows she is fortunate to have someone who not only understands her love of volleyball, but gets her desire to pass that love along to her players, to show them it doesn't have to end when they finish college. "One of the things I take pride in is you can be a wife and a mother and work and still coach," Martin said. "It's hard, but it can be done." Her players, some of them now her assistant coaches, have seen it firsthand. "She is constantly flying directly to a tournament," Stansbury said. "When we were in Chicago, she flew there from an Atlanta work trip. She goes through a whole lot of travel. Sometimes she's not home for two or three weeks at a time. I definitely look up to her, because I don't know how she does it." Martin does it not only because she loves the sport, but to show female athletes it can be done. "That's one of the big reasons I keep doing this," she said of empowering her athletes. "I work in a competitive corporate environment, and we look for female athletes because a lot of times they are leaders. They understand the importance of a high-performing team and working toward a goal. One of the things I tell my girls is you don't have to be best friends, but you need to be best friends when you're on the court. "There are so many parallels between work and sports and dealing with anything that comes your way. I've had so many players come back years later and thank me. You're always going to have detractors. That comes with the territory. To have those kids come back as adults and say, 'You really helped me in life,' that's why I still do this." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.