Oct. 6, 2010
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV head softball coach Pete Manarino announced today the hiring of Kim Martin as an assistant coach.
Martin comes to UNLV after serving as the pitching coach at Mountain West Conference-foe New Mexico. Besides overseeing the pitching staff, she also handled scheduling, team travel, scouting, equipment, organizing camps and clinics, recruiting and monitoring student-athlete academic progress.
"We're very excited about Coach Martin joining our UNLV Softball Family," noted Manarino. "She brings a lot of expertise to our pitching staff. Besides coaching, she will also handle recruiting, travel and community work."
A native of Ontario, Canada, Martin comes to UNLV with an impressive resume as not only an assistant coach, but as a player. After growing up playing hockey and being ranked as one of the top 5 players in Canada, she was discovered as a pitching sensation by former Cy Young pitcher Dean Chance, who put her in contact with coaches in the United States. She wound up playing at Shawnee State in Portsmouth, Ohio. She pitched for the Bears from 1994-97 and was a four-time All-American and four-time conference player of the year. She earned NAIA National Player of the Year recognition in both 1996 and 1997 and was tabbed the 1996 National Tournament MVP.
She was inducted into Shawnee State's Hall of Fame in 2002 and a year later went into the NAIA's Hall of Fame in 2003.
Following her playing career she began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ohio from 1998-2000. After her two-year stint with the Bobcats, she went back to coach four years (2000-04) for her alma mater. She then left Shawnee State and moved to neighboring West Virginia to become an assistant at Marshall (2004-06) prior to one-year stints at California University of Pennsylvania (2006-07), Wisconsin (2007-08), Charleston Southern (2008-09) and most recently, New Mexico (2009-10).
Besides coaching on the collegiate level, she has coached internationally for the Canadian National Team. She was the pitching coach for the team that participated in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. She has also coached professionally for the Akron Racers, as she helped the team to a second-place finish in 2007.
Martin has also played professionally in 1998-1999 in Langhirano, Italy.
She earned her bachelor's degree in sport management from Shawnee State in 1998 and a master's degree in athletic administration from Ohio University in 2000.
Martin, whose maiden name is White, married Rob Martin in 2007 and the couple currently resides in Henderson, Nev.
