The Windsor Star , August 8, 1974 by Al Halberstadt
IN SYRACUSE, N.Y., THEY CALL HIM the miracle worker. In Windsor, we know him as Medo Martinello. On June 4th of this year, Martinello made a decision that belied his reputation as a prudent and practical man.
He traded in a secure life as a pipefitter and family man and a 6-1 won-lost record as a parochial coach of Windsor AKO’s invincible junior C lacrosse team.
He inherited, in exchange, a life out of a suitcase apart from family and friends, a profession laden with insecurities and an 0-10 won-lost record in the perilous wilds of the National Lacrosse League.
It was quite clearly a classic example of silk purses and sows ears.
IT IS NOW OVER TWO MONTHS since Martinello became chief babysitter of the wayward Syracuse Stingers. He is now heralded as a miracle worker in Syracuse and laughing last in Windsor.
The Syracuse populace is crashing down the gates to see their reformed Stingers play as attendance figures soar in compliance with the improved fortunes of the team.
Martinello has coaxed an 11-10-1 record out of his reluctant warriors. Stingers are eight points out of a playoff berth with eight games to go but, considering their groveling zero and 10 start, such a rising from the mire is a miracle in itself.
The man who has waved the wand discounts any correlation with magic.
“They call me the miracle worker but this team had great talent from the start,” he says. “It was just a matter of putting it together.
“MY ONLY REGRET is that I wasn’t here right from the start. Zero and 10 is a helluva hole to dig yourself into and try to get out of in a 40-game schedule.”
“I think if I would have been here earlier, we could have implemented a real system and right now we would be up near the top.”
At the start, Stingers were the quintessence of everything a professional team should not be…..spoiled, pampered, careless and carefree.
Syracuse battles Toronto from 1974...
When Martinello arrived, the situation was utterly chaotic.
Former Windsor Warlock Jim Higgs was the man Medo replaced and as a lacrosse coach Higgs is still a helluva player.
“From the discipline end there was absolutely none,” says Martinello. “Everybody was on a joy ride, just putting the year in and that was it.”
MARTINELLO DOES NOT EXAGGERATE. Some of the habits and laxities firmly embedded in the Stinger dressing room beggared his imagination.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” says Martinello. “The first day I walked into the dressing room I see this juke box over in the corner of the room.
“Between periods of games, the players were coming into the dressing room and listening to that thing. I went right out of my skull.”
What Medo also did was issue three alternatives. “Either they got it out of there, I threw it out of there myself or I kicked my foot right through it,” he says.
The player responsible for installing the juke box originally wisely chose the first alternative.
Medo summarily enforced other house rules, prohibiting smoking in the dressing quarters and generally cracking down on other areas of eroded discipline.
A WEEK AFTER HIS APPOINTMENT, he summoned Brian Taffinder, formerly of the Warlocks, to be the Syracuse trainer.
“They had no professional training staff at all,” says Medo. “When I got there they couldn’t account for 10 complete player outfits and about 15 sets of gloves.
“I was watching an Indian league game one night and saw one of the players running around with a set of our gloves.
I went down to see him after the game and he told me he was out with the Stingers at the beginning of the year and just took the gloves home with him.”
Taffinder was commissioned as official caretaker of equipment. “Anybody, who tries to leave the dressing room with a piece of equipment now, Taffy just puts his foot down on it,” says Martinello.
Personnel-wise, Medo soon realized that there was more housekeeping to be done.
“There were a few problems with so-called bad actors who thought they were there just to have a good time like in the old era of lacrosse,” he says.
Jim Higgs and Gaylord Powless
“WE WEEDED THEM OUT IN A HURRY.” One such player from the old school was the indomitable Gaylord Powless.
“Gaylord wasn’t practicing in pads,” says Martinello. “He claimed that since he gave everything he had in the games, he shouldn’t be wearing himself out in practices.”
The new coach did not cower from the rather weighty reputation of the aging superstar. “I told him if he didn’t practice, he didn’t play,” he says.
Martinello did not dress Powless for two games. The message received, Gaylord donned his pads and took up practicing.
“Gaylord was used to having his own way,” says Medo. “Now he has really become a team player.”
Led by Powless and the liberation of Higgs from behind the bench to the playing floor, Stingers began their ascendancy.
Higgs, who was unable to command respect as a coach, has taken complete charge of the Syracuse attack as a player.
Jim is already over the 100 mark in points,” says Martinello. “He is still too good a ballplayer to become a coach. He is essentially still a player.”
Stinger's Pat Differ from 1974...
THE CITY OF SYRACUSE, long acclimatized to the field version of lacrosse, has responded wondrously to Stingers’ rebirth.
“The media has been super down here and the average attendance has risen from 1,100 a game to 3,800 since I arrived,” says Martinello.
Should Martinello complete his Moses act and lead Stingers all the way out of the wilderness and into the playoffs, Syracuse may just go berserk.
Whatever happens from here to the end, Medo Martinello has proved something, not only to others, but to himself.
“I really feel now that the game is a part of me, that I was cut out to coach lacrosse,” he says.
Syracuse and Windsor will not dispute it. How can you argue with a miracle worker?
