The End of an Era

     After 12 years of coaching and building Georgia State's women's soccer program, Domenic Martelli's contract was terminated on Nov. 8 by Athletic Director Cheryl Levick after the team posted a 7-12-1 record and fell just one win short of securing a spot in the CAA tournament.

       Two days after being dismissed of his longtime duties at Georgia State, Martelli was hired by Georgia Gwinnett College to help build its new women's soccer program as well as its new athletics department.

In May of 2010, Martelli was given a 6-month contract extension for the 2010 season, and was to be reevaluated by the athletics department.

       Martelli exceeded expectations as he coached the team to a 12-6-2 regular season record and its first berth in the CAA tournament since joining the conference in 2005. Despite the tournament appearance and several quality wins, Martelli was again given a short-term extension for the 2011 season for another evaluation period.

         "I knew that basically this was a year where I would again be evaluated as closely as I was last year," Martelli said. "You don't want to be in that situation, and you don't want to have the team feel stressed."

Martelli was surprised by the way the team handled the situation.

       "It was probably the best year on and off the field that I've had here at Georgia state with the team, with the games and with the way we competed," he said. "The girls were tremendous on and off the field. We had a very tight group, [and] we created that family environment very nicely again this year."

      The team picked up where they left off in the exhibition season and looked poised to make another bid for the CAA title, but a number of close matches, questionable calls and bad bounces left the team just short of repeating their success from the previous year.

      "Honestly, it came down to some of our last games, and we were just one game out of the conference tournament," Martelli said.

Failure to repeat the success from a season ago appeared to be a regression, and that was enough for Levick and the AD to want to part ways with Martelli.

       "Once we didn't make the conference tournament there was never any conversation, there was never any evaluation [and] there was never anything told to me of where I stood, until there was an email asking me to have a meeting that Tuesday at 9:30 in the morning," Martelli claims. "It was a conversation that lasted very little time. The non-renewal and the going in different directions, and ‘thank you' were basically the conversation."

      In the 12 seasons that Martelli was the head coach, Georgia State underwent numerous changes that aided in recruiting student-athletes. In 2007, the University Commons were opened, and a significant amount of dorms were finally available on campus. In 2008, the Panthersville athletic field was outfitted with bleachers and a modern scoreboard, and in 2009 it was outfitted with proper field lighting.

        "All those little things are much better draws to a student-athlete from not only Atlanta, but the whole country," Martelli said. "As the roster grew and the players came from all over, the success showed, and last year was a great result of all that work from ten years that all the administrators, coaches, Georgia State and myself put into building the program."

        Despite being let go after such a long tenure, Martelli says that he is not bitter nor does he leave with any regrets.

"A lot of me, my personality, what effort I've put into the program, the time and the loyalty I have for Georgia State, I leave that without any regret," he said. "There's nothing I did that didn't fulfill those categories."

        After being let go, Martelli was quickly snatched up by Georgia Gwinnett College, who is starting a new athletics department.

"In my life and in my profession this is a great opportunity for me to be at a school that's growing [and] be at a school that has a lot of the tradition and foundations that I believe," he said.

       Georgia Gwinnett plans to have six sports in play by Fall of 2012, according to Martelli, and there are plans to build a $12 million plus athletics complex on campus that would include tennis courts, a baseball field and practice field, a soccer field and track as well as administrative buildings.

        In addition to hiring Martelli, GGC's Athletic Director Dr. Daren Wilson hired Brad Stromdahl from Georgia State as their baseball head coach. Stromdahl served as the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach for the Panthers baseball team for the past six years.

       Martelli is excited to be a part of a new program again, and leaves Georgia State with his head held high.

"It's a great opportunity," he said. "It's a win-win. I gave great years to Georgia State and left the program in very good shape. [To] my players, former players and coaches, I think everyone had a piece in making the program what it is now. I wish them all the best."