Cape Fear Academy hires nationally recognized basketball coach

WILMINGTON, NC (CFA RELEASE) — Cape Fear Academy is extremely pleased to announce that Tony Martin will be its new head basketball coach. Martin has built a nationally recognized basketball program at The John Carroll School in Baltimore, MD, playing in one of the most competitive Catholic leagues in the country. His career record is 486-196, winning 11 league titles and 15 tournament championships. Over 100 of his former players have gone on to play basketball in college, with some reaching the professional level.

Coach Martin is coming off a season where John Carroll won the Baltimore Catholic Tournament Championship and reached the finals of the Alhambra Catholic Invitational where they lost in the championship game to perennial national powerhouse DeMatha. The Alhambra is widely considered the most prestigious Catholic tournament in the country.

Martin took over a winless John Carroll program in 2005. Two years later, they were 28-8. In 2010, they were admitted to the prestigious Baltimore Catholic league where he went on to win three championships, the second most among active BCL coaches. This was not the first time he completely turned around a program. In the 1990’s he took over a 3-17 Archbishop Spalding team and went 69-30 over the following three years. Cape Fear Academy Athletic Director Chris Meehl noted, “We are thrilled to hire a coach with Tony’s proven track record who is equally successful at building life-long relationships with his players.”

Coach Martin is moving to Wilmington for personal reasons including health issues with an elderly parent. Martin said it is “a quality of life opportunity. This is a perfect fit for me and my family, at a great school, with the highest academic reputation in the region, and the opportunity to once again put my finger on every stage of the building process….all the while being near my family and fifteen minutes from some of the best beaches in the country.” John Carroll’s athletic director issued a statement expressing gratitude and pride for what Martin had accomplished: “We are proud of what we’ve accomplished with Coach Martin. He was instrumental in turning our program into a national power. He will leave behind big shoes to fill.”

Cape Fear Academy is a college preparatory independent school of 600 students in grades PreK-3 through 12. 100% of its seniors are accepted into four-year colleges.