Martin, Marello reflect on departing from Freeport

His coach had yet to say a word, but already Cole Weeks knew something was amiss.

As members of the Freeport baseball team boarded a bus before making their way to a midweek game, Weeks recalled seeing longtime Freeport head coach Gene Martin step in front of the team not in his usual game-day attire, but instead wearing a sweatshirt and sweat pants.

“Usually he dresses out in the field house, that day he didn’t,” Weeks recalled. “He got on the bus and he told us that it wasn’t for him anymore. It was pretty tough.”

Martin, a 30-year veteran of the coaching ranks who in two separate stints at Freeport had coached the Bulldogs’ baseball program for nine seasons, had decided to step away from the profession.

“I kind of always wanted to get 30 years worth of coaching in, and I’ve managed to do that,” Martin said. “I guess it was time to move on.”

Martin, who in his first five years at Freeport led the team to a first- or second-place district finish in every season, wasn’t the only loss dealt to the Bulldogs’ athletic program as Charlie Marello also stepped down to accept the vice principal job at South Walton High School. Both moves had been known about for weeks, but were announced by Freeport athletics director Jim Anderson this week.

“We knew this day was coming,” Anderson said of the departures.

Marello had spent the previous nine years as the defensive coordinator on Anderson’s football staff, helping the Bulldogs to back-to-back winning seasons the last two years, a run that was capped with last season’s historic run to a District 1-A title and an appearance in the state semifinals. For Marello, it was the sort of storybook ending he thought was reserved only for the big screen.

“This last football season, to have a season like that, to make it to the (semifinals) with an undermanned unit that we had … it was an awesome feeling,” Marello said.

During a stint as the school’s baseball coach, Marello guided the Bulldogs to six consecutive winning seasons, piling up a cumulative record of 105-70 that included a Daily News Coach of the Year award following the 2000 campaign.

Despite his on-field success, Marello had long ago decided it was on the administrative side that he wanted to make a bigger push. When Walton County Superintendent of Schools Carlene Anderson nominated him for the vacancy at South Walton, Marello felt the opportunity was too good to let pass him by.

“I am extremely appreciative of Carlene Anderson recommending me for this promotion,” Marello said. “I have wanted to head down an administrative path and my ultimate goal is to become a principal. This is the next step.”

Martin, meanwhile, was vaguer as to just what the future held in store for him, saying only, “I’m not going to hang up a hat, I’m just going to try on several others.”

Both men leave Freeport thankful for their experiences.

“These have been wonderful kids to work with all the years that I’ve been here,” Martin said. “Being here for so many years, your kids get to grow up watching these good kids be parts of your program and get to emulate what kind of kids those kids were.

“I count myself blessed that my kids got to grow up in this atmosphere and around these types of people.”