By Allen Mardakhayev
The love for sport is what drives athletes to continue playing their beloved game. From different walks of life come different paths to cross, exemplified in Grace Martinez-Espina, alumna of Brooklyn College and student-athlete.
Martinez-Espina graduated from BC in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and Kinesiology. During her time at BC, Martinez-Espina was a student-athlete with a record career on the women’s basketball team from 2016 to 2019. During her time with the Bulldogs, they won the 2018 CUNYAC Women’s Basketball Championship and made an NCAA Tournament appearance, according to the Brooklyn College Athletics website.
Her fitness career did not stop after graduation, however, as she continued on to become a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, working in physical therapy and personal training. Martinez-Espina had acquired her certification and became a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) under the NSCA.
The years that followed after Martinez-Espina’s farewell from CUNYAC play had her chasing her dream of playing basketball professionally. With the opportunity granted, Martinez-Espina was able to showcase her abilities for her native country, the Dominican Republic, and play professional basketball in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Femenino (LNBF) for Águilas de Guachupita in August 2021, as previously reported by The Vanguard.
In an interview with The Vanguard, Martinez-Espina expressed her mentality from when she was just a senior at BC, as her ambitions of playing basketball professionally brought her closer to her innermost dreams.
“I feel like after my senior year, I always had it in my mind that, ‘Hey, why not, I have nothing to lose,’ and I wanted to use that time while I’m still young after college to pursue playing professional basketball,” Martinez-Espina told The Vanguard.
“I pursued it because it’s something I always dreamed of and I thought, why not take it a step further than college and play professionally. I made it up in my mind, came up with a plan, and I was ready for what stood ahead of me,” she said.
The sport that Martinez-Espina held dear to her heart pushed her to break boundaries and hone in on her aspirations.
“The game of basketball professionally requires you to tap into your network and if playing overseas is something you seriously want to do, then put yourself out there and network as much as possible” Martinez-Espina stated. “The second step is being able to ruthlessly self-evaluate . This would mean to identify your weaknesses and work on turning them into strengths in order for teams to look at you and deem you as a valuable player for their lineup.”
The depth of Martinez-Espina’s words holds truth from her experiences. She hopes that they resonate with women basketball players at the college level who are now in a place to take that step further as she did once before in 2021.
Following her professional career, Martinez-Espina would bring her tenacious outlook on athletics back to BC. In the 2023 to 2024 school year, she joined the staff and inaugurated the newly established Strength and Conditioning Coach Program. This school year is her second as Head of Strength and Conditioning, where she is trusted to guide athletes into becoming better players in their respective sport.
“My mission is to provide the best care to hard working athletes and help them to achieve their performance goals, reduce the likelihood of injury, and increase their mental toughness and confidence (planting seeds to reap the harvest, the work will always show),” Martinez-Espina told The Vanguard.
Martinez-Espina considered it necessary that athletes should be training based on the needs of their sport during that time period. This includes several different styles of training, including plyometrics, which utilizes rapid movements, isometrics, which strengthens muscles, and strength training, which aims to build muscle strength and endurance.
“The way you train is based on whether you are pre-season, in-season or offseason, as well as if it not only fits the demand of your sport, but also if it fits the demand of your position,” she told The Vanguard. “I am trying to set athletes up for a good general foundation to then target their specific demands for the types of movements that they will be exposed to on the court, on the field, in the pool and on the track”
From a technical side, Martinez-Espina’s methods for training are to have athletes keeping themselves in a steady structured routine respective to their sport.
“Before I do anything, the first thing I ask is ‘How are we feeling?’ because I can have the perfect program written out for you, but if you come in and you are presenting to me any aches and pains then I would need to remedy that first,” she stated. “I try to keep it as tailored to the individual person as much as possible to prevent strain and mobilize any discomforting movements.”
Martinez-Espina understands that her role as a Strength and Conditioning coach is for athletes to be able to withstand their bodies’ own discomforts within reasonable measures, as recovery is the center of what makes a healthy, mobilized athlete.
In 2025, Martinez-Espina goes into her third year as the head Strength and Conditioning coach at BC, and much is still to come as what Martinez-Espina has to offer pushes far greater than what she has already shown.