Orange’s Martin Has a New Attitude : Soccer: He has rebounded from a troubled past to become one of the county’s top goalies.

For Tres Martin, life has been a matter of attitude. These days, he has that nose-to-the-grindstone, never-say-die attitude.

Martin, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound senior, was a three-year starter on the offensive line for the Orange High School football team, which this season reached the Southern Section Division VIII championship game. He is considered one of the best soccer goalies in the Southern Section 2-A and is one of the main reasons the Panthers are the county’s only undefeated boys’ soccer team.

“I want to be the best,” Martin said. “I won’t accept mediocrity.”

His attitude has changed dramatically.

Four years ago, Martin was in trouble. He went through four junior high schools in less than two years, until his attitude landed him in jail.

“You could say I was a rebel,” Martin said. “Really, I was a little punk. Nobody could tell me anything. But I’ve come 180 degrees since then.”

What changed Martin was some harsh reality, specifically five days in Juvenile Hall.

Athletics have been an important part of Martin’s rehabilitation. He has played football and soccer since grade school, but since entering Orange High he has become dedicated to the games.

“It’s given me a reason to go to school and a reason to do well in the classroom,” Martin said. “Besides, when you’re on the practice field, you don’t have time to get into trouble.”

Martin was 11 when his parents were divorced. He said the separation was difficult for him to understand and he began to recoil from his family. Martin spent most evenings out, running with friends, and he stopped playing sports. His grades also suffered.

“If a teacher told me to do something that I didn’t want to do, I would just say, ‘No,’ ” Martin said. “If I didn’t like the teacher, I just wouldn’t go to that class anymore. Nice attitude.”

School administrators didn’t think so. Martin was shuffled through St. John’s Lutheran, McPherson, Yorba and Richland junior high schools, which were for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students.

“Tres seemed to run into a brick wall in the eighth grade,” said his mother, Stephanie Masterman, who has since remarried. “Things seemed to go downhill from then on. There were a couple of nights when his sister and I had to throw flying blocks to get him to stay home.”

In May 1987, Martin was arrested. He had ditched school and had been caught breaking into a house.

“It was right before Mother’s Day,” Martin said. “Picked a winner, didn’t I?”

His mother, who was a nurse at the time, received a call at work from her daughter, who said Tres had been arrested.

“I was frantic,” Masterman said. “They said I had to call this man to set up an appointment before 7 p.m. I was supposed to be in the operating room and had to find someone to cover for me. Then I had to get down there. It was all very scary.”

When Masterman reached Juvenile Hall, she was told that Martin could not be released until after his hearing.

“I kept waiting for my mom to get me out, but she couldn’t,” Martin said. “The place closed in on me. There were people there who I didn’t want to mess with. I would look out the window and see a beautiful, sunny day but couldn’t go outside to enjoy it. I decided that if I got out of there I wasn’t coming back.”

Martin was placed on probation, one condition of which was that he enroll in the Youth Guidance Center, which offers education and counseling services. He attended classes throughout the summer and earned enough credits to enroll at Orange as a sophomore.

The change in attitude took time.

Martin got back into football immediately and was a starting offensive lineman on the varsity as a sophomore. But he was still drawn to the wrong group of friends, his mother said.

“Tres is very loyal to his friends,” Masterman said. “And sometimes he hasn’t made the best choices when it came to friends.”

It was a club soccer coach, Victor Esparza, who finally straightened out Martin. Martin had played for Esparza’s club team three years, but when he was in the eighth grade he had quit the team.

While watching an El Modena football game in his sophomore year, Esparza confronted Martin, who was there with some of his friends.

“Tres had a pack of cigarettes with him and Victor tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘What are you doing with these?’ ” Masterman said. “Victor is a lot smaller than Tres, but he grabbed him by the shirt and said, ‘I want you on the practice field next Wednesday.’ ”

Martin has been on the straight and narrow ever since. He made the Orange varsity soccer team as a sophomore and was a starter on and off for the last two seasons. As a junior, he played well enough to be named to the All-Pacific Coast League first team.

“The counseling at the Youth Guidance Center helped Tres,” Masterman said. “He knows now that his family is behind him. But sports have been his saving grace. They’ve helped him grow up.”

In soccer, Martin’s size has been a problem. He relied more on physical strength than technique at times.

“My kids are all aware of Tres,” Laguna Hills Coach Scott Johnson said. “He’s rang a couple of bells around the goal. It was nothing dirty, but very intimidating.”

Martin was determined to improve his goalkeeping skills. During the summer he attended a soccer camp in Connecticut that specializes in the position.

During the eight-day camp, he met Lincoln Phillips, a former goalie for the Trinidad Tobago national team. Like Martin, Phillips also is tall.

“Tall goalies generally have problems with low shots,” Martin said. “Lincoln taught me how to drop for the low shot and smother the ball. I kept working at it until I could do it perfect. Then I worked on it some more.”

Martin’s improvement has been apparent. After missing the Panthers’ first three matches because of football, he has posted five shutouts and has allowed only five goals.

As a result, Orange is 11-0-2 overall, 6-0 in league play.

“There was never anybody who could beat Tres in the air, “ Orange Coach Ed Carrillo said. “Not with his long arms. But he’s so much better at the low ball now.

“Against Woodbridge, this kid came in and fired a shot from three or four yards out--just a rocket from point blank. How Tres got down to make the save, I’ll never know.”

Said Martin: “It’s all attitude.”