Cindy Martin "Reach Out for Advice"

Cindy Martin • IUP Head Women's Basketball Coach • University of Florida, '99

I am honored to give my thoughts and just want to say that I love your "WINwithCLASS" team slogan! Your men represent IUP, Athletics and the community extremely well. Athletics mirrors life in so many ways, and the demands placed on today's student-athletes are tremendous.

My personal approach as a head coach and former college student-athlete, is that you have to work hard in every area that your team participates. Some student-athletes will excel on the court and classroom, others it's the community and the classroom; but to be the best team you can be, every member has to know that their individual effort is what determines the success of the team.

In our IUP Women's Basketball Program we have three "C's" that we have built a successful program around: Community, Classroom, and Court. We feel that if everyone works hard at all three, then the team effort will be successful. Our coaching staff holds our student-athletes accountable in all three of these areas. No one player is more important than the team!

Each of us has strengths and weaknesses and I know if you pull everyone's talent together you can have success in all three areas. The three "C's" are the foundation that we built our program on and in our first season at IUP last year, we were named by Indiana County as the "Volunteer Organization of the Year", ranked #15 in the country for our team GPA of 3.42 by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, and advanced to the PSAC finals for the first time in three years. We take pride in recruiting talented student-athletes that have the desire to be pushed to new levels in all areas of their life. We assist our ladies with fine tuning their time management skills along with always giving 110% on and off the court.

Dream big, set high goals, work hard every single day, and always focus on the fundamentals! GO Crimson Hawks!