Fired coach gets a hefty payback from Clovis Unified

Attorney Dan Siegel greeted Marty Martin with hugs just before dinner Friday night. The two had just spent the day in intense negotiations with Clovis Unified attorneys and officials -- going over the details of Martin's lawsuit.

"I'm just relieved that it's finally over with." said Martin.

Siegel tells Action News he had no doubt his client would be vindicated after Clovis Unified fired Martin despite a winning record and an appearance in the Division I Valley title in his one and only season with the Golden Eagles.

"It's clear that Clovis West made a mistake and they and their attorney's obliviously had to give Marty some compensation to make him good for what happened to him." said Siegel.

Clovis Unified declined our request for an interview about the case.

Before the 2007 season -- Clovis West had heavily recruited the southern California coach to come and build Clovis West into a perennial powerhouse. But Martin says he never got a chance to fully embrace that opportunity.

"When we came up here that they offered for me to do a job. They gave me an opportunity to do a job and the bottom line is you know, they didn't allow me to do the job and they didn't pay me what they promised me they were going to pay me." added Martin.

Martin recently became head coach of Mount Whitney High School in Visalia after he spent the last three seasons coaching in Kerman. When asked why he didn't leave the Valley to go back home or take his talent elsewhere, he had this response.

"The big part of it is I'm a competitor. I didn't want that image of what happened in the Clovis West situation to be the situation, to be what people remembered me as." added Martin.

Friday's settlement comes at the last minute. The breach of contract lawsuit was set to be heard at Fresno's Superior Court on Monday.