A team that finishes its season with only one win isn’t the most appealing draw for a potential recruit.
But for J.D. Martin, the goalkeeper on the Northwestern men’s soccer team, the decision to join a 1-13-3 Wildcats squad was easy.
“I just thought — as most athletes who come here do — I could use my extra year of eligibility to get an education from Northwestern,” he said.
Martin, who graduated from Rutgers in the spring with an extra year of eligibility, is just one piece of the success story that has been NU’s 2002 recruiting class. The group, ranked 28th nationally by College Soccer News, has been instrumental in the resurgence of the Cats’ men’s soccer program.
Martin redshirted his sophomore season at Rutgers for medical reasons, giving him the extra year of eligibility. Looking for a graduate program where he could play and earn a master’s degree this year, he said he passed up Columbia, Harvard and Princeton to enroll in NU’s Graduate School of Communication.
“You can’t do what I’m doing in the Ivys, being a graduate student and playing,” Martin said. “(NU) is the best of both worlds — an up-and-coming soccer program and an opportunity to get a master’s degree. I jumped on it.”
Head coach Tim Lenahan said NU’s dual nature is one of the main selling points of the program and of NU athletics in general.
“We think, ‘Try to sell the uniqueness of Northwestern,'” he said. “There are three schools that compete big-time athletically and big-time academically — Duke, Stanford and Northwestern. But none can offer the proximity to the city that we do.”
Lenahan said the key to his and assistant coach Erik Ronning’s recruiting strategy was to find players who would rise to the task of rebuilding a stagnant soccer program.
“You need to find a personality that understands that there’s a challenge, rather than taking the easy way out at an established program,” Lenahan said. “Players will have the opportunity to leave their mark on the program and leave their legacy.”
Martin quickly made a name for himself in NU’s record books, setting a new single-season shutout record with seven and climbing to fifth on the all-time shutout list.
The veteran goalkeeper’s arrival at NU was an anomaly. Martin left an established program to join the Cats and their 13 freshmen. Appearing in 12 games with a 0.96 goals-against average last season, he led Rutgers to a 15-7-3 record and a third-round appearance in the NCAA tournament, where it lost 1-0 to eventual runner-up Indiana.
“I saw an opportunity to impart some of my knowledge to some of the younger players,” Martin said. “I have the experience, so I just do what I can to help (Lenahan) out.”
Martin’s leadership in goal has anchored a successful NU defense, which has been largely responsible for the program’s turnaround. With an 8-11 record, the 2002 Cats rank third all-time in wins at NU, a distinction Lenahan said will be a great asset for future recruiting.
“I think it was important this year that we showed progress so far as the program was concerned,” Lenahan said. “It makes it a little easier to sell the program by showing that (it) is moving in the right direction.”
Despite the Cats’ eight wins this season, they remain without a conference victory since 1999.
“The important thing is to sell the vision,” Lenahan said. “So far, they’re proving that it is possible, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
Calling from a recruiting trip in Houston last week, Lenahan said he already has one commitment for next season. But he said the biggest indication of a change in NU’s image came when he was planning the 2003 schedule.
“The important thing for us was to gain respect,” he said. “We called someone to play for senior day, someone in the ACC, a big East Coast team, and they said no.
“They were looking for someone easier to play. They didn’t want to spend all week preparing to play us.”
