Martin
Martin comes to the Lady Flames from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach under head coach Frank Reed.
“I am very excited about having Jeff joining our program,” said Russell. ”He is an experienced coach and has a strong reputation in the softball community. Jeff is an outstanding hitting instructor and also has an expertise in working with catchers. We should be a better team this season because of his contributions.”
Martin has served under some of softball’s best. He was an assistant to head coach Beth Keylon-Randolph at Chattanooga State from 2002-05 and was an assistant coach at Chattanooga under former co-head coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly. During the five seasons Martin spent working with the Lady Mocs from 1996 to 2000, UTC captured four Southern Conference tournament titles and four Southern Conference regular-season championships. The Lady Mocs made two NCAA appearances in his final two seasons with the team.
As an assistant at Chattanooga State, Martin helped the Lady Tigers to four consecutive NJCAA Region 7 titles and four NJCAA National Championship Tournament appearances. He has also served as the hitting instructor for the prestigious Keylon Fastpitch Academy and has worked camps and clinics all across the country.
In addition to serving as an assistant coach at the college level, Martin was formerly the head coach of the Tennessee Raiders fastpitch softball program, a summer league 18-and-under team. He has worked with youth softball in the Chattanooga area for more than 10 years and has seen many of the players he has coached go on to play softball at the collegiate level.
His primary responsibilities with Lee University softball are working with the catchers and assisting in general coaching duties.
“I am very excited at the opportunity to coach at another great softball program and university like Lee,” said Martin. “I've been blessed to have been around some great programs and coaches over the past 14 years. My time at UTC has been awesome, I could not have asked for any better situation
“I never really saw myself leaving UTC, but this opportunity seemed like the perfect fit,” he added. ”I hope I can bring a positive influence to Lee. I hope I can live up to the high standards already in place here and perhaps help raise the bar a little higher.”
Martin resides in East Ridge with his wife, Tonya, and daughter, Jenni, who is a junior at UTC and a member of the softball team.
