French Settlement's Dannah Martin, seated center, signed to play basketball at LSU-Alexandria on Friday. Seated from left are, LSU-A coach Bob Austin, Dannah Martin and LSU-A assistant coach Chris Johnson. Standing are Dannah Martin's mother, Teleah and her father and FSHS girls basketball coach Daniel Martin.
FRENCH SETTLEMENT – The fact that French Settlement’s Dannah Martin signed to play basketball at LSU-Alexandria isn’t that big of a surprise.
Not when one considers it's the culmination of an association between Martin and the school that began by chance when she was in the seventh grade.
“This is pretty much where I’ve wanted to be since seventh grade, and I don’t think I ever really wavered on that a whole lot,” Martin said after signing with LSU-A on Friday in a ceremony in the FSHS library. “Even looking elsewhere, this was always, I think, where I was meant to be.”
Martin’s journey to signing with LSU-Alexandria began when Daniel Martin, her father and the FSHS girls basketball coach, was looking for a place for the team to practice in preparation for a playoff game at Red River. He eventually got in touch with Bob Austin, who was busy getting the LSU-A program off the ground and offered his facilities for the Lady Lions.
“I had to go get some nets and hang them up on the rims to make it look like we had something going,” Austin recalled. “We didn’t have any bleachers. It was the start of the program.”
In watching the Lady Lions practice, Austin said Dannah Martin caught the attention of his team’s coaches, and said he knew he’d have to follow her progress through high school.
It’s a trip Daniel Martin remembers well.
“I’ll be honest with you, when we went that day, I knew that Dannah was going to be that type of player that could potentially play at the next level,” Daniel Martin said. “I can remember thinking … Dannah might come over her for this practice and might get recognized at a practice even then, and that’s what happened. It was always a dream, but we knew it was something that could possibly come true for her. It’s a blessing.”
“Honestly, she hasn’t really budged on this for a long time,” Daniel Martin continued. “Even when bigger schools would talk to her, it was still LSU-A. She fell in love with it. I think the fact that they connected with her early in the recruiting process and she really just got to know them well. I think all that played a part.”
Fast forward a few years, and Dannah Martin was a first-team All-District 10-2A selection and second-team All-Parish choice as a junior, and Austin couldn’t be more happy to have her signed.
“In our state, where we are, it’s a tough sell because we’ve got 11-12 D-I schools, so everyone’s dream is ‘I’m going D-I’. We feel like we stole one here,” he said. “We snuck one away from one of those schools. I can’t say enough about her and what she’s going to bring to the program.”
During the recruiting process, Dannah Martin said there were a few things that sold her on LSU-Alexandria, which is a four-year NAIA school.
“With LSU-A, it just had that atmosphere – the same atmosphere that my dad creates in practice,” Dannah Martin said. “Going to their camp, playing pick-up with them, everything was high energy, competitive. People were ready to compete, but it also wasn’t going to be overly harsh or anything like that. It was just playing the game, competing, trying to win, doing what you had to do to win. I like that, and that’s definitely something I looked for.
“I also think that their team is a close unit, and that they definitely recruit and try to go for players that have good attitudes and are willing to go in and play the game and not worry about anything else except for their team and playing. I definitely think that that played a huge part in it, and definitely Coach Bob and (assistant) Coach Chris (Johnson) just being so open to everything and just walking with me, taking the steps with me kind of thing.”
The kicker may have come over the summer, when Dannah Martin suffered a shoulder injury. Daniel Martin said the team’s coaches called to let her know her scholarship offer stood, regardless of the severity of the injury, which is now healed.
“That spoke volumes to Dannah,” Daniel Martin. “The loyalty, I think that was a big thing to Dannah, too – just seeing that loyalty.”
Daniel Martin also said his daughter’s choice of schools is a good landing spot -- as a coach and a father.
“From a coaching standpoint, looking at what they do, I think it’s a perfect fit for her,” Daniel Martin said. “They like to spread the floor. They’ve got a guard that can really break things down and kick the ball. They have potentially two of the best shooters I’ve seen on each side of the floor now, so from a coaching standpoint, it’s a perfect fit.
“From a dad standpoint, just knowing the area, knowing the school, knowing the coaches and talking to different people about the program, I think it’s a great fit for her, and I think she’s going to love the experience there. I’m proud of her. I’m proud of the commitment she’s made to her faith most importantly, and to school to put herself in this position. I’ve never seen a kid that put the hours in that she puts in, so to see that, I think that’s where it’s at.”
Austin said he’s looking for Dannah Martin to make an immediate impact with the program.
“The folks that we’re trying to bring in, we want to help immediately,” Austin said. “She came in and played pick-up with the girls, and even though she’s still got another year of high school to go, there wasn’t any difference between what we were doing – she can shoot it from everywhere, which I guess every coach is looking for something like that. Her being a coach’s kid, she kind of understands the game a little bit better and kind of knows the ins-and-outs of that stuff.”
Dannah Martin said she’s ready for the challenge.
“Obviously I understand that going in that nothing’s going to be just given,” she said. “Everything’s going to be earned. Definitely in talking to my dad about my decision and talking to my mom (Teleah), we looked at all the pros and cons of each school and everything that we came out with, LSU-A had the most pros. (Part of) talking about it was competition level. Going in, I want to have to work hard, and I think that having that motivation to work hard will just push me two steps further and really help me to improve on the things that I’m weaker on now, I’ll be stronger on then so that I can step in and play the role that they need me to play.”
In the meantime, she’s ready to focus on her senior season with the signing behind her.
“There’s definitely a weight lifted having all this done, being able to go into my season and play and not worry about anything else,” Dannah Martin said. “I think that going in, we definitely have a complete team this year. We have all of our positions filled. We’re an older team. We’re ready to go out. We’re not young. We don’t have anybody who’s just kind of stepping into the roles. We have a good bench, so going in, I think that we’re going in strong. I promised my daddy a state championship whenever I think I was in kindergarten, so this year, we’re going for a state championship.”
