Still Waiting : Healthy Knee, Section Title High on Martini’s Wish List

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, spending his senior year sitting on the bench after two standout seasons in boys’ basketball.

Ocean View forward Jason Martini, right leg in a metal brace, waits his turn to play each night, as he will Friday night when the top-ranked Seahawks host a first-round Southern Section Division III-AA playoff game.

Martini, a two-time All-Golden West League selection, is a mop-haired 6-foot-5 forward who was expected to be the focal point of an offense that included a 6-foot-10 center, good-shooting forwards and a couple of quick guards.

That was before Martini re-injured his knee when he took off for a jump shot in preseason practice and felt his kneecap go one way and his leg the other. Doctors later told him as much as 75% of his anterior cruciate ligament had been torn.

“I was going to the hoop and I did a two-foot jump shot and I felt pain, severe pain,” he said.

Now, wearing a warmup jacket with the words “Shaken Not Stirred,” Martini waits to get into the game and do what his sore leg will let him. Some nights he feels like Superman; others, he has trouble standing for any length of time.

Through it all Martini has remained positive. And Ocean View Coach Jim Harris believes Martini will become a better person in the long run as he learns to deal with adversity.

“As good an athlete as he was, he wasn’t necessarily the most mentally tough player,” Harris said. “He almost had a passive personality. He’s a very nice, gentle person. But now that has completely changed. Knowing that he can blow that knee out every time he goes on the court has made him realize the bigger picture, and he is living basketball every moment when he’s in there because it could be his last.”

On nights when he feels strong, Martini can be sensational, as he was in scoring 11 points as a reserve in a 49-48 Golden West League victory over third-ranked Servite. But games on consecutive nights can be rough, he admitted. That might explain why he scored only two points in victories over Tustin Feb. 6 and Etiwanda, barely 14 hours later. Although he had nine rebounds against Etiwanda, Martini said afterward that his knee was sore.

“I know he would go home after practices, particularly early in the year, and he couldn’t move his leg it hurt so much,” teammate Matt Kiemle said. “But he went to practice the next day and he doesn’t complain.”

Martini said he has accepted his new role.

“I don’t get as excited as I did before a game,” he said. “Coming off the bench, the tone of the game has already been set, so it’s easier for me.”

Martini, also a standout left-handed pitcher, has drawn interest from colleges for his baseball skills. Martini, who averaged 17 points in basketball as a sophomore and junior, says his collegiate future may be on the mound, but Harris said Martini “would be a recruited player” with a healthy knee.

“He’s a scorer. He can drive. He’s a very, very good jumper,” Harris said. “Scorers are not necessarily made, they have an attitude that they will find a way to put points on the board. He was made to play this game.”

Martini’s scoring ability isn’t lost on others, Servite Coach Scott Hamilton said.

“He’s the best shooter,” Hamilton said. “Any time we prepared to play Ocean View, we prepared to keep the ball out of his hands. If he gets the ball outside, he’s going to make it.”

Martini’s troubles began in the summer of 1997 at Seahawk practice when he believes he tore cartilage in the inside of his right knee. Martini stepped on a teammate’s foot while going for a loose ball and thought he had twisted his ankle. Days later, the knee stiffened.

“But I didn’t go to the doctor,” Martini said. “I was afraid of what he would tell me.”

Martini rested, took anti-inflammation drugs and spent hours icing the leg, which showed no improvement. Eventually he got a magnetic resonance imaging test, but Martini said doctors told him there was no damage.

In October, he slipped on a puddle of water during a shoot-around in the gym and the knee gave out again.

Then came the jump shot that sent Martini to the floor and quieted teammates.

A second opinion determined that he might have torn cartilage on both sides of his knee, or worse. Martini agreed to arthroscopic surgery on one condition.

“If the doctor found a partial tear in the ACL, he was not to repair it,” said Martini’s father Mark. “He discussed that with Jason and Jason knew repairing it meant that his senior season was done.”

Doctors found what the Martinis and Harris feared: a partially torn ACL. But they lived up to their half of the bargain. Doctors repaired the torn cartilage and damage under Martini’s knee cap but left the ACL alone.

He was fitted with a brace built to support the ACL. Teammates called him “Roboknee.”

Martini hopes his decision will get him through baseball season before he makes another decision about surgery.

His first few weeks back on the basketball court were filled with surges of pain and emotion. Harris decided Martini couldn’t start, that his leg was too weak to support him on the floor for a full game, and that Martini should take his time to recover.

But in the Seahawks’ season opener, a 66-40 victory over Santa Barbara, Martini scored 15 points as a reserve.

The next day in practice, he made a move to the basket and collapsed.

“The knee just gave out on me,” he said. “It was an easy cut. I didn’t know what was wrong. I thought the brace would help.”

More ice and rest. The first month of the season was frustrating for Harris, Martini and the Seahawks, who went into the season with high expectations and came out of the nonleague schedule with a 10-4 record. Martini felt like a million dollars in some of the games. In two losses, he couldn’t suit up. At a tournament in San Diego in late December, he broke down and cried when he couldn’t play.

“I thought the leg wasn’t going to work anymore,” Martini said. “I had been playing four years and now I would have to give it all up at a time when I knew this team had a chance to go far.”

The Seahawks struggled.

“It was a tough time,” Harris said. “When you lose a guy who is going to give you 18 or 20 points a game, which he was capable of doing this year, that is a big adjustment for a team.”

But Ocean View persevered. Guard Tony Dow, who averages 5.1 assists game, emerged as a floor leader. Forwards Matt Kiemle and David Hatch combined to shoot 55.5% from the floor. Center Kevin Hanson provided the rebounding and guard Casey Lawson turned in top defensive efforts. Martini even chipped in by making 71 of 135 field-goal attempts and the Seahawks won their first league title since 1988.

“They’re playing real well right now,” Hamilton said. “They’re together. To come into our place, with all of our fans and beat us last Friday, that’s a tough place to win and they made it look easy.”

Martini, who says his leg is much better than it was in late December, has an agreement with Harris. They talk before each game and Martini must tell the truth about his knee.

“In reality, even with his injury, he’s good enough to start,” Harris said. “But I want to bring him in as a sub and go as long as I can with him. I know it kills him. He wants to be out there every second, but we have to be honest with each other.”