After all is said and done, Martinez wins games

Elias Martinez won't win a lot of popularity contests among his peers.
But he will win plenty of softball games. And that's what counts.
After another successful run with the San Benito Lady 'Hounds that saw them reach the 5A regional semifinals (or Sweet 16), Martinez is the 2008 Valley Morning Star All-Valley Coach of the Year.
"It's a great honor," said Martinez, who just completed his 10th season as head coach. "And I have to give credit to the players and to my assistants, Lorie Gonzalez and Rick Lepre."
San Benito didn't win District 32-5A this season, but advanced to the fourth round of the playoffs and finished 27-8 overall with an amazing playoff run.
While a few of his counterparts share various opinions of the San Benito alum, a high number of the rest share the same sentiment of respect for Martinez and his teams.
He's been called brash and cocky and he will admit he's done things on the field to draw the ire of those counterparts.
But he's also been called a winner. And the latter is what matters most.
"I believe a team takes the attitude of its coach," he said. "We're very aggressive on the bases and stuff like that. But it (talk) comes with the territory."
Everybody's talkin'
Some have said that Martinez is one of the "luckiest" coaches in the Valley, being that San Benito usually fields a good chunk of the area's softball talent.
While he says he's fortunate to have had great players, Martinez doesn't buy that notion.
He's earned the right.
Martinez has been with the San Benito softball program since its inception, back in the early 1990s under former coach Butch Brotherton.
"I was there as an assistant when the program started," he said. "I feel I've helped build our program. Luck has nothing to do with it."
Totaling 14 years with the program, Martinez has seen it grow into a Valley perennial softball power.
"You make your own luck. They can call it luck, or hard work, or whatever they want to, but it's all a product of those early years," Martinez said. "I didn't walk into this. I've helped establish this, and I don't think a lot of people know that."
When Brotherton departed for Jersey Village in the Houston area back in 1998, Martinez took over the program.
So he takes quite a bit of pride and some ownership in the Lady 'Hounds' spot as one of the premier programs in the Valley.
"Bottom line is, did San Benito do well?" he said. "I tell the girls, it's not always about them, it's not about me, or this or that, it's about representing San Benito well."
Martinez says the program's success has brought on the critics, but he's OK with that.
"When you've been as dominant as we have, you're always gonna have people saying something or another," he said. "So long as we keep winning and my girls are doing well, that's all that matters."
Not just softball
Throughout the year, many of San Benito's players have expressed their loyalty to Martinez and the program at one time or another.
That may be as or more important than the wins and losses.
"To me that's an awesome feeling because the team knows we care for them. If there's anything I or my coaches can do for them, we'll do it," Martinez said. "One thing I've always wanted one of my former players to say was that I was firm but fair.
"Our softball teams play hard," he added. "With us the fun part of coaching is the pressure, the execution and the routine plays that demoralize a team."
Known for their all-out, meticulous practices, San Benito's teams often make those "routine plays" Martinez talks about when it matters most.
"We practice hard, but we tell the girls why. There's always a reason behind it," Martinez said. "But we care about our girls and we teach them that winning is a lot more fun than losing. That's the attitude we take. We don't lose games, we just run out of innings."
Sweet season
While San Benito has enjoyed success before, including a run to the Sweet 16 in 2006, this was one year for the books.
With a young roster featuring freshman Amanda Garza and sophomores JoAnn Herrera and Ruby Castillo, a third of the Lady 'Hound starting lineup were underclassmen. Only three seniors started for San Benito.
So it took a little getting used to. But when the girls came around, San Benito showed why it is indeed one of the area's elite.
"Coming into the season, we knew we were going to be young. So we knew we'd crawl, walk and then run," Martinez said. "But to accomplish what our girls accomplished, I was pleasantly surprised because of our young team."
San Benito didn't defend the district title, but the team was clicking heading into the playoffs.
The Lady 'Hounds beat Harlingen 1-0 in a tough bi-district game, then swept Eagle Pass in the area round. San Benito then won another one-run game, defeating PSJA North 3-2 in the regional quarters at home.
A trip to the Sweet 16 ended sour, as state tournament-bound Austin Bowie swept San Benito.
Nevertheless, the year was a rousing success.
While it would be difficult to rank the 2008 team with the rest of San Benito's past winners, Martinez had high praise for this year's bunch.
"Overall, it's way up there," he said of the season. "We've had great teams before, but this team ranks pretty high because of all the question marks we had coming in. Watching these girls blossom and come together was tremendous."