Forced to Quit, Asserts CSUN Coach Martin

Janet Martin, the second-year Cal State Northridge women’s basketball coach whose sudden resignation from her position was announced Thursday night, said that she never intended to leave the team and was instead forced to quit when Northridge officials gave her an ultimatum to resign or be fired.

Speaking publicly Friday for the first time since Northridge announced her resignation in a press release, Martin said she was called away from a team practice Thursday and informed by Northridge Athletic Director Bob Hiegert and associate athletic director Judith Brame that she faced “disassociation from the program.”

“When they took me into the office they told me I had a choice, ‘We can fire you or you can resign,’ ” said Martin, who came to Northridge in 1990 to direct the team’s transition to the Division I level. “It came as quite a shock. I said there was no way I would resign. (But) they kept after me and said, ‘We’ll give you a good recommendation if you resign.’ ”

Hiegert denied that an ultimatum was given to Martin and said the coach agreed to resign “before that scenario (disassociation) was drawn out.” Brame, who coached the Matadors for eight seasons, accompanied the team to Arizona on Friday and could not be reached for comment.

Martin, whose injury-riddled Matador team was 0-9 this season (her 1990-1991 team was 10-17), said she felt pressured to resign during the meeting with Hiegert and Brame and now regrets the decision to comply. Both Martin and Hiegert confirmed that the coach will be paid through February when her contract with the university expires.

“I feel bad that I resigned because of how it looks to my players,” said Martin, who was suffering from flu when the meeting took place and said she was not in a position to adequately think the situation through. “There was no way I was going to give up on those kids. In retrospect I wish I hadn’t done that (agree to resign).”

Matador players were informed of Martin’s resignation Thursday afternoon by Hiegert and Brame, and assistant Kim Chandler was named interim coach for the remainder of the season.

“When they read the first part (of the resignation statement) I just got up and left,” said Bridgette Ealy, CSUN’s most valuable player last year who is out for this season because of an injured knee. “I was very upset that it happened. It just didn’t seem right. I still don’t think it (resigning) was her doing.”

Martin said her resignation brings to an end a tension-filled relationship with the CSUN athletic administrators--and particularly Brame--that developed almost immediately after she was hired to replace Leslie Milke in September, 1990.

“I knew that this was something she (Brame) was working on doing,” Martin said of her departure. “I feel like I never had Judy Brame’s support. I think it’s pretty tough to be the coach of the top priority women’s sport (at CSUN) without administrative support. I felt like I was looking over my shoulder all the time.”

On Thursday, Brame said she was “surprised” that Martin resigned but “I suspect she had been thinking about it for a while.”

Hiegert said he was unaware of any conflict between Martin and Brame and added that the recommendation for Martin to resign was based on a concern that the CSUN women’s basketball program needed to be “handled properly.”

He said areas of concern involved the handling of the team during road contests and administrative duties such as ordering equipment and traveling procedures. He did not give specific examples. Hiegert also said the program experienced problems with recruiting.

Martin lost her two top signed recruits before the season when Bakersfield College transfer Jill Stephens was injured in an auto accident and Costa Mesa High product Rachel Ward left CSUN during the first week of school.

Injuries to seniors Ealy and Lisa Senette followed and Northridge had to turn to walk-on players to fill the void.

“I saw the communication and support the athletic department gave to Coach Milke,” Ealy said. “When Coach Martin came in last year, I didn’t see that same kind of support.

“I thought, personally, that (Martin) did an OK job. There were some things she could have done better, but you have to take the good with the bad.”

Loyola Marymount assistant coach Shannon Boyd-Wright, a member of the CSUN staff last season, said Martin’s problems with the CSUN administration stemmed from the school’s conservative approach to change and Brame’s interest in the basketball program.

“Northridge, in general, is a very ‘This is the way it’s always been done’ university,” Boyd-Wright said. “I think Jan stepped on a lot of toes without realizing it. The coaching job that Jan undertook would have been difficult for anyone just because of the nature of Brame’s involvement with the team before.”