When word reached me that the Natchez school district would be firing Mike Martin as head boys’ basketball coach (let’s call it like it is), it made my temper flare. Then I felt my heart break.

It broke some for the hundreds of players he transformed. While very successful at NHS, his finest coaching probably came at South Natchez, where he fielded squads at a small football- and baseball-centric 5A school with a large majority of girls.

Coach Martin’s players knew they could count on him for whatever they needed, and they wanted to prove the same in return to him.  The results? Those Colonel players won much more frequently than they should’ve and were always tough as nails.  Many of them are successful today mainly because of him.

My heart broke some for thousands of students he influenced.

Coach Martin didn’t just coach on the court. He coached in the classroom. He coached in the lunchroom. He coached on the sidewalks in between classes. He coached everywhere he saw you with a gentle firmness that was the perfect blend of love, assertion, and the desire to make students better.

My heart broke some for me.

Although I covered his teams as a reporter for The Echoes school newspaper, I didn’t get the chance to be a part of his program on a daily basis, but the plaque he gave me recognizing my efforts hangs in my office today. Seeing that plaque makes me realize how much more he could’ve guided and influenced me when I was a boy, particularly now that I realize how helpful it would be in adulthood.

My heart broke some for Coach.

To my knowledge, nobody in the entire history of the Natchez school district’s athletics did more with less, conducted himself with more class, or was a better ambassador, yet he probably received less recognition for it than anyone.  He labored tirelessly, spending far more time doing laundry, sweeping and varnishing the gym floor, and chauffeuring kids than coaching practice or calling game-winning plays. But some of that was by design.

He deflected credit to his staff and players, and he actively shunned media publicity that could’ve taken him to greener pastures in the coaching world. That’s the way he wanted it.

All Coach Martin wanted was his classroom and his court. I’ll always remember his counsel to me a few years back when I was contemplating a particular position in the education field. “When I get up each morning, I know I’m going to have my time in my space with my students in my classroom and on my court,” he said.  “And I know I’m going to be able to shut out everything and everybody else to make good things happen in my space.”

I hung up the phone in tears, moved by his passion and wisdom, determined to follow his advice. My heart broke some for Natchez. Actually, it broke a lot for Natchez, because Coach Martin will no longer have the space he once occupied in a school district and a city that sorely need his help.  And that basketball court space he occupied for so long should now forever be “Mike Martin Court.” Each day that passes without his name permanently affixed to it is a travesty.

Ben Goss is a Natchez native and an associate professor and director of the sport business program at Stetson University.