The Armenian Mirror-Spectator.
By Mike Whaley
GYUMRI, Armenia (seacoastonline.com) – Atencio Martin’s unusual basketball journey has taken him from his high school playing days in Kittery, Maine, to two tours of stardom at Southern Maine Community College sandwiched around a stellar season at the University of Southern Maine.
More recently that odyssey culminated with Martin realizing a lifelong dream of playing professional basketball. He spent the past four and a half months starring in the Eurasian country of Armenia for BC Gyumri, which competes in the Super League of Armenia.
Martin’s season was cut short in early February due to the coronavirus pandemic. He flew home several weeks before the league decided to shut down.
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“At first I didn’t think too much of (the coronavirus pandemic),” said the 2013 Traip Academy (Kittery, Maine) graduate.
Atencio Martin with teammate Julian Windon, a fellow American
“As Americans we always have the view if something’s going on somewhere (else), … ‘Well it’s not here. I don’t have to worry too much.’” he said. “And then I realized i wasn’t in America. I was in a country that was closer to China, closer to Asia where the coronavirus was really starting to spread.”
Martin, 24, started to take the threat seriously.
“I have a friend who is in the military who gave me advice,” he said. “He said this is going to get worse before it gets better.”
Martin kept an eye on it and then made the decision it would be better to be home than to be stuck in Armenia, “especially if something happens, a travel ban or something like that,” he said.
In late February, Martin’s team was in a state of flux. It was going through a sponsorship change so its season had been momentarily suspended.
Martin’s basketball journey from Kittery to South Portland to Armenia began without much fanfare. SMCC was the only school to recruit him out of Traip, and he recalls being apprehensive. “I think like everyone does when they go to community college at first,” he said. “I’m better than this. Looking back I don’t even have the words to describe how grateful I am.”
Once he got to SMCC, Martin, A three-sport athlete at Traip, learned to love basketball, thanks to SMCC coach Matt Richards.
Main caption: Atencio Martin part of the BC Gyumri team
