Stomping on the Daisies : Middle Linebacker Lance Martin Stands as a Ferocious Symbol of the Vaunted Thousand Oaks Defense, but he Gained Toughness Without Losing a Gentle Nature

Lance Martin’s daisy, being in the fragile condition it was, is dead now, probably the victim of too many arid summer days, too few rainy ones.

More likely, however, its demise is linked to far too much Lance Martin.

For this particular daisy was not merely the unwitting victim of Southern California’s mean streak, it was also an accomplice in the seeding and growth of Martin, who is better known as Thousand Oaks High’s bodacious middle linebacker than as a botanical barbarian.

Flora-cide, however, did not come naturally to Martin. Indeed, there was a time when he could have pinned that daisy to his practice jersey, worked out for several hours with the rest of the Lancers and not bruised a petal.

As a sophomore, Martin was little more than a nice kid--which is terrific for the Explorations in Photosynthesis Club but not so spiffy when you’re supposed to be stuffing the run.

All of which caused Paul Gomes, the Thousand Oaks’ assistant coach who spends a lot of time telling linebackers just how difficult Paul Gomes is to please, to relay messages to Martin. Messages, of course, at big-time decibel levels.

“I would tell him to quit sniffing the daisies and pull them out,” Gomes says.

It was his way of saying, hit like a linebacker, act like a linebacker and think like a linebacker. Essentially, be a linebacker. Go ahead, grab a handful.

Martin never played youth football and an injury shortened his freshman season at Thousand Oaks, so when he was promoted to the varsity in 1987--his sophomore year--it was essentially his first look at the sport.

It was, at times, a rocky initiation.

“I came up and didn’t really know much at all,” Martin says. “It really opened my eyes. I was really intimidated and I wasn’t aggressive.”

Gomes also noticed, which triggered his daisy routine.

“All the time they called me a daisy sniffer,” Martin says with a subtle laugh.

Having caught scent of this, Rella Martin, Lance’s mother, bought a single daisy and planted it ever so neatly in the back yard of their Thousand Oaks home. Often Martin would stand outside the back door, challenging the daisy, staring it down.

Sometime during that 1987 season, Thousand Oaks’ Southern Section championship season, the daisy blinked first. It died shortly thereafter. The moment was among the first in Martin’s gradual maturation into his present status as Ventura County’s most dominant defensive player.

His ability to read the intent of an offensive play and move to the ball is uncanny. When he gets there, people start counting limbs.

“At first,” Gomes said, “I like to ride people hard until they get to the level they should be at. Every day I would talk to Lance about the daisies. I’d say, ‘Lance, when you figure out what you’re doing, you’re going to kill people.’ ”

Well, he figured it out. And he is killing people. Offensive people, mostly. He shrugged off the teasing that a rather large, timid guy typically generates, became more aggressive, and now Martin is the cornerstone of the well-chronicled brick-house defense at Thousand Oaks. He also plays tight end.

“I got in my mind, enough is enough,” Martin said. “It was time to grow up.”

He has sprouted a couple inches and gained 30 pounds since his sophomore season to top out at 6-foot-1, 215.

He bench-presses 350 pounds, easy. He covers 40 yards in 4.6 seconds--all of which gives opposing ballcarriers barely enough time to scream and brace themselves for the inevitable.

“When he hits you, he’s not that smacking sound,” Gomes said. “He makes crunches. They’re these low, crunching sounds. Lance just breaks you. He engulfs you.”

In his three seasons, including sporadic playing time in the first, Martin has 273 tackles and four interceptions. This season, he leads the Lancers with 123. Thousand Oaks, which plays atLeuzinger tonight in the second round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs, yields less than 140 yards a game.

The Lancers have shut out five of their 11 opponents, including a 21-0 whipping of Newbury Park two weeks ago that clinched the league championship.

“He’s our all-opponent of the year,” Newbury Park Coach George Hurley said of Martin. “We couldn’t block him. I think he made the first 14 tackles against us.”

Martin hung 17 tackles on the Panthers, six days after ringing up 20 in a nonleague victory over Warren.

The progression has hardly shocked Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards, who two seasons ago had Martin skip the sophomore level.

“The change has basically been in having confidence in himself,” Richards said. “We made him a varsity player as a sophomore because we felt he could be a great player--although I don’t think he did. And he’s been outstanding.”

So much so that Martin has drawn the interest of several Pacific-10 Conference schools, along with San Diego State and Arkansas, among others. Whoever lands him gets an all-around athlete, a guy who batted .379 his junior year on the baseball team.

“I’m pretty particular about linebackers,” Gomes said, “and we all feel Lance is a Division I prospect. Whoever gets a hold of him, they’ve got themselves a jewel.

“He’s the best kid I’ve ever met. He’s so sure of himself and polite and well-mannered. I bark quite loudly and he has yet to give me a dirty look.”

That’s because Martin probably doesn’t have one. Not enough practice, apparently. He does have this one look, though. Not really dirty, but not entirely clean, either. It’s something with his deep, blue eyes.

“He’s got those eyes and they’re always wide open during the game,” Gomes said. “Lance is like our silent leader. The players know, when Lance subtly pats you, he means business.”

All right, so Lance Martin is a great guy and a potential Division I linebacker. He’s among the best defensive players in the history of a program that has traditionally placed its most skilled athletes on the defensive side of the ball. And Gomes, his position coach, lets him baby-sit his two preschool-age children.

There’s got to be a flaw. A dark side.

Nope, a floral side will have to do.

“He is basically a gentle person,” Rella Martin said. “And he enjoys a great deal getting out there and doing his job--stomping the daisies, I guess.”

Said Lance: “I can’t tell how far I’ve really come, but I can say I know a lot more. The way I play and my mentality has come a long way.

“My daisy days are over.”