Posted by Jeff Carroll on 11/9/2004, 12:40 pm
Board Administrator

Hammond's Martin pursues quarterbacks on Fridays, checkered flags on Saturdays. BY JEFF CARROLL Times Sports Writer The sport grabbed Phil Martin early, when he wasn't much more than a toddler. He grew up attending races at Blue Island's Raceway Park, a proud child watching his uncle, Joe Witkowski, regularly torch his competition. Witkowski won two late models track championships, in 1989 and '90. For Martin, the details of those years are fuzzy, but he's fairly certain that it was in those early years that he developed the urge to drive a race car. It's an urge that Martin spent this summer and fall satisfying for the first time, while also serving as one of the top players on Hammond High's vastly improved defensive line. "If you told him he could drive in Nextel or play in the NFL," conceded Hammond coach Bob Delano, "he'd take NASCAR any day." Last summer, Delano was counting on Martin, then a sophomore, as an important member of a young defensive line. After a few days of practice, the coach was beginning to see Martin's potential. But then Martin informed Delano that he was considering giving up football. He had been working all summer in a pit crew at Illiana Speedway in Schererville and didn't believe that he'd have enough time to devote to the football team, especially on Saturdays. Delano talked to him about balancing his life, and said he'd be willing to work with him so he could continue both sports. Martin agreed to stay. Last winter, Martin bought his own race car from a seller in Lowell. He paid less than $500. Running in quarter-mile pure stocks races, one of the lower racing levels at Illiana, the most prize money Martin has brought home from an evening of racing is about $20. He estimates spending more than $40 on his car on an average Saturday. Martin's crew is a coterie of family members, including a couple of cousins and his 14-year-old sister, Sarah. He plans to move up two classes next summer, to limited late models, and wants to move to North Carolina -- stock car country -- after he graduates. Martin has one race to go this season -- a 150-lap "enduro" race that has to be rescheduled from early October. "In a sense, to me both sports are kind of the same," Martin said. "In a race car, if something falls apart or something breaks down, you're down, too. "It's the same way with defense on a football team. If someone doesn't do their job, the whole team suffers the way the whole car does." Martin has 56 tackles this season and five sacks. He's also the Wildcats' punter, averaging 31.9 yards per punt, and has lined up at defensive end, tight end, tackle, guard, fullback, tailback and linebacker. "He understands the importance he has to this football team," said Delano, whose Wildcats (2-7) play Andrean (7-2) Friday night in a Class 3A Sectional 17 opener. "He's become a leader. He's a throwback kind of a kid. "I started at Hammond High as a student in the early '90s. I'd see all the old guys from the '80s coming around, hear stories from the old days. Hammond High is so full of tradition. You hear about what kind of kids they were, and he fits the mold. He could have played in any generation."