A Dream Dies Young : Crash Claims Life of Basketball Player

Brent Gregory Martin, 22, a former all-league basketball star at Fountain Valley High School and Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, died Sunday night after the vehicle in which he was riding plunged over an embankment outside Hilo, Hawaii.

Martin was one of four members of the University of Hawaii at Hilo basketball team aboard the Jeep-like vehicle. In all, six people were aboard, but Martin was the only one killed, according to Hawaii County police.

One other passenger was admitted to Hilo Hospital in critical condition, and the remaining four were treated and released.

Kay Lee, nursing supervisor, said that when Martin was brought to the hospital unconscious at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, he had suffered multiple fractures, internal injuries and head injuries. He died in an operating room at 10 p.m. without regaining consciousness, she said.

Dr. Gerald Lau, one of the surgeons working on Martin, said he had died of the effects of prolonged shock.

According to the university’s head basketball coach, Bob Wilson, the group was returning to the campus Sunday afternoon to join in an intra-squad practice game. Basketball season is scheduled to begin Nov. 22, Wilson said.

“They’d gone to a couple of the resort hotels just to enjoy themselves,” Wilson said. “Basically, they went to the beach. It’s about an hour from Hilo.”

According to Hawaii County Police Sgt. Solomon Malani, the vehicle was traveling south toward Hilo on the two-lane Hawaii Belt Road along the island’s coast. At about 3:45 p.m., 26 1/2 miles from Hilo, the vehicle went out of control on a curve, flipped over a guard rail and rolled down a 25-foot embankment, he said. The road was dry and no other vehicle was involved.

“As far as I know, they were not drinking,” said Motor Patrolman Arnold Fergerstrom, who has been assigned to investigate the accident. “I don’t think they were drinking at all. We will be checking further.”

Martin was in the front passenger seat at the time of the accident and may have been thrown from the vehicle, Fergerstrom said.

Martin, who was 6-foot-7, played 3 years on the Fountain Valley High School basketball team as forward and center, earning All-Sunset League honors during his junior and senior years. He set the school’s one-game scoring record of 39 points against Huntington Beach High School in 1985, the year he graduated.

At Rancho Santiago College, Martin was named to the All-Orange Empire Conference team of 1986-87, his second year on the squad.

He transferred to the 3,500-student campus at Hilo as a junior and started at the position of forward in his first year on the team. The team’s 22-7 record that year earned it a place in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics district playoffs, where it advanced to the championship game but lost.

Wilson said Martin was an important part of the team, which he expected to be as strong this year because Martin and two other starters were returning.

But Wilson said Martin was excited about more than the team’s success.

“He kind of found himself when he got here,” Wilson said. “If you talk to his former coaches, Brent had a lot of success there, but struggled academically. He didn’t know what he was interested in. Last spring, he developed into an excellent student. He had a 3.2 (B+) grade average, and he was on the dean’s honor role.

“We ran a grade check just a little while ago, and he was doing extremely well again. He wanted to go into some kind of social work and was very excited about it.”

News of the accident arrived by telephone to the Martin household in Fountain Valley late Sunday night, according to Greg Martin, Brent Martin’s 18-year-old brother and an Orange Coast College student.

The first word was that doctors feared that they would have to amputate Martin’s badly mangled foot. Later came the news that he had died.

Martin’s divorced parents--Marilyn Martin of Fountain Valley, a real estate agent, and Charles Martin of Lake Forest, a retired entrepreneur--boarded a flight for Hawaii on Monday morning.

“Last night they were holding up OK,” said Marilyn Martin’s sister, Patricia Tilton of San Diego. “I think it’s going to be very difficult for them the next week or so. I just don’t think it’s sunk in with anybody yet.”

She said Brent Martin had another brother, Kevin, 23, of Costa Mesa, a delivery driver.

“The funeral will be here (in Orange County),” Tilton said. “There are no funeral plans yet because there may be services in Hawaii, too.”

Dana Pagett, basketball coach at Rancho Santiago College, said he remembers Martin as “a very hard worker” and “a very important member of our team.”

“He was a very fun-loving kind of guy, that’s what I remember most about Brent,” Pagett said.

Dave Brown, Martin’s coach at Fountain Valley High School, described Martin as “well thought of on the team. He had lots of friends. He came from a very close-knit group of kids in his neighborhood.”

Police identified the others aboard the vehicle as Jeff Hales, 23, Jim Farris, 20, and Kevin Patrick, 23, all starters on the university’s basketball team; Cora Tam, 22, a university student, and Michael McCoy, 27, a former university student. Only Farris remained hospitalized Monday. His condition is critical, Patrolman Fergerstrom said.

Wilson said he is trying not to think of what the accident has done to his team. “We’re trying to think about more important things, but we’re hurting. We have nine players remaining. Our biggest guy now is 6-5. All of our big guys, all of them are gone for the season, and Brent is gone forever.”