Katie Martin Named SJCS Girls Soccer Coach

By Bob Castello
SJCS Communications Manager

When it comes to playing soccer, Katie Martin has been all over.

When it comes to coaching the sport, she hasn't moved much at all -- with regard to location or age group. She's been around here, and she's been mentoring high school athletes.

And having been named the Varsity Head Coach of the girls soccer team at St. Joseph's Catholic School, she anticipates a smooth transition.

"I'm super excited to get to continue to work with the high school age, especially girls," Coach Martin said. "It's not common to have a female head coach, and we'll also have an all-female coaching staff. That's something that's pretty unheard of, and something I'm pretty excited about.

"Then, of course, there's building those relationships with the girls and helping them further their passion for the game."

Coach Martin has been working with the United FC Furman club -- coaching high school-aged girls -- since 2021. She also served as Junior Varsity Co-Head Coach and Varsity Assistant Coach at Eastside High School for the past three years, helping the Varsity to three consecutive Class 4A state championships, and previously at Dixie High School.

As for playing the sport, Coach Martin began when she was about 4 years old. Her father is in the Navy, and so she grew up all over the East Coast. She played her freshman year of high school in Italy and her sophomore year in a suburb of Chicago.
 

Then her family moved to South Carolina, and she spent her junior and senior years at Ben Lippen School in Columbia, graduating in 2017. She earned a scholarship to Erskine College, and along with having an outstanding career with the Flying Fleet (she led the team in goals as a junior before losing most of her senior season to Covid-19), she also met her future husband, Dawson, through his sister, a teammate at Erskine.

Upon graduating, Katie married Dawson Martin, an Eastside High School graduate who went on to play soccer at North Greenville University. The two have been working for the United FC Furman club, where Bill Martin, Dawson's father, is the Executive Director.

In addition, Joe O'Neill, whom Katie Martin is replacing as the Knights' coach, is United FC's Recreation and Academy Director. Katie first met Coach O'Neill when both were at Erskine; they're good friends, and Coach O'Neill, who led the Knights for the past three seasons, recommended her for the job.

"I played a bunch of different sports, but I honed in on soccer hoping that it would get me a scholarship, and it did," Katie said. "Now I'm just excited to be able to stay involved with the game. It looks a little different now, the coaching aspect of it versus playing, but I thoroughly enjoy every aspect of it, for sure."

Katie and Dawson have a daughter, Macie, who's nearing her second birthday, and Katie has an exciting opportunity and a nice case of stability.

"It's crazy that we ended up here in South Carolina," she said, "but I think we're here to stay in Greenville."