Prairie View sophomore softball player Caidence Martin talks about life and her playing career from the perspective of a higher purpose these days.
“Every breath I take and every action make on the field is just about Him,” she reflected recently while sitting in the stands of Prairie View’s softball stadium. “If I make a wrong action, I try to reflect on it to see how I could have been better for my team and for myself and for my faith.”
Martin’s deeper spiritual understanding was born as a result of a horrific and life-threatening event when she was one of three Prairie View students who were shot by stray bullets following an off-campus party in the early morning hours of Oct. 9, 2022.
It’s not lost on Martin how close she came to her life ending that night after she was found in a ditch near campus and had to be taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital via Life Flight.
“I really shouldn’t be here right now,” Martin said. “It’s a marvel but it’s also a blessing because it reminds me that faith and just trust will bring you long ways.”
This deeper understanding and stronger spiritual connection have driven Martin these past 18 months. It’s driven her back to school and campus, where the 4.0 biology major is continuing her career ambitions.
It’s also driven her back to the sport she loves, even when most thought playing softball would never be possible again. But Martin always knew she would be back playing.
“I don’t think I ever doubted that I would play again,” said Martin, who lost a kidney as a result of the shooting. “I always knew I was going to play again because I didn’t want to go out like that.
“Even my surgeons and my doctors, they said that I had a very fast and quick recovery from what they would have imagined after everything I had went through.
“I never had doubt. I was ready to come back. I’m just trying to get to where I was.”
Martin, who is on a full academic scholarship, spent the remainder of her freshman year taking classes online from her home in Pearland. She would sometimes catch a ride with her aunt back to campus to check on her teammates and secretly begin her comeback while working with the trainers to get stronger.
Martin returned to campus this academic year, but few people, including her parents, knew of her ambitions to get on the field again until earlier this year.
“Every day before practice, I just prayed and asked Him to give me the strength and to make me fearless and be a leader and be courageous on the field because I knew I was going to mess up when I came back,” she said. “I didn’t have any other practices except with the trainers and that’s not really… we’re just working on our muscles and everything.
“I just asked for His trust and His faith to help me through practice and my games.”
Even now while watching Martin work and continue to fight to get back to where she once was, Prairie View softball coach Vernon Bland marvels at her return.
Martin, who is playing backup at third base this season and has seen limited action, hasn’t recorded a hit in seven at-bats but has a .667 fielding percentage.
For Bland, Martin’s return this season is bigger than statistics. He was recently listening to Martin’s father lament about not being able to be there for his daughter on that night and that conjured up some old feelings for him, as well.
“I was dealing with that, too, because you sent your daughter here for me to look out for her,” Bland said. “It’s been a tough battle but to see her makes it easy. She doesn’t have any pity. She doesn’t pity herself. She is harder on herself than I would be.
“She is really trying hard to get back to where she was.”
There is no doubt Martin will get back, considering all she had to overcome just to get to this point. But for now, she is just relishing being where she is, considering the circumstances back in October 2022.
“I love being out here,” Martin said. “I love being with my teammates, seeing everybody work and just seeing God work through us because we wouldn’t have this talent without Him, we wouldn’t be able to do anything without Him. So just being back with the team has been great.”
