431: Surviving Was Only the Beginning — A Coach’s Story of Loss, Resilience & Playing From the Heart

Kevin Lowe: Here is my interview with Scott Martin.

Kevin Lowe: What's happening, my friend? And welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Today, I have the joy of being in the studio with Scott Martin.

Kevin Lowe: And my man, Scott, welcome to the podcast.

Scott Martin: Hey, good morning, Kevin. How are you doing today?

Kevin Lowe: I am doing amazing, doing amazing. It's always a pleasure to get to start the day off with a good conversation.

Kevin Lowe: So I'm excited to get to dive into your story, man.

Scott Martin: Sounds good. Sounds good.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, well, it might seem obvious, but what I would love to know, since I know soccer is such a huge part of your story, is where did soccer kind of enter the picture for you

Scott Martin: Yeah i grew up a kid mainly the 60s and into the 70s and we happen to have the backyard in the in the neighborhoods everybody came over so we get on the phone and hey let's play some baseball let's play some football let's get together and play some soccer and and we just grew up with that not being organized and, I actually, at 16, I was asked to join the Wisconsin Rapids Kickers, which was a group of 20 and 30 year olds with first generation, second generation ethnics, former college players.

Scott Martin: I mean, that's back in the 1970s. Soccer United States was just the North American Soccer League.

Scott Martin: And he had Belay, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, and they never had a feeder system going down into even college.

Scott Martin: So our options were limited but the club system in the United States was very good really good clubs out of Chicago St.

Scott Martin: Louis and here we were in central Wisconsin and we'd go in and kick some butts too so we were kind of the little engine that could back in the 70s and into the early 80s yeah.

Kevin Lowe: Okay that's amazing was was soccer always really big kind of all over the U.S.

Kevin Lowe: At like that point like i mean because i'm i'm much younger than you but i like as a kid i don't know i feel like like i mean obviously different parts of the country may be different but you know growing up in florida i remember it was more like t-ball you know starting off with like the first team sport than like soccer yeah

Scott Martin: I mean at the time it was inexpensive but again it was ethnic kids would aspire to play in the same club as their their dad or their their uncle that sort of thing it had a long way to go.

Scott Martin: A lot of what we did back with the kickers was educate, educate the public.

Scott Martin: We did anything and everything to get media attention. One time, Kevin, we were asked to go play prisoners in a maximum security prison, a federal maximum security prison.

Scott Martin: We got press out of it. That's what we had to do.

Scott Martin: Yeah, that's what had to happen. You know, we'd attend parades after we won our first championship.

Scott Martin: You know, just happened to be part of the Fourth of July parade down 8th Street in Wisconsin Rapids.

Scott Martin: And yeah, we had to fight for everything we had to do.

Scott Martin: But we also had to educate, you know, the offside rule, trying to educate to a bunch of white folks in the Midwest.

Scott Martin: It's kind of difficult. They didn't understand until we brought up the blue line in hockey. So, oh, OK.

Kevin Lowe: I love it. So now, what was it about soccer that really maybe interested you more than any other sport?

Scott Martin: The artistic side. I grew up playing football. You know, you had run this play.

Scott Martin: Run this play in defense. Baseball, there's a little bit more intricacy to it.

Scott Martin: Basketball at the time wasn't just fast break, gun and run.

Scott Martin: But at the time, there was some strategy involved. But when I really got into soccer and playing with the kickers at the upper level, I mean, it was just a whole world opened up to me.

Scott Martin: I always saw the game as a Jackson Pollock painting, the drip painting from him in the 40s and 50s.

Scott Martin: And it just how everything flowed For 90 minutes, the ball just moved around and the quality players and the quality teams who are always probing and looking for openings or defensively, what we did very effectively was just shut the opponent down and then start a counterattack as high as we could.

Scott Martin: So it was the flow of play, the art that I saw in the game.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I love it. Now, what was your favorite position to play?

Scott Martin: I grew up as a right winger. We played with three front system.

Scott Martin: My brother, Jeff, played on the left side.

Scott Martin: So we both had speed. We were able to put us in those positions.

Scott Martin: Just had one thing to do. Beat your opponent in a 1v1 situation and serve the ball onto a dime.

Scott Martin: Either onto someone's head or onto an unrushing foot.

Scott Martin: Now, when I went to college, O'Cab, Jerry Stark was the coach at University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

Scott Martin: And he sat at the very first training session.

Scott Martin: Scott, I want you to take everything you know as a forward, as an attacker, turn around 180 degrees and run the defense. Like, what the hell?

Scott Martin: I mean, looking back, it did make sense. Just spin it. So then I went in and I had to study.

Scott Martin: And when I studied the game is when I found the artistic side plus the mathematics that were involved in it.

Scott Martin: So then I was just totally amazed. And that's also when I started getting into coaching, because a new side of the game opened up for me besides just the artistic side.

Kevin Lowe: Interesting. Well, that leads perfectly into my next question was, what led you from playing the game to coaching?

Scott Martin: Yeah. When I went in as a freshman, and Jerry did that to me, I entered the program broadcast journalism, got involved in whole government.

Scott Martin: As well. And something came out, Jerry got me in. He was the president of the Oshkosh Youth Soccer Club at the time.

Scott Martin: And he got me into coaching. So as a freshman, here I am with a bunch of 10-year-olds that lost every single match the year before I got them.

Scott Martin: And I think they scored three goals in 12 matches or something.

Scott Martin: So we just took our time. I'd bring my boom box, get music involved, open it up, not necessarily do a whole lot of just A to B drills, get them to play, get them to first gain in their confidence, and then creativity would start to evolve.

Scott Martin: So by the third season with those kids, we went undefeated and won a championship with that.

Scott Martin: And that's not the kids in the book. That was when I just got started.

Scott Martin: Heck, man, one year I coached four teams because it was just needed.

Scott Martin: That was crazy. Yeah, it was crazy.

Kevin Lowe: I loved it. I can imagine.

Scott Martin: I loved it.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I can imagine. Well, I have no idea in the timeline how far ahead we have to skip, but I know, and maybe it was even what you were just speaking about, was I know the year 93 was a big year for you.

Scott Martin: Yeah, that's the illness. I'll just leave it as that and see where you want to go with it.

Kevin Lowe: Okay, okay. Well, before we get to the illness part of the story, I guess, where do we kind of jump from you getting involved in coaching and all that to leading up to the illness part of your story?

Kevin Lowe: Like, where were you at in coaching? What had that become for you?

Scott Martin: So all throughout college, I was coaching youth.

Scott Martin: And then right after college, I was still playing at this time.

Scott Martin: I switched over to the Pepsi Spirits.

Scott Martin: And I was still able to play. And I had a degree by that time in physical education, education and coaching and health.

Scott Martin: But all I could find were jobs as a sub because who's going to waste a physical education position on a soccer coach? I wasn't done at the time.

Scott Martin: So I was still running their soccer programs. I was substituting. I said, this is crazy.

Scott Martin: But subbing i learned how to teach subbing you just wing it walk into a room boom there we go let's pick it up and run with it that's when i fell in love with teaching in the classroom kevin, and i oh wow a couple years in i said man i got to do something different so in one year one academic year i took about 50 credits in social studies and history i substitute taught i coach i was actually that was the first year that i was named uh coach of the year was within all of that i was

Scott Martin: in a relationship and it was it was just totally nuts and i again i loved it and i came out with a degree in social studies in history and and uh west band east they hired me to come in teach global studies so there i started focusing on the soccer program and, teaching and i was just in heaven my girlfriend and i had broken up and everything was clear cut.

Scott Martin: And then I had an opportunity to attend a coaches clinic in Madison.

Scott Martin: And there were some friends of mine. We were talking, he said, Hey, coaching positions, open it up at Eau Claire. Why don't you apply for it? Okay.

Scott Martin: And you know, Kevin, it's, it's, it's not necessarily what you know, but who, you know, a lot of times, the athletic director used to teach at West Bend, and we met down in Milwaukee and had a great conversation and she offered me the job on the spot.

Scott Martin: Just, okay, I want you to run the program.

Scott Martin: Okay. So that's when I decided I have been looking at maybe working as an assistant at Division I college, but now I wanted to do it myself.

Scott Martin: So that's when I started with the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire Women's Program.

Scott Martin: I had finished my first year there. We were nationally ranked.

Scott Martin: I was heading over to Europe that summer again after the first year.

Scott Martin: That's what I tended to do during my summers was take a group of kids over and play at the major tournaments there.

Scott Martin: But this time, a good friend of mine and I handpicked college players to take over.

Scott Martin: Another time when I was over in Europe, I met a gentleman that was director of coaching at a club in the Netherlands.

Scott Martin: I went back just before I took the coaching job at Eau Claire.

Scott Martin: And here he was as the Olympic team head coach.

Scott Martin: So Jan and I got together.

Scott Martin: And it's in the book on how we go out one one night and he tells me he knows some people in the u.s that he can help me with my career and here we go with the summer sick was i was at nike camp i was asked and i knew it was your yawn to go speak at a nike regional camp with top players from across the country and there were national team players instructing and college coaches so i was able to rub elbows with people like that so that's where i actually got sick but kevin when i showed up i was wearing adidas man

Scott Martin: because that's what we wore i didn't have a lick of nike so of course you know they just said hey come on over here here's some cleats here you know put on top Here's some shorts.

Scott Martin: Here's some more Nike stuff. Okay, I'll take it.

Scott Martin: So I'll see where you want to go with it there. So it was at the Nike camp when the illness came into play.

Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. Perfect. Okay, cool. So before we get to that, to the illness part of it, I would love to ask you, so before you started coaching college players, before that, it was all like around like the 10-year-old age?

Scott Martin: No, no. I was at the high school level.

Scott Martin: I was usually taking kids and prepping them for going on for other people to go on.

Scott Martin: So then I, started running my own programs.

Scott Martin: And that's when I really started getting more of a taste and more of a taste.

Scott Martin: You know, I was named coach of the year four times because I, I take a program.

Scott Martin: I actually coached at three different high schools. I take a program two to three years, boom, I'd leave, uh, two to three years.

Scott Martin: Boom. I'd leave, you know, we build something, try to get some of those kids to go play at the college level.

Scott Martin: And I was just a soccer rat. It was, you know, So what's the next challenge?

Scott Martin: I want it. That's what I was doing at the time.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. I love it. Well, the reason I was asking about the ages, and I mean, this all kind of works out perfect with the ages that you have coached, is there...

Kevin Lowe: A difference for the coach in how you coach kids versus, you know, college students?

Scott Martin: Oh, I've been asked this. No difference. No difference at all.

Scott Martin: I did everything the same way. Of course, there are different levels, but really a lot of it was here's the boombox hit play and let's get these kids to play according to music.

Scott Martin: That's where I always had music training. It wasn't for the kids because they shouldn't be listening to it.

Scott Martin: What I do with music is I feel the music and try to get the kids to play in that way.

Scott Martin: Because I feel there's a great commonality between the game of soccer and a lot of music.

Scott Martin: Blues, jazz, rock, some disco.

Scott Martin: All of that I see and I feel that in the game. And that's how I try to get the kids to play like that.

Scott Martin: It didn't matter what level. UTan, you know, college level, always the same.

Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. Okay. Now, this is fascinating. So, because I had already made a note that we were going to come back and talk about it. We're going to go and talk about it right now.

Kevin Lowe: The music in coaching soccer. I'm fascinated by this.

Kevin Lowe: Explain to me how you even came up with this idea.

Kevin Lowe: Is this, maybe this is a common thing in soccer. I have no idea.

Kevin Lowe: But i'm interested to understand how this integrates with one another

Scott Martin: I was always known for uh having headphones on you know if i go out for a three mile run or something or in my training or heck at six o'clock in the morning take a couple of bags of balls down to the soccer field and knock the balls around but i was listening to music and it just made sense that to me and that i would feel the music in my running and training and working with the ball why not even do it with that first group of 10 year olds and i think that it paid off i mean kevin i substitute teach now in

Scott Martin: high school and we give instruction if it's not an exam all type music and the kids love it because nobody else i don't understand what people don't do this more you know here we are in a classroom and dad you know let's have some i don't crank the music let's have some music going or out in the soccer field let's let's have some tunes you know it just yeah things up it loosens things up again it brings back that creativity you know i want to see a jackson pollock painting out on the field even if it's

Scott Martin: a training field let's let's get it going with the fluidity.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah, I love it. Now, out of curiosity, do you...

Kevin Lowe: Do you see players play differently based on the type of music?

Kevin Lowe: I mean, I would almost imagine if you had playing something real hardcore, fast-paced beat, maybe you're feeling it in your chest. You're running faster versus something slower. I mean, does it make any difference?

Scott Martin: No, I really haven't seen that. I think there's, because I've been working on the music, my playlist for years and years and years.

Scott Martin: I'm still adding to it when it comes up in Pandora.

Scott Martin: No, there's just, there's a thread that basically runs through all the music that I play.

Scott Martin: You know, it could be Donna Summer comes up to play and it might, you know, it's a type of Donna Summer song that's playing off of R.L.

Scott Martin: Burnside or a Tad Benoit or some Petty comes up. So there's just, again, the kids aren't meant to be listening to it, but they'll feel it.

Scott Martin: And again, it's my way of kind of using that as a metronome.

Scott Martin: So how the music's going is how the kids, I'm trying to get them to play like that.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Wow. Okay, that's really cool.

Kevin Lowe: So now, last question, kind of really specific about soccer before we move forward, is when talking about going outside of the United States over to Europe and stuff, is there any difference in the game between countries, how it's played, rules, or is everything identical?

Scott Martin: No, there's definitely different flavor of things. One time we were in quarterfinal of the Holland Cup and I had a group of youth 13.

Scott Martin: So they're from kids from across the country.

Scott Martin: And we went up against a team from Italy and I did some check in and people were talking about.

Scott Martin: I mean, there were kids on this Italian team. They're 13, 12, 13 years old that had signed contracts.

Scott Martin: I mean, they're professional contracts like, oh, shit. I'm sorry.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Scott Martin: How are we going to get into this? We ended up beating them in penalty kicks because we looked at the whole, how they were going to play.

Scott Martin: So there was an Italian style that they stuck to.

Scott Martin: And there is, I guess, there's a German type of style.

Scott Martin: There's a Dutch type of style. There's an English type of style. A French type of style.

Scott Martin: Where other teams that would come in and play against the United States national teams ran into problems was we have such a blend.

Scott Martin: That you can't just structure us. I was just watching the U.S.

Scott Martin: Men play Paraguay and Uruguay.

Scott Martin: And Pochettino, the new men's head coach, he has a style, but he's also working and incorporating the style of the individual players.

Scott Martin: Emma Hayes with the U.S. women, that's who I was watching this morning, their replay against Italy last night.

Scott Martin: God, they look good. uh emma hayes emma hayes has her style with what they're trying to do both ways i always i always went into matches and looking at not the opponent i would look at how the opponent saw us so when i look at the u.s men and u.s women you can't figure them out there there's no set they're gonna do this no and that's how the quality teams should be unpredictable i don't ever want anybody know what we're doing even though we know what we're doing.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah yeah that that's it kind of makes me think of the whole theme of america as a melting pot exactly it's kind of it's kind of done that into the sport of soccer which i think is really fascinating and i guess it kind of goes back to what you were talking about earlier about your your appeal of soccer of of this individuality of it you know because i mean i don't think you notice that in football or baseball i mean no there

Scott Martin: Are some baseball players like center fielders that just have a style or a short step has a style to them but in soccer i, It's so much, there's so much fluidity. There's so much movement off the ball.

Scott Martin: And that's one thing people need to learn about the game. It's not just that stupid little round thing, as I call it.

Scott Martin: Look at everything else that's happening. And that's the hardest thing to get in the kids' heads. Stop worrying about the ball.

Scott Martin: Look at everything else. There's a heck of a lot more space than just where the ball is.

Scott Martin: So that's one of the things that I strive for as well, Kevin, is to get them to see the entire green.

Kevin Lowe: I love it. Yeah, amazing. Okay, so back up to where you kind of left us off about the getting sick at the Nike camp.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, so talk to me about that.

Scott Martin: So I was asked to come in and speak. I think I came in on Saturday. I was asked to speak.

Scott Martin: Saturday was the last full day.

Scott Martin: And i'm watching i'm asked to participate in drills and i'm not feeling so well i was in training to go over to europe again maybe i'd be playing against the dutch olympic team again that's what i did the year before when jan asked me to play and so i was in training i i think that's where i picked up the illness we don't know for sure but when i was at nike i just i wasn't myself i wasn't participating here we had national team players that are running drills yeah that looks like

Scott Martin: that would be fun participate a little bit but then we played in the evening there was a, coach's match and has to play in that like okay i again i wasn't feeling all that well put myself on the left side because i know the work wouldn't be work rate wouldn't be as high and i ended up having to take myself out i was just exhausted so quick speed it up that night i was either in the bathroom thrown up profusely or I was sweating like crazy or shivering like crazy in my dorm room.

Scott Martin: And even though we're outside of Chicago, I had no idea where the hospitals were. So I woke up the next morning. I apologized. I had to leave.

Scott Martin: If you don't know where a doctor is, if you know where your mom is, you go to mom. And my mom was an hour and a half away in southern Wisconsin.

Scott Martin: So and the wisdom of the female species, as soon as she saw me, because I hadn't called her. We didn't have cell phones at the time.

Scott Martin: As soon as she saw me, she said, you get your butt over the emergency room.

Scott Martin: Something's wrong with you.

Scott Martin: So I presented myself. They released me. Woke up the next morning even worse.

Scott Martin: I had to cancel a couple of recruiting calls in the Minneapolis area.

Scott Martin: And the last thing I remember for the next month was my stepfather backing out of the driveway and my mom standing outside the kitchen door looking freaked.

Scott Martin: And she knew something was bad.

Scott Martin: So like I said, I woke up a month later from a coma to learn that in order to save my life, my mom and my brother had to make a decision.

Scott Martin: Let me die and I was so sick that I should have and I was told the only reason I was still alive was I was an athlete or amputate my hands and parts of both my feet and see how I would handle life and first thing that ran through my mind when the doctor was trying to explain all of this was uh there goes my playing career I'm done and then it came down to coaching see I was doing the male thing Kevin of I was worried about you know I wasn't focusing on how am I going to deal with all of this it was i want to get back to work i

Scott Martin: want to get back to work i'm supposed to be in europe i missed the europe trip by the way they won all three tournaments yeah so it was a rude awakening to figure out and i think we do a pretty good job of telling all of that in the book about yeah you know imagine waking up from all of this and there are cards on the walls and balloons that were draping and that's how i figured out man i've been in here for a while because the balloon you You know, get well, balloons are sagging a little bit.

Kevin Lowe: Wow.

Scott Martin: Yeah, that's how I figured it all out.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. So what what was wrong? What what caused all of this?

Scott Martin: It was it's called group A strep with necrotizing fasciitis is the death of the skin and group A strep.

Scott Martin: Well, what happened was I was so sick that the body takes care of itself.

Scott Martin: We let it and it shoots out white blood cells to go attack bacteria.

Scott Martin: Well, I was so sick that it shot out maybe also because I was in such good shape.

Scott Martin: It was able to handle it by producing even more and more white blood cells.

Scott Martin: Well, white blood cells, they're just going to go into the bloodstream, take care of the bacteria, but it would collect in the extremities.

Scott Martin: And little by little, the blood flow ceased in the extremities.

Scott Martin: So from the tips of the fingers and tips of the toes things started dying as it worked back and there are a couple times in the book when I ask or I a nephew or my brother interjects about, watching the skin you can almost see it at least for sure from hour to hour how it would darken going up the extremities because things were just dying and there came a point where okay they kind of had everything under control.

Scott Martin: What are you going to do, folks?

Scott Martin: Let him go? We pull the plug and everything? Or you want to do the amputations?

Scott Martin: And I have tried to have those conversations.

Scott Martin: Not easy for my mom. My mother has passed away, but my brother, even looking back now, 30 years ago, probably difficult.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. Now, what is it like waking up from being in coma for a month? Do you wake up Feeling like you just woke up from a normal night's sleep? I mean, is there any difference?

Scott Martin: I describe it in the book exactly how it happened. I had no idea what was going on.

Scott Martin: And then I could hear women's voices laughing like they were playing a sport.

Scott Martin: And I saw the back of a woman, and I think she was dressed in green, looking up at, oh, okay, now it's a television.

Scott Martin: And here are these women are playing beach volleyball.

Scott Martin: And the woman turns around and looks at me. She ends up being Lindy, my nurse, who kind of became my surrogate mother.

Scott Martin: She was always working, it seemed, taking care of me. So it was, what's this? And then she went off and got the doctor to come in.

Scott Martin: And I was a little bit more awake at that time to explain everything.

Scott Martin: And I had lost 40 pounds, and it was mainly muscle.

Scott Martin: And I couldn't move. I thought maybe I was paralyzed because I had no idea what was going on.

Scott Martin: I just couldn't move because my muscles had atrophied so badly.

Scott Martin: And I was in a neck brace and described by other people in the book about how many machines were in my room.

Scott Martin: It was hard to figure out where I was in bed because there was so much technology going on.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Scott Martin: Yeah, it was freaky.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Wow.

Kevin Lowe: Can you even remember when either you knew yourself or the doctor told you about them having that you no longer had hands or feet?

Scott Martin: Yeah. And my brain shut down. I just, okay.

Scott Martin: Didn't want to, I didn't even touch it. They were just words that were said and that I heard. Was it okay?

Scott Martin: So, all right. What's the date?

Scott Martin: Did I miss Europe? You know, oh, well, after Europe, we're, you know, the players are showing up at the university for preseason training.

Scott Martin: Oh, my. Can I get back there?

Scott Martin: There was no way. I still look at it as that's the stupidity of males.

Scott Martin: We look at, you know, we're taught to or else we're just wired that way.

Scott Martin: Maybe it's just me, Kev. I don't know about you.

Scott Martin: Man, I want to work. I want to let's you know, this is nothing.

Scott Martin: We'll get past this. And okay.

Scott Martin: Yeah. Okay. Well, I ended up paying for it because of that. So we'll get into that. I'm sure.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. I was going to say, so to talk to me about what happens next, because I mean, I would think this would be a very long physical recovery process.

Kevin Lowe: I mean, mental is, I know it's way longer, but, but what, what does happen next in this story?

Scott Martin: I start training. I was still in the ICU and I started doing exercises a little bit by a little bit by a little bit, gaining back some strength.

Scott Martin: So within a couple of weeks, I was transferred over to rehabilitation.

Scott Martin: So I gained some weight, but mainly I gained strength back. And then, God, the opening in rehab was...

Scott Martin: Kathy, one of the people there, had me sit up on the side of the bed for 60 seconds. It was like, oh, my God.

Scott Martin: That was the most difficult thing I thought I would remember besides all of my training as a player.

Scott Martin: Just sitting up for 60 seconds.

Scott Martin: It was that hard. But it was just work, work, you know, let's get back.

Scott Martin: So one month in a coma and then four months in rehab.

Kevin Lowe: Wow.

Scott Martin: Yeah, that was all work.

Kevin Lowe: Now, during the four months in rehab, were you able to keep yourself always focused forward or did you ever have moments where you would break down?

Scott Martin: One of the nicest things that the head of, Dr.

Scott Martin: Mullen, the head of rehab, told me when I first met him was, it's not going to be easy, man.

Scott Martin: If you want to just say ask for the door closed go ahead i mean that was the best advice anybody gave me otherwise it seemed that you know okay now i saw this person then i saw that person two and o'clock in the morning they came in and drew blood and then somebody else came in and helped me with urination and i just it was like crazy i didn't take him up on that very often one of the most difficult points was point blank being fitted for the hooks and one of the chapters is titled the bane of captain hook and

Scott Martin: how i had to face it i'm using this i mean being amputated at the mid forearm you know just keep my arms down under the blankets and i don't see it but when you're starting to be fitted for hooks and training with those that's reality and my brain and I think I got pretty good at shutting off my brain.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, our bodies have a way of doing what we need them to do for us to survive.

Scott Martin: Yeah, exactly. Listen to our bodies more.

Kevin Lowe: Exactly. Exactly. Wow. So after four months in rehab, you get out of rehab.

Kevin Lowe: What do you do then?

Scott Martin: Well, here's the way I describe it in the book. First thing I did, I had an apartment on the university campus because I was the head women's soccer coach and I was also an assistant hall director. So I had my own apartment.

Scott Martin: First thing it did was pop in dark side of the moon by pink floyd i just locked my door put headphones on i don't know how many times i listened to that i think it put it on you know just continuous play and my cats would jump up on me and they hadn't seen me in five months you know so it was just one of the only times i took the time for myself and i should have done that more because it was starting to fall into a pattern for myself.

Scott Martin: And it wasn't long before I described it as the fog rolled in where my brain would just shut down and I had no idea.

Scott Martin: I lost the sense of feeling, which is tough. And I think emotionally I lost the sense of feeling as well.

Scott Martin: That's where I started getting into the fog. And there are so many things that were going on at the time, Kevin.

Scott Martin: I had a foot that wouldn't heal. I had multiple operations. that I would scoot around in the apartment on my knees.

Scott Martin: I did that twice for a month at a time after surgeries.

Scott Martin: I mean, it's just, God, it was difficult. But I was still running a soccer program, and that's what I focused on.

Scott Martin: We still had nationally ranked teams. How I did that, I don't know.

Scott Martin: But I think it's because I pushed aside all my emotions, and I just focused on the game and the program.

Kevin Lowe: So...

Kevin Lowe: How did you physically continue running this program?

Kevin Lowe: I mean, because I guess, I mean, were you in a wheelchair and having to be? No.

Scott Martin: No wheelchair. And when I ended up getting back driving, I've never parked in a handicap spot or a disabled spot.

Scott Martin: No, I refuse to do that. I think probably for my own attitude, here's one way to summarize it.

Scott Martin: Kevin is, in the beginning, when I first got out of the hospital, it took me three hours to get dressed.

Scott Martin: Yeah i it was wow yeah i mean that was even after by the time i i left the hospital i had my my electric hands i wasn't wearing hooks i was switched over to these my electric hands that kind of work like hands they open and close but uh still wasn't you know trying to learn everything i can wow but i never i i didn't get mad really i didn't get mad it was just okay accept it i I accepted failure, which is, it was tough, but that's what I had to do.

Scott Martin: It was like, for me, it was like learning how to make a soccer ball do funky things, to make a bender on a wall of six players or something, to make it dip underneath a crossbar and a goalkeeper.

Scott Martin: And that was just go out, repetition, repetition, repetition, make a mistake, make a mistake, go run after the ball, bring it back, go run after the ball, same thing.

Scott Martin: And I just went, okay, I dropped a glass.

Scott Martin: I'll clean it up. And then just to the point where I didn't have to think about it anymore. It became second nature. That was a long time.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Scott Martin: A lot of work.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Now, what about the prosthetics in terms of both your hands?

Kevin Lowe: And do you have prosthetics for your feet?

Scott Martin: Yeah, they're called AFOs. They're braces. I mean, there's a story in that.

Scott Martin: And that comes up in the book, too, Kevin. about, it reached one point where somebody said, oh, just do a baloney amputation because after my foot kept opening up, I'm like, no, this isn't happening.

Scott Martin: Finally, get into a point where I found a prosthetist who knew of a solution.

Scott Martin: And since that time, it's been eight years now, foot doesn't open up anymore because someone solved the problem.

Scott Martin: Which was fantastic. Yeah.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. Okay. So the team that you were coaching when this happened, how did they respond afterwards?

Kevin Lowe: You're still showing up. Did you notice a change in them?

Scott Martin: So I was in the hospital. I was in rehab when they started the season on an East Coast trip.

Scott Martin: They were taking a coach bus at the time. And they set all this up.

Scott Martin: NBC National News covered the team coming to visit me on their way out east.

Scott Martin: And I hope I don't tear up here. They stopped in and everybody crammed into the hospital room and everything. And I didn't know that they were coming.

Scott Martin: So I was just, oh my God. I mean, it felt good and it felt bad.

Scott Martin: And I was embarrassed, but it was also nice to see all of them.

Scott Martin: You know, our goalkeeper, a lot of people had to help out when I was gone for five months with my apartment. And they had people had to get into my apartment and take care of the cats.

Scott Martin: Players and other coaches and hall directors and friends would come in and they organize it all.

Scott Martin: And our goalkeeper, because sometimes I had a green Adidas, emerald green Adidas goalkeeper jersey that I'd like to wear sometimes if I was training her.

Scott Martin: She wore that all season. She took it out of my closet and she wore it for me.

Scott Martin: And she was all American that year. And I just, what she did, Diane Kelsch, that was just amazing.

Scott Martin: She also, here we go, Kev. I transferred hospitals up to Eau Claire and Diane in the afternoons would come over, put me in a wheelchair, take me down, kind of throw me into her truck, her little pickup truck.

Scott Martin: Throw the wheelchair in the back, take me over to training. And I would train her.

Scott Martin: And yeah, and Cindy Kapersky, my assistant who was filling in for me, she trained the field players and I worked with Diane.

Scott Martin: And somehow she, you know, amazing that season you know first team all-american it was just wow it was crazy it's just great yeah looking back on it yeah that'd make a damn good movie wouldn't it it was pretty fun a lot a lot of we got together like eight years ago for something and saw them again, a bunch of the players and you know a lot of them are parents now might be a couple of grandparents A couple have passed away.

Scott Martin: Yeah. Time goes on and kids grow up and they have. Yeah.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. But what you just shared, man, that's just, to me, that's the good stuff.

Kevin Lowe: Is so many times we feel like the world is so cruel because it is.

Kevin Lowe: Until you get down to an individual level and you get to realize how amazing the world is. and what a beautiful example of it. Oh my gosh.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, that's absolutely incredible. I love it. I love it.

Kevin Lowe: Well, so talk to me about life.

Kevin Lowe: What happens? Where do you go? What starts you on a journey to get you kind of into a next chapter of life?

Scott Martin: So four more years, I coached for four more years. The program wasn't as good.

Scott Martin: My recruiting wasn't as good.

Scott Martin: I lost my confidence in just approaching players like, hey, you know, it used to be, hey, I coached at the university. I think you could play.

Scott Martin: You know, let's talk about what you might be wanting to study.

Scott Martin: I stopped doing that because a cold call was difficult with me.

Scott Martin: You know, I lost my confidence. And for an athlete.

Scott Martin: That's not good. So a couple of things also happened.

Scott Martin: I ended up resigning and I knew I just needed to break myself down in order to build myself back up. So I resigned.

Scott Martin: Right after I resigned, I went out east for a couple of interviews, came across one bad example of discrimination that I mentioned in the book. Oh, yeah.

Scott Martin: I went from a white guy in athletics, you know doors are open as long as you prove yourself if you win yeah go next step to being disabled yes that's a big switch and i came across still do people thinking lesser of me, before matches oh god kev yeah i think we do a good job putting all in the book about discrimination side and how things have still not changed so much, And there was a little thing about a two-week, $10 million medical malpractice lawsuit in there.

Kevin Lowe: Okay. Yeah. Just throw that in there.

Scott Martin: Just throw that in at you, Kevin. Remember when I said, when I presented myself the first time they released me, well, temperature of about 103, it didn't check my blood.

Scott Martin: And kind of wish they would have, because that's, the trial came down to, they said one thing and we said another.

Scott Martin: And perception is key that's actually the title of one of the chapters perception is key how things are perceived so yeah after that without telling you exactly what happened in trials in the book i sold everything threw away all my awards and everything everything it didn't fit in my car my cat bogart and i headed west ended up in washington state and i was working uh as an unpaid assistant out there with a deal for the guy to him he was very well known for the guy to help me get into the

Scott Martin: next step get back into coaching and he happened to know somebody at Gonzaga who was leaving so that's when that didn't work out the way I anticipated again I'll just leave it for readers to go find that out yeah and one night was watching a news program about a disaster that was going on in Haiti and there were some orphan children.

Scott Martin: And like something went off of me. Wow, I'm supposed to do something about this. I'll cut to the chase.

Scott Martin: A year and a half later, a little boy and a little girl from Romania came home.

Scott Martin: I was no longer coaching. A year after that, a little boy from Ethiopia.

Scott Martin: Two years after that, a little girl from Ethiopia. And two years after that, another little girl from Ethiopia came home.

Scott Martin: So I went from being a soccer coach to running five kids as a basketball coach, I guess.

Scott Martin: You know, the way things were as a full-time parent of all these toddlers.

Scott Martin: So, I mean, I was, I left coaching unless one of them, some, you know, one of them was playing rec.

Scott Martin: To help out. And that was to get away from just that, the physicality side, just being Tata, which is Romanian for father, just did that.

Scott Martin: So yeah, that was a bit of a change in life. But I think it was needed.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. Wow. I mean, you definitely are an example of changes in seasons of our life In the most radical of ways possible.

Scott Martin: You betcha. There's a Wisconsin phrase for you. You betcha.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Kevin Lowe: Wow, wow, wow. Okay. Wow, yeah, we could do a whole interview just on that one piece of you adopting all of these children. That's crazy.

Scott Martin: Well, you know, in the book, we use it as a bridge to go from following the trial into coaching again, returning 20 years later.

Scott Martin: So the kids are just, I didn't want to, none of the names are in, don't want to get them involved or anything.

Scott Martin: It was just an example of one chapter about how this went through, you know, the politics of getting them home.

Scott Martin: Senator Patty Murray had to come in for the two from Romania.

Scott Martin: The three from Ethiopia all experienced their parents dying of AIDS.

Scott Martin: It's just, that was, that would have been too much.

Scott Martin: As I learned from earlier publishers, that was too much, that whole thing.

Scott Martin: So we'll capsulize it for you as well. Okay.

Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yes. Okay. So that bridges us to you getting back into coaching again. Yes.

Kevin Lowe: And a very different team than maybe you'd been used to.

Kevin Lowe: And so I've been very excited for us to get to this part of the story because, ladies and gentlemen, if you've been like, oh, my gosh, this story is depressing and crazy and all this.

Kevin Lowe: Well, now here's the whole kicker. And I believe this is the whole kind of hook that you even reached out to me in the first place. And I was like, whoa, this sounds like yet another movie.

Scott Martin: It was pretty wild yeah i love the chapter the chapter's called soccer rants when the kids introduced it was 20 years after i left gonzaga and my youngest was firmly in high school i said okay time for me to get back here's where a little bit more life is cruel stuff comes in first okay uh yes we're living in bellingham washington at the time and there was a very large soccer club where parents would spend thousands of dollars for their kids with the expectation of them being prepared for possibly signing scholarships for college and maybe going

Scott Martin: on playing pro national team whatever i mean there there were examples of that so and with my experience which you all are fully aware of now i came in and was hired not to coach uh the a team, not to coach a B team but to coach a C team of 12 year olds.

Scott Martin: From the director of coaching you wouldn't shake my hand so i think i have an idea about why i was coaching yes which but you know what kevin this is what how life just kind of bites other people in the butt because i think it backfired on them because i i attended the two uh tryouts and a team coach tended to take bigger players b team coach took the next size players i had kind of the runts and my kids didn't show so well in control type environment because they lack confidence because I think because they were shorter and they nobody expected

Scott Martin: much out of them they just kind of fit that role well here I came in on you know what and I mentioned kids out I won't go into too much here people can read it I had one kid that could do this one kid like wow oh, they left me some pretty good players to work with here. All right, I think we can do something.

Scott Martin: So we started getting together. And in the book, again, I think we do a pretty good job of the kids coming to get to know me and understand me and being a disabled person and having a disabled coach.

Scott Martin: And through the book and the kids and myself, I think we're able to explain.

Scott Martin: What it's like to be disabled. I mean, at least for my disability and some examples of being disabled in the world.

Scott Martin: So we get together and we work through everything and it kind of comes out, but I know you want to get into, you know, how the whole thing went.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah. So I'm curious to know, you kind of, you get stuck, we'll say, we'll use that terminology.

Kevin Lowe: You get stuck with these kids.

Scott Martin: Yeah.

Kevin Lowe: And now it's up to you to do something with them. So you just bust out the boom box and say, let's get to work.

Scott Martin: Pretty much, man. Pretty much. Pretty much. Yeah.

Scott Martin: Music came and not in the first session, but it was get to know you sort of thing.

Scott Martin: The hardest thing, Kevin, was to get these kids to turn away from structure and start playing the game like I wanted them to, or the freedom I wanted them to feel.

Scott Martin: They lack confidence. Well, there's nothing better to boost one's confidence than to be told, okay, go play.

Scott Martin: Just play. Stop thinking. I always had a phrase. Here's where the title of the book comes out.

Scott Martin: I always had a phrase I use, turn off your brain and play from your heart.

Scott Martin: Well, that's too long of a book title.

Kevin Lowe: Yes.

Scott Martin: And it's not as catchy. So turn off your brain is, play without thinking because that's where the beauty that's where the jackson pollock paint drip painting comes in how i see it the freedom to play so you don't have to think about it you just do it then you can play from your heart bing there's this head for sure yeah so, that's what i worked on and god that was the most difficult thing was to get them to just turn off their brains first and then you can't play from your heart unless you're

Scott Martin: confident and that was a difficult thing as well especially because they're males you know they're they're 12 and maybe 13 year old just turning 13 some of them males and society's pounding them with all this maleness and trying to be this way and now except to make mistakes that was another one of my statements to them you're not training properly unless you make mistakes so go freaking make some mistakes and try something new so there was a process involved in there yeah yeah summer was interesting so i'll let you you tell

Scott Martin: me where you want to go with this guy yeah.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah well well please share with me the season starts i mean how how does it go

Scott Martin: Okay so we have an a team and a b team.

Scott Martin: And I don't see a difference. So I go up to the A team coach and say, hey, you want to scrimmage each other on a weekly basis?

Scott Martin: No. Well, I knew what that was. I mean, he would look silly. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Martin: So I went to Jose, the B team coach. He said, hell yeah, let's do this.

Scott Martin: So every Wednesday, the B team and the C team would get together and scrimmage.

Scott Martin: So the first time we scrimmaged each other, B team whooped us, seven zip.

Scott Martin: And so you know where I'm going from here then. It's just, okay, now we have a baseline.

Scott Martin: I had to make them first change their view of that other team.

Scott Martin: We said, oh, they're the B team and we're the C team. No, no, no. They're another team in a club.

Scott Martin: And it's our objective to get to a point where we can beat them.

Scott Martin: So we have to work together. So we started training, doing our things and working.

Scott Martin: This is the summer because Washington State is different.

Scott Martin: Summer is for tournaments. Fall is for league play. so we had five tournaments that summer first match we played we won but but and i knew this was going to happen it's like okay you guys are cocky well cocky excuse me you guys are arrogant cocky's good i think cocky is good i wanted to play cocky i want to become cut i didn't want to be arrogant though so it went into the second match going okay i'm not going to touch this i'm gonna let them learn a lesson this is our first tournament

Scott Martin: it doesn't really matter what we do they went in and lost you know i wonder why guys you know we talked about that that was a pivot point though kevin i think i wonder why you idiots because you thought that you could do anything no you need to work change it so we made it out of our group we got into the playoffs and then lost but that was okay but they won a couple of matches and they got to feel now we're starting now we're starting to get together, I think it was the next week or so we tied the B team.

Scott Martin: Now it's coming we get into the next tournament.

Scott Martin: And make it out of our group. We actually won our group, and we made it to the semifinal.

Scott Martin: I think we lost in the semifinal.

Scott Martin: Okay, here we go. Now, a couple weeks later, I think we go to the next tournament, and we get to the final. Okay, good.

Scott Martin: Losing the final. All right. And they didn't play their best because I think it was their first time they'd ever really been there.

Scott Martin: So, all right, it's a stepping stone.

Scott Martin: Next week, I think we beat the B team. Next tournament comes around, play well, winner group, go undefeated, get to the final again, lose the final again.

Scott Martin: So now it's starting to set up with, all right, let's see where this thing goes from here.

Scott Martin: While training continues, you know, we're really heavy into playing music now.

Scott Martin: And now they're understanding just the freedom that they're, they're accepting the freedom I've given them.

Scott Martin: And now we get into our fifth and final tournament of the summer and here we are you know win our group play the quarter final play the semi-final win that get into the final and here we are against this lime green team with this kid i explain in the book that just drives me crazy because he's so coughed and he's just beautiful he just shines shoes and everything and i'll let the readers find that one out we ended up losing in the final again but we then had end of the summer evaluations and every single

Scott Martin: one of those kids when i asked them how did they feel losing that last match and they were crying and they said it hurt it hurt i knew i had them.

Scott Martin: It hurt. Therefore, they had gained the confidence to expect to win.

Scott Martin: So now we've done a full 180.

Scott Martin: Now is the most important time. And we get into the 18 match long three or three or four months playing 18 matches, stately season.

Scott Martin: So let me go from there. You want to? yeah yes please all right here we go first first match we're playing outside of seattle beautiful playing fields and everything we're up on this team 1-0 i swear to god this is what happened and i said exactly how i wrote it the book as well kevin a ball is served into our box to our goalkeeper our goalkeeper goes up one of their players runs into him ball goes off of our goalkeeper's hand and out of bounds and our goalkeeper goes down four seconds we're left

Scott Martin: referee blows the whistle crosses his arms and stops his watch to stop the clock because he feels that it's most important not to let the game freaking game finish but to stop the clock and take a look at the players both players got right back up but because he stopped the clock but four seconds ago, they have the ball as the corner kick.

Scott Martin: So it's their free kick out on the side of the field. Here we go.

Scott Martin: I turn to my assistant. I don't like this.

Scott Martin: That match should have been over with. So here we go.

Scott Martin: Referee blows the whistle. They take the corner kick. Here goes the ball across three, two.

Scott Martin: They go up to try to look to have the ball. My God, the guy gets a head on it.

Scott Martin: And the whistle blows as the ball goes into the neck.

Scott Martin: So we tie the first match one to one and we should have won it.

Scott Martin: Yeah, here we go again. And I was very concerned.

Scott Martin: Truly, Kevin, I was worried that these kids might revert back to before the summer started.

Scott Martin: You know, what can we do? We can't, we still can't, you know, this is all against us. They didn't.

Scott Martin: They didn't. I mean, it's all, you know, we break it down. That lime green team, again, was in our league.

Scott Martin: Week that we lost that last final to we play them and we beat them and guess who because we get down we go back and forth and going into the final match of the season am i cutting it am i going too fast should.

Kevin Lowe: I no no no no this is

Scott Martin: Last match of the season man i mean here's some drama.

Scott Martin: They're one point ahead of us the lime green team i call them the limeys, they're one point ahead of us so you get three points for a win one point for a tie we were undefeated but we had a couple of ties so they only lost one match so they're a point ahead of us that match was to us final match of the season it's at home against the limeys uh the kid with the coiffed hair isn't playing on the field he's playing in the goal because he's their best overall player all they had to do is tie us and they win the state championship That's all they had to do.

Scott Martin: So they put their best player in the goal. Uh-oh, I didn't plan for this.

Scott Martin: So, we had been working on a system of what we were going to do to beat that opponent based on the two other times we've seen them.

Scott Martin: And the kids are involved in this decision-making, too.

Scott Martin: Because I always had a thing with my players. I'm going to tend to ask you more questions, and I'm going to tell you what to do.

Scott Martin: Because if you can respond, and sometimes even if you're wrong, at least if you respond, then you're learning the game.

Scott Martin: So, we went in. We went up 1-0 in the first half.

Scott Martin: And I'm thinking, okay, second half. They're going to pull him out of the goal because they're losing now.

Scott Martin: If they lose to us, we win the state championship.

Scott Martin: Okay, they're going to put him up top as their forward, their goal scorer.

Scott Martin: Nice hair, great cleats and everything. He looked great in that lime green. I hate that color.

Scott Martin: I hate that color. I see that anymore. It reminds me of that kid.

Scott Martin: I got you, buddy. The second half starts and they put him in a goal.

Scott Martin: It's like, okay, dummies.

Scott Martin: So in the first half, it's described in the book, has something to do with the movie Rocky on how from the first fight with Apollo and the second fight and what they do.

Scott Martin: So we do the same sort of thing to get the kids involved. And I yell Rocky and we switch from going right-handed to left-handed.

Scott Martin: In the movie, Rocky goes from left-handed to right-handed. So we go right and we switch our point of attack and what we're doing and are over shifting.

Scott Martin: And anyway, I think I think it's described for non soccer people in the book. I think they'll get it.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah.

Scott Martin: So 10 minutes to go. Boom. We hit another one and we go up to zero. Now they're scurrying.

Scott Martin: They had they yanked their their cutie boy out of the goal.

Scott Martin: They switch him into a field player jersey. Oh, here we go. And he comes in to play up top.

Scott Martin: I hate a two goal lead, Kevin, because you think about this.

Scott Martin: You're up 2-0. The opponent scores one.

Scott Martin: You drop a little bit, and they go sky high.

Scott Martin: So then there's a tendency for them to then, if they tie again, there we go. We lose the state championship.

Scott Martin: So it's all right. We had this ready to go with what we were going to do for them.

Scott Martin: We changed our style defensively on what we did from the prior matches and all in preparation for holding that lead.

Scott Martin: Didn't care really if we gave up one, we couldn't give up two.

Scott Martin: So it was all about milking the clock. And my kids had learned how to milk the clock.

Scott Martin: Take your time and as you know running in take your time going to get the ball tick tock tick tock so as it goes and the clock ticks down something happens with our goalkeeper it's in the book it's pretty cute and boom we end up winning and those kids i mean parents are going everybody was just that the director of coaching i think i hope it stuck him because he thought at one time he told me just you know it's the c team we we need the money in order to keep the club go like how the hell how dare you so we

Scott Martin: stuck it to him and ended up going undefeated and winning state championship so wow that was really cool 12 of those kids ended up being advancing to the amb team the next year wow i was very proud of that nothing wow nothing was said to me it was just okay so yeah i came back to wisconsin won another state championship so we did wait i took another group started with four teens.

Scott Martin: They're all, well, there's one as a senior in high school right now.

Scott Martin: It was two years ago, but the other ones are in college.

Scott Martin: Some of them playing soccer in college. So I was very proud of that group too. Good kids.

Kevin Lowe: Wow. You know what?

Kevin Lowe: Hit me when I was listening to you is I couldn't help but think that with you as their coach, having gone through what you have, having overcome what you have, and just the person that you are, I have to believe that those kids on your team, they got to learn so much more than just how to become a better soccer player.

Kevin Lowe: They basically had a life coach there with them, teaching them about how to do life.

Scott Martin: Thank you, Kevin.

Kevin Lowe: And I do. And I truly mean that. And I have to think those kids came away with more than winning, losing.

Kevin Lowe: They got to learn how to be better people. And I personally feel like that's what a coach is about.

Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Because, yeah, you want to coach them to win, but you also just want to coach them to become better versions of themselves.

Scott Martin: Yeah. You know, I think I could take this philosophy at the professional level as well, because I think that's one of the things that's missing.

Scott Martin: I think a professional national teams have kind of, well, I don't know so much about the U.S. teams, what I'm saying.

Scott Martin: But I think they're passing over the human side because that's what's going to make players play more freely.

Scott Martin: You know, if they trust, if they know that they are trusted to make decisions on the field, there's one thing.

Scott Martin: My mouth is shut during a match. I'm taking notes on. What am I going to do yelling on the sideline? The kids should not be listening to me.

Scott Martin: You watch an NBA game. All the coaches are yelling at us, shut up.

Scott Martin: Shut up, play. And they will play better if the coach shuts his or her mouth.

Kevin Lowe: Yep. Yep. I love it. I love it. Well, listen, we've walked through this amazing story of yours. We've referenced the book.

Kevin Lowe: Give us the details as far as what's going on with the book right now, when exactly it's going to come out.

Kevin Lowe: I know right now it's in pre-sale at the time of this episode's release.

Kevin Lowe: But talk to me about the book, where we can sign up for the pre-sale, all the stuff.

Scott Martin: Everywhere books are sold. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Simon & Schuster as our distributor.

Scott Martin: I mean, that tells you everything right there. It's going to get out there.

Scott Martin: My publisher, Usher Morgan, is kind of like me.

Scott Martin: We do a lot of work and we're scattered on everything we do, but we end up getting the job done.

Scott Martin: But the book drops on June 9, 2026, June 9, book becomes official.

Scott Martin: And that's two weeks before the World Cup opener down in Mexico City. So we're timing on that.

Scott Martin: We're doing a long pre-sale because here's my objective, Kevin.

Scott Martin: I want the book to gain some bestseller lists.

Scott Martin: That's what I want. And you're not going to sell a memoir to reach that unless it's grassroots, unless it's like this, a positive story during negative times.

Scott Martin: And we have negative times.

Scott Martin: So, you know, and what I also want to be doing for the disabled community, because the disabled community is splintered and it needs to be organized.

Scott Martin: So there's a lot of different things, reasons why we want to be doing this.

Scott Martin: And I'm doing over 40 podcasts I have scheduled so far, starting in the magazines.

Scott Martin: United Soccer Coaches, Soccer Journal Magazine is doing a story on us for the winter edition.

Scott Martin: So that will open doors within the soccer community.

Scott Martin: So this is full bore. We have three different avenues we're going into, disabled community, soccer community.

Scott Martin: And I'm really finding a lot of people interested, like your show, the inspirational community. I guess there is a community for that.

Scott Martin: A lot of people, especially today, Kevin, I think we need something positive.

Scott Martin: And your show is one of those things because I've listened to some of your episodes and you do a nice job of presenting, you know, inspiration. Well, it's right there in your title.

Scott Martin: So we have a responsibility and you're taking on your responsibility on what you're doing with that, Kevin. I appreciate that.

Kevin Lowe: Oh, man. Well, thank you. Well, I am super excited about the book and definitely for anybody interested, please check out today's show notes.

Kevin Lowe: There will be links for you to easily be able to get that pre-sale going right away.

Kevin Lowe: You bet. And also, if show notes are confusing to you, just go to my website.

Kevin Lowe: You can go directly to this episode's page, which is simply graceinspiration.com slash Scott-Martin.

Kevin Lowe: And that will be an easy way for you also to find all the links that you need.

Kevin Lowe: Because I'm telling you, after hearing the story in this abridged version of the book, I am super excited for the book itself.

Kevin Lowe: And Scott, man, it's been a real pleasure getting to hear your story today.

Kevin Lowe: And I thank you in the most sincere way for taking the time to be here.

Scott Martin: Thanks, Kevin. You keep doing what you're doing because we both have responsibility in front of us. So let's make sure that we do our thing. Okay.

Kevin Lowe: Absolutely, man. That sounds like a plan to me for you, my friend.

Kevin Lowe: I hope you've enjoyed today's episode.

Kevin Lowe: Again, please be sure to check out the episode show notes or head on over to the episode webpage to be sure that you continue the goodness that is Scott Martin in his book.

Kevin Lowe: So, my friend, until next time, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and this is Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.