Jody Martinez

Bio

The 2023-2024 season is the seventh for Jody Martinez as the head coach of the Taylor women’s basketball program.

In his first season at the helm, Martinez led the Trojans to a 24-11 record, which was the program’s first 20-win mark since 2012. The Trojans climbed to No. 15 in the NAIA Top-25 Poll and reached the NAIA National Tournament for the first time since 2010. The new coach led the team to multiple program records at the time, including 14 Crossroad League wins, 317 made threes in a season and 16 threes in a single game.

Taylor’s success continued to grow in Martinez’s second season, as the team posted a 30-5 overall record and a 16-2 mark in Crossroads League play. The TU squad won its first Crossroads League regular season championship since 1996 and first Crossroads League tournament championship since 1998, while advancing to the Round of Eight in the NAIA National Tournament for the second time in program history. Following a top-tier 2018-2019 campaign, Martinez was honored as the 2019 Crossroads League Coach of the Year, the 2019 WBCA Region IV Coach of the Year and the 2019 WBCA NAIA National Coach of the Year.

The 2019-2020 campaign began with a 22-game winning streak, as the team surged to its best regular season mark in program history at 27-3 and its best overall record at 30-4 before having the NAIA Tournament cut short due to Covid-19. The incredible season capped off the winningest four-year stretch in program history with 97 wins. Martinez led the TU squad to its highest ranking in the NAIA Top-25 Poll at No. 5 and a third-consecutive trip to the NAIA Tournament. The Trojans were prolific from beyond the arc, setting records of 396 made treys at a 40.7 percent clip on the year.

The 2020-2021 season witnessed Coach Martinez and the Taylor women’s basketball program extend the program-record home win streak to 33-striaght victories inside Odle Arena, while also posting the highest points scored per game average in school history (78.4).

In the 2021-2022 campaign, Martinez led the Trojans to their highest single-game point total in program history by posting 123 points against Bethel.

Martinez’s teams have also experienced success in the classroom. The Trojans led the NAIA with three CoSIDA Academic All-District awards for the 2021-2022 season and followed that up with another three CSC Academic All-District awards in 2022-2023.

In total, Martinez holds a career record of 542-238 (.695) spanning 23 seasons. Prior to joining Taylor, Martinez accomplished 17 highly successful years of head coaching experience at the NAIA level. During 16 seasons at Bethel College and one at Southeastern University, Martinez led his teams to 20-plus wins in all but one season, qualified for eight NAIA National Championship Tournaments and advanced to five Elite Eight appearances, while piling up 11 Coach of the Year awards.

Martinez came to Taylor after spending two seasons as the assistant coach for the University of Illinois women’s basketball program. During his time with the Fighting Illini, Martinez focused primarily on the development of the program’s post players and saw his players garner a trio of All-Big Ten accolades.

Before accepting the position at Illinois, Martinez led Southeastern to a 25-7 record in the 2014-2015 season, helping the Fire to its first-ever NAIA Division II National Championship Tournament appearance in his lone season with the program. Martinez claimed his 400th victory and earned The Sun Conference Coach-of-the-Year honors.

Martinez spent the previous 16 seasons as the head women’s basketball coach at Bethel, averaging 24 wins per year and posting a mark of 384-177 for a program that had never experienced a winning season prior to his arrival in 1998.

In addition to winning at least 20 games in all but one campaign in Mishawaka, Martinez led his BC squads to four Mid-Central College Conference Championships and seven NAIA National Championship Tournament appearances. Bethel advanced to the Elite Eight in 2013, 2008, 2007, 2005 and 2001 and added six NCCAA National Championships, as it qualified for the NAIA Tournament or won the NCCAA National Title in 13 of 16 seasons under Martinez.

Martinez was named the MCC Coach of the Year in 2001, 2008, 2009 and Crossroads League Coach of the Year in 2012, garnered NAIA Region IV Coach-of-the-Year honors in 2008 and claimed six NCCAA National Coach-of-the-Year awards.

Martinez began his coaching career as an assistant coach for the men and women’s basketball programs at Bethel in 1991, helping Mike Lightfoot guide the BC men to NCCAA National Championships in 1992 and 1993, before spending time coaching at the high school ranks with Saint Joseph’s and LaVille from 1993 through 1998.

Prior to starting his coaching career, Martinez turned in a Hall of Fame career on the hardwood under Lightfoot at Bethel from 1986-1990. Martinez finished his playing career as BC’s leader in points, blocks, steals, field goal percentage and games played and still leads the program in career rebounds with 1,728.

Martinez was named a two-time NAIA All-American and a three-time NCCAA All-American for his efforts on the planks and went on to become the first Bethel athlete to have his jersey retired, before being inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Bethel College Hall of Fame in 1994.

Following his playing days at BC, Martinez went on to participate in the NBA Rookie Camp in 1990, before playing professionally in Mexico for one season.

Martinez graduated Cum Laude from Bethel with a degree in accounting and business administration in 1990 and went on to earn a degree in business education in 1993, before completing a master’s degree in ministries with an emphasis in Biblical studies in 2006.

In addition to his coaching career, Martinez boasts ample administrative experience after serving as the Athletics Director during his final four years at Bethel. Prior to leading the BC athletics department, Martinez worked in the Associate and Assistant Athletics Director roles, in addition to serving as the department’s Director of Compliance.

Martinez and his wife, Sonya, have two daughters who graduated from Taylor in recent years. Josalyn was the manager of the women’s basketball team for multiple seasons and Hannah played for the Trojan women’s soccer program.