College sports have certainly been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin Health has been particularly affected. During the past couple of years, Martin struggled with COVID and health issues, which had serious impacts on his and the Gamecocks’ program.
Martin spoke on The Paul Finebaum Show earlier this week about Frank Martin Health struggles and how that was hard for him to navigate.
In terms of his health battles through COVID, Martin said, “It was hard.”. He added, “I didn’t feel anything the first time.”. However, it attacked my immune system, causing me to lose my hair. Everything else was fine, including my energy. Just looking in the mirror makes me depressed. It’s not that I didn’t know what hair looked like. I just wasn’t used to it.
“Then, when I got it a second time, it beat me up pretty bad. My associate head coach, Chuck Martin, got it the same day. He was pretty badly wounded. We were just beginning conference play when it happened. I was devastated. Despite trying to do our jobs last year, Chuck and I both ended up getting pretty beat up.”
The Gamecocks finished last season with an overall record of 6-15, including a 4-12 mark in conference play. In this season’s SEC Tournament, the Gamecocks lost to Mississippi State in the second round. The Gamecocks finished 18-13 overall and 9-9 in the SEC.
Martin: South Carolina was the most affected Power 5 team by COVID
Martin was hit hard by COVID the second time around. Despite the hard blow, he said he was fortunate to be alive. Many people were not as fortunate as Martin.
As a result of COVID issues, South Carolina’s team was unable to practice, which made Martin’s job harder throughout the season. Last season was negatively affected by this issue.
According to Martin, the only reason he didn’t go to the hospital was his oxygen levels never went above 90. But he was beaten up. It’s not that I want sympathy for myself. After all, I’m still here. Plenty of people didn’t have the same luck. When you don’t get to practice, it’s hard to win games. When your head coach lacks the energy to lead these young athletes, you have a hard time winning games.
I was also managing a team that was impacted by COVID more than any other Power 5 team in the country. We missed more practices and games than anyone else. It was not easy to manage a group of kids during that moment when the world judged us based on our wins and losses. That year was a challenging one.”
