'Talent knows no age': Ex-Cat Makenna Martin makes fast climb as volleyball coach

Makenna Martin knew she wanted to coach volleyball. She just didn’t know it would happen so fast.

Just one year removed from playing the sport herself, Martin is now Arizona’s assistant beach volleyball coach. The Wildcats promoted her from volunteer assistant coach on May 16.

“Don’t pinch me. I don’t want to wake up if this is a dream,” Martin said on the eve of her first recruiting trip to Florida. “It’s such a dream job. You can’t beat it … not only the environment and the sport itself, but the people — people I’m surrounded by every single day. Just puts a cherry on top of the dream.

“I’m still a little in shock. I’m extremely grateful. And yes, it doesn’t it typically does not happen as fast as it did for me. That’s something I will forever be grateful for and something I will never take for granted. Yes, I was shocked; I was shocked with how fast it happened for me.”

Martin played four seasons of indoor volleyball for the Wildcats as a libero/defensive specialist and three with the UA’s beach volleyball team. In her final season on the beach in 2021, she was one of two Wildcats to go undefeated at 3-0. She was a two-time Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll selection.

Coaching was in her blood. Martin’s mom, Tana, has coached at the high school and club level for years in Phoenix. Martin worked camps in high school and while at the UA and helped with UA beach volleyball coach Steve Walker’s club team, Walker Beach.

As Walker said: “Talent knows no age.”

“I think to anyone you talk to that as soon as we learned that Emily (Kiser) was going to move on to an awesome opportunity for her and her family up in Phoenix, Makenna was a clear front-runner without her even trying,” Walker said. “There was a certain level of recruitment from the staff on campus to say, ‘Hey, Steve, are you thinking about Makenna as an assistant?’ Word travels fast around here and you know, we’ve been walking around all week in McKale, and everyone’s been telling her congratulations and I’m old news.

“I mean, I’ve been jokingly saying it and we’ve been having a good laugh, but Makenna seems to be the most popular person in McKale.”

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Martin graduated from the UA in May 2021 with a degree in education. It didn’t take long for her to get the itch to coach. She called UA volleyball coach Dave Rubio and Walker last fall to tell them she wanted to turn her attention to coaching.

“I didn’t realize how much I would miss college athletics,” Martin said. “It’s funny Dave had always told me, ‘You need to be a coach. You need to be a coach. You’d be a great coach.’ And I told him, ‘Dave, I really want to go teach and see how that goes.’ And I just didn’t realize how much I miss it. So that’s what drove me back down to Tucson.”

Martin left her teaching job, moved back to Tucson and started as a volunteer coach for Walker in the spring season. The Wildcats finished No. 18 AVCA poll with a 19-12 record.

The transition from teammate to volunteer coach went smoothly. Martin gained the Wildcats’ trust and confidence right away, sharing scouting reports on the opposition while mastering the Wildcats’ tendencies in the sand.

“In terms of immediate impact, (she’s) been a home run so far,” Walker said. “… I think it’s the loyalty factor, the trust. Just a built-in understanding of kind of what it takes on a day-in and day-out basis here to be successful. … The familiarity is really comforting. There’s already a built-in trust that you can’t fabricate, you can’t make it up. That’s already in place. It’s not something that has to be earned over time.

“It’s organic. There’s just an energy about the staff that this place is special. There’s a certain level of pride that comes along with wearing the ‘Block A’ and it resonates. It’s something that’s omnipresent and it’s always there and it’s something that you can’t fake and just adds to the experience.”

Martin is now peers with her two former coaches. She admits that it’s been an adjustment.

“They will always be coaching me, I think,” Martin said. “Dave actually walked over to the beach side a couple of days ago and I was sitting on the back side of the desk, where I guess the coach would sit versus the other side. He’s like, ‘What are you doing behind there?’ and we laughed and giggled a little bit. He’s been very supportive and welcoming. However, it’s kind of funny at times seeing your head coaches in meetings that you never thought you would be in with them.”