Because Someone Cared

By Natalie Hayden

Paul Martin enjoys rewarding others’ hard work. For many years, he has provided a celebratory meal to an OCHS athletic team to acknowledge the results of a successful season. Other years, he has donated to an OCHS team project. A decorated student-athlete who played college football on scholarship at the University of Kentucky, Paul knows what hard work is and likes to show his support to those who persevere. “I have had a lot of kindness shown to me over the years and that has helped me more than anything…when someone doesn’t have it so easy and I can do something to help them out, that makes me feel good for them.”

Like many, Paul points to the examples set by his parents and his coaches as the foundation for who he is today. He began by watching his mother. “Every morning she would get up before the family, go to mass, come home, fix breakfast for her family, and then go straight to work at her factory job at GE. She may come home to fix lunch on her break but then return to work only to come home, cook dinner, clean up and head to bed by 9. Get up and repeat. And she never fussed about it,” Martin said. “Our consistent daily routines form us into the people we become. These routines then become habits and eventually make up how we spend our lives. My brother and I would go to high school, football practice, and then go to work at Wyndall’s grocery until 9pm. Watching and picking up the daily routines of my parents shaped me into who I have become. The things I watched them do have just stayed with me for my lifetime. I am lucky.”

On the football field, Paul credits Coach Don Netoskie and Coach Lloyd Hodge for having high expectations of the players and developing boys into men of character. He considers them to be the fathers of Catholic High football, having started the football feeder program for OCHS through the OCS grade school program. Paul recalled: “When I started playing for OCHS as a freshman, we had 33 players; my senior year, our program had grown to 78 players.” Paul is noted for being the first OCHS player to be named to the All-State Kentucky high school football first team by the Associated Press; however, he would rather focus on the life lessons and habits he formed through the influence of playing football.

Paul’s habits are revealed in many areas: his work ethic, exercise routine, and annual giving to OCHS are just a few. Paul has been a strong supporter of OCHS for many, many years. He sees the success OCHS has and invests in it. He says, “I have continued admiring my alma mater, OCHS, because they do more with less. And that is not just in athletics, it is in everything they do. Every year we have students honored for academics. OCHS continues to produce quality students and athletes that go on to lead successful lives. I am always in awe, and it makes me feel good for what the school can accomplish. I attribute it to the dedicated administration, teachers, staff, and coaches who have made the school their personal mission and passion…The traditions and culture have remained steady and consistent and that is what kids need to be successful! Not to mention having Christ at the center of everything they do. My Catholic faith is important, and I have an obligation to make sure that the same opportunity of a Catholic education is available to kids today as it was to me when I was a kid. Owensboro Catholic gave me the opportunity to earn a scholarship and I wouldn’t have been able to attend college any other way,” he said.

“Your life’s story and success are important, but what I consider most important is my family. My wife Benita, our children, our grandchildren, and the friendships I have formed along the way. These are what I am most proud of and thankful for, and for these I am not lucky, but blessed!” ♠