Shooting his shot: 4-foot Notre Dame freshman scores first basket
Joaquin MartinezSaenz has long had a passion to play basketball, even after many told him he couldn’t. He even hopes to one day play in college.
So when MartinezSaenz heard about a preseason meeting for those interested in joining the basketball team at Notre Dame-Fairfield, he attended. All he wanted was a chance.
“I’ve wanted to play basketball in high school ever since I started playing. … When I heard about the interest meeting, it made me want to see how it would work,” said Martinez-Saenz said, who moved from Brooklyn,
New York to Fairfield in August.
This was another challenge for the 15-year-old freshman. MartinezSaenz has dwarfism. He is just 4-feet tall.
Martinez-Saenz attended all of the preseason workouts. He earned a spot on the freshman team. He played in his third game on Thursday night and, in the fourth quarter, scored his first basket, a driving layup against Pomperaug.
“I took it and once I saw it going in, I got hyped. I was proud of my first high school basket,” MartinezSaenz said. “The feeling kind of reminded me about how much I fought to get into the position I am in, the place I’m at and how much work I put into the game.”
Martinez-Saenz’s mother, Julie Holland, was home sick Thursday and missed the game, but did view video of the basket shot by her daughter.
“It’s his perseverance and his commitment to getting better. Basketball is his obsession,” Holland said. “What gets me is he would be the parent to us when we would frequently remind him (to not get his hopes up), he would say, ‘Don’t be negative, I can do this.’ ”
Joaquin’s dad, got to see the shot go in. “Proud father understates how overjoyed I was,” Miguel said. “That the coaching staff and his teammates celebrated so enthusiastically meant the world to me.”
Notre Dame coach Brian Kriftcher wasn’t sure what Joaquin’s role would be — even possibly a nonplaying one for the team — to take advantage of his passion and knowledge of the game.
“I was very candid. We had a couple of conversations,” Kriftcher said. “I told him, ‘I respect so much what you have to do to even try to keep up.' I said, ‘You have some disadvantages, that's the reality. Your job is to try and forget about the disadvantages and find ways where you can gain an advantage to the best of your abilities.' ”
Notre Dame provided an opportunity that has happened infrequently for Joaquin. According to Holland, “Since the fourth grade, he was told he was too little to play, he didn't have the skills to play in middle school. He was deterred from trying out for his middle school team.”
Holland said a place called Parkway Hoops in Brooklyn was one of the only places her son could play competitively.
Kriftcher was at the freshman game on Thursday. He said he normally doesn't pull his phone out
to take a video, but this time, he did.
“The players on the varsity team didn't know about the (shot). They weren't there,” Joaquin said. “(In school Friday), when they saw me, they were all dapping me and they were giving me hugs. They were so proud of me.”
Joaquin realizes the difficulty of trying to compete at this level. But he has belief, and the advice of another basketball player who is under 5 feet tall.
Jahmani Swanson is a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. He is also a dwarf at 4-foot-5. Joaquin said he met Swanon at a Globetrotters' game.
“He said, ‘Keep doing what you're doing. Never give up, keep trying.' He basically said, ‘Keep fighting and never give up,' ” Joaquin said.
Said Holland: “He couldn't have done this without the opportunity, the structure and the awareness of Coach K and (freshman coach Noreaga Davis), that he had going into this.”