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Cuonzo on coaching his kids

Posted on: June 18, 2018 at 10:17:57 CT
FIJItiger MU
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https://missouri.rivals.com/news/from-the-sidelines-to-the-stands

Cuonzo and Roberta Martin are the parents of Joshua, a 20-year-old junior-to-be at Purdue, Chase, a 17-year-old junior-to-be at Father Tolton High School, and 10-year-old Addison.

Chase Martin is a 6-foot-2 guard for the Tolton Trailblazers. Addison runs track and does gymnastics.

“Josh was four years old,” Martin recalled. “We were out playing one-on-one, three or four years old, we had a small goal where you put the sand in it. We were keeping score, just kind of playing around. I don’t know if I was winning or he was winning, but he said, ‘I don’t want to keep score anymore.’ And that was it. He never played again.”

Josh joined the swim team—Martin said he and his wife had all their kids learn to swim for safety reasons—and did tae kwon do for ten years. But he was not destined to follow his father’s path to a career in sports.

“We always said in our house, try to do two sports,” Martin said. “It doesn’t matter what it is, just activity. Not necessarily trying to win, just be active.”

Martin’s middle child was the one who would gravitate to his dad’s game. Cuonzo said that Chase has begun to get serious about basketball in recent years and has goals of playing beyond high school. But it wasn’t at his father’s insistence.

“For me, I just try to be dad at home. I think I got penalized some for that from my wife. Not in a bad way, just because I tried not to do any coaching at home,” Martin said. “Chase was lagging in the areas of basketball. My wife said, I’ll never forget one time, ‘You’re the coach of a team, your son is not talented,’ more or less. I had to respect that. So I guess I was at the extreme of not trying to be a part of it from that point. Then I had to get in there.”

Chase now frequently leaves the house before his dad in the morning. He will work out with Mizzou director of basketball operations Marco Harris at 5:30 or 6 a.m., something he set up on his own this year when he found he didn't have enough time for workouts after school.

"I didn’t get super serious about it until I was in 7th or 8th grade. I’ve always played but I wouldn’t say I got super serious like wanting to play basketball for a long time until then," Chase Martin said. "He tells me things I need to work on. I just go to him because I know he’s played on the pro level and on the college level."

Addison’s athletic career is just beginning. Martin said she recently took part in Girls on the Run, a Columbia program designed to keep young girls active and healthy.

“She did a really good job in that,” Martin said. “That could be her path. It seems like if I like it, she doesn’t like it. So I try not to like it.

“In gymnastics, she’s won a lot of meets. She's very competitive. She wants to know what’s somebody else’s score, how is she doing? She’s trying to win. She's not asking for my input.”

Not that she’d get much if she did.

“I don’t know anything about no gymnastics,” Martin said.

“Just put forth your best effort,” Martin said. “And if that’s your best, then it’s all good. I can’t watch if you’re not putting forth an effort. If you’re not putting forth an effort, then why are we doing this? You’re wasting somebody else’s time. Somebody’s coaching you, you’re wasting their time.”

Martin will send Chase texts. Things like “run the floor,” “rebound with two hands,” “put forth your best effort.” He does not emphasize winning and losing.

"He tells me what he sees on the floor," Chase said. "There's guidance there, but I wouldn't say it's tough guidance. He just makes sure I'm as good as I can be."

“I don’t say a word,” Martin said of his attendance at Tolton games. “I normally try to get to the door, just sit somewhere where I just watch. To be totally honest, I’m not necessarily watching. I’m okay whatever the outcome is. If he’s good, he’s good, if he’s not, it doesn’t change for me."

"He's pretty quiet," Chase agrees.

“I get in and I get out," Martin said. "When I go to the game I’m going to the game to support my son and his team. People want autographs, that’s all fine. Then I get into the car and go home. I'm not there grandstanding or anything like that. I find my place and sometimes I’m just in the corner watching.”

“I’ve never said anything to any of their coaches and sometimes I don’t even know their name,” Martin said. “And I say that respectfully. Because I know what they’re doing. I know the time that coaches, especially when they’re summer coaches, they don’t get paid to do that, so who I am to say? That’s probably tougher than what I’m doing because I’m giving up my free and valuable time to do this so the last thing I need to do is hear from somebody who thinks he knows more than I do. I stay in my lane on that, man. You’re taking the time, do what you do. Outside of hey, how you doing, I don’t speak to them.”

“I never want to create where you hear the stories of coach, son, or even just parents, you go home, there’s friction in the car,” Martin said. “I don’t want to do that.”

Martin learned that from his mom, Sandra, who raised him and his siblings on her own in East. St. Louis.

"I’m just here to support my child," Martin said of his mother's attendance. "I couldn’t say we got in the car because we didn’t have a car. But when we got home, it didn’t matter what the score or the outcome was. If her son was successful, that’s all that mattered."
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Cuonzo on coaching his kids - FIJItiger MU - 6/18 10:17:57




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