Field Goals
Women’s Soccer Player Sarah Martinez Succeeds On and
Off the Field
Sophomore Sarah Martinez can’t think of a time when
she didn’t play soccer. “My mother played, and
my sister played, and I was in youth leagues as far back as
I can remember,” says the Falcon forward. “I’ve
always loved soccer. I ran track one year in high school,
but I don’t really like running unless there is somewhere
to run to.”
Soccer players, of course, rarely run in a straight line
for long. The sport requires sudden
changes of direction. And knowing that people find meaning
in sports as a metaphor for life, one shouldn’t be too
surprised to learn that Martinez has negotiated a few twists
and turns in her 19 years. But, in life as on the field, she
appears to be staying with the ball.
Her first turning point came at age 10, when she joined a
stalwart ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ
family. Martinez’s mother married Byron Nutley ’87
— son of the late Hugh Nutley,
who taught physics and electrical engineering
at Seattle Pacific for more than 31 years. With the marriage
came a move from Riverside, California,
to the Seattle area.
Meanwhile, Martinez’s soccer skills kept developing,
first at Redmond High School and later at Cedar Park Christian
High School in Bothell. As a senior, she was named Class 1A/B
player of the year while leading the Eagles to their third
consecutive state championship.
If Cedar Park was a small pond, Martinez was a big fish,
and several Division I colleges came calling. Her initial
choice was to follow her sister Nicole to the University of
Washington. But then UW Assistant Coach Chuck Sekyra ’89
took the head coach position
at Seattle Pacific, and all of a sudden things fell into place
for Martinez.
“I had heard really good things about him,” she
says. “And my step-dad and grandpa were really
positive about SPU.”
She’s confident that she made the right choice. “The
Christian atmosphere at SPU is becoming more important to
me as I go along,” explains Martinez, who’s majoring
in business with a minor in psychology. “It’s
nice to always have Christianity as your basis for learning
and your basis for playing.”
There have been other turns in the road for Martinez. In
her senior year at Cedar Park, her parents moved to Singapore
and her brother was deployed to Iraq, leaving her with relatives
while she finished high school. It was a transforming experience.
“Before then I had kind of slacked off with my grades,”
she says. “But suddenly I was alone, and I decided it
was time to grow up.” She refocused her attention
on academics and is now earning some of the best grades of
her life at SPU.
On the field, Martinez leads the Great Northwest Athletic
Conference in goals, total points, and game-winning goals.
That’s a dramatic
improvement over last year, when she had to take time off
to recover from a partially torn medial collateral ligament.
“I came back rusty midway through the season,”
she says. “I would lose the ball and put my head down,
and Chuck had to remind me not to give up. Now if I lose a
ball, I’m the first person to turn around, sprint back,
and try to find it.”
Martinez also praises her coach as a strategist;
she says he’s helped the team come from behind in several
games this season by
changing formations and match-ups. But for Sekyra, coaching
is primarily about motivation.
“I encourage my players to grow academically
and spiritually,” he says. “To get them believing
in themselves and feeling great
about themselves is a huge goal of mine by the time they leave
here.”
His strategy is working. The Falcon women’s
basketball team may have snagged more headlines with its 89-5
tally over the past
three years, but Sekyra and his players have built a record
every bit as impressive. Since September 28, 2002, Seattle
Pacific women’s soccer has reeled off 57 regular-season
games without a loss. Currently the NCAA Divi-sion II team
is No. 1 in the region and No. 2 in
the nation.
About the only thing they haven’t done since the program
was inaugurated five years ago is win a national tournament,
but that just gives them something to shoot for. “In
five years,” says Sekyra, “I want to see the team
where it is right now, except maybe the women will have a
couple of championship rings.”
With skilled players such as Martinez, the prediction seems
likely. “Sarah’s become a real leader on this
team,” adds Sekyra. “She understands
the gifts the Lord has given her, and she’s using them
— on and off the field.”
— BY Martin Stillion
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