We're Talking Sports Ep. 8 - Jennifer Martinez

**Will** (0:45)
All right, welcome to another edition of We're Talking Sports with Will and Ron.

**Ron Arenas** (0:50)
Good morning, Will.

**Will** (0:51)
Good morning. The aforementioned Ron Arenas is here with us today.

**Ron Arenas** (0:56)
I am, thank you for having me.

**Will** (0:57)
Yeah, nice shirt you're wearing.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:58)
Yeah.

**Ron Arenas** (1:00)
I will remember to wear the We're Talking Sports shirt probably next time.

**Will** (1:05)
Yeah, probably.

**Ron Arenas** (1:06)
Probably, yeah.

**Will** (1:08)
So Ron, I got a, I don't know, very exciting show today.

**Ron Arenas** (1:11)
You do?

**Will** (1:12)
I'm a huge baseball guy.

**Ron Arenas** (1:14)
Yeah.

**Will** (1:14)
And so the guest that we have here today is just, for me, it's such an honor to be able to have her on here.

**Ron Arenas** (1:23)
That's right. And she played at Tucson High.

**Will** (1:27)
Yes, Ron, everybody went to Tucson High. We know this.

**Ron Arenas** (1:32)
Well, the important people did. Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:33)
The important people did?

**Will** (1:34)
And you?

**Jennifer Martinez** (1:35)
The overachievers went to Tucson High.

**Ron Arenas** (1:37)
There you go.

**Will** (1:39)
Yeah. Apparently, there was only one high school back then, right?
Good Lord. Yeah. What year did you go? Oh, I'm sorry. Let me Jennifer Martinez, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

**Jennifer Martinez** (1:48)
Hello. Hi. Thank you for having me.

**Will** (1:50)
Thank you for being here, man. Like I said, it's definitely an honor having you here.

**Jennifer Martinez** (1:54)
Absolutely. Thank you.

**Will** (1:55)
And so what year did you graduate from Tucson High?

**Jennifer Martinez** (1:58)
From Tucson High. You're putting my age out there already.

**Will** (2:01)
I'll tell you, I graduated in 86

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:03)
2001

**Will** (2:04)
See, you're a baby.

**Ron Arenas** (2:06)
I was 90

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:07)
Okay.

**Will** (2:08)
You were 90? You don't look a day over 85 Well, thank you. Yeah.

**Ron Arenas** (2:11)
I'm using good skin products.

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:13)
There you go. That's all it is. It's all in the skin.

**Ron Arenas** (2:16)
That's right.

**Will** (2:16)
Yeah. Exactly. Photoshop.

**Ron Arenas** (2:20)
Yeah. Filters.

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:21)
Filters. There you go.

**Will** (2:22)
No, absolutely. So 2001

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:25)
Yes.

**Will** (2:25)
Okay. All right. And how did your high school softball career go there?

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:32)
Oh, it went amazing. Started freshman year there. Made varsity freshman year. Played all four years on varsity. Had a great freshman year and just kept it going all the way through senior year.
I went in as a shortstop, played a little bit of third base my freshman year. They had a they had a senior shortstop there when I got in. So I had to learn how to play the hot corner.

**Will** (2:56)
Okay.

**Jennifer Martinez** (2:57)
And then after that, I'm sorry.

**Will** (2:59)
Ron, the hot corner is third base.

**Ron Arenas** (3:01)
Okay.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:01)
All right.

**Ron Arenas** (3:02)
Let me take some notes.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:05)
Yes.
Then went back to shortstop the rest of my years there. But yeah, it was a great experience, good coaching, great teammates. Yeah.

**Will** (3:17)
I grew up playing shortstop too.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:18)
Okay. Yeah. How'd you like it?

**Will** (3:21)
I love shortstop.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:22)
Yeah.

**Will** (3:22)
Oh man, I love it.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:23)
You're like the head man in charge.

**Will** (3:25)
Yeah. Yeah. And it's where all the actions at. In the infield, even in the outfield. Yeah.
Yeah. I love playing shortstop. That was always a lot of fun.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:34)
Me too. I loved it too. You can't, you have to always be talking.

**Will** (3:37)
Yeah.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:37)
You can't be shy. You got to communicate with everybody on the field. You know, I'd say your shortstop and your catcher are a lot of key. I mean, all positions are important, but as far as being able to see the whole field and being in charge and everybody looking to you for guidance and, you know.

**Will** (3:55)
Yeah, no, absolutely.

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:56)
Yes.

**Will** (3:56)
So when did you start playing?

**Jennifer Martinez** (3:58)
Oh, gosh. I started playing when I was five or six years old. My older sister played. She was great. She was a stud too, but I grew up around it. So I was always following her at practices. My dad was our coach growing up.
So, yeah, I just I grew up around the sport and right away picked it up. And I just fell in love with it right away.

**Will** (4:19)
Yeah. You know, I think we were about I was about 13, 14 playing in the in the summer league, you know, and I had some really good friends, you know, female friends that played softball. And I remember one time, you know, our team took on the softball team in the game.