Carson graduate Allie Martin. Brian Wilhite photo.

 

 

Alexandra “Allie” Martin

 

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

CHINA GROVE — There’s always going to be some what-might-have-been attached to recent Carson graduate Allie Martin, but soccer coach Lauren West, basketball coach Chloe Monroe and former Carson tennis coach Kayela Galloway will always be grateful for what she was able to give them when she was healthy — and even when she wasn’t.

“Allie is our career leader in assists (35) and she scored 44 goals without a junior season,” West said. “We’ve had some great players in the program. We’ve had girls who scored more goals, but Allie’s overall impact on our program was as great as anyone we’ve ever had.”

Martin is the Rowan County Co-Player of the Year for girls soccer, sharing that honor with Salisbury’s Addie Griffith. The center mid scored 19 goals and had 11 assists as a senior, but more than scoring production, she gave Carson soccer hope and gave the Cougars a chance, just as her comeback had done for the basketball team in the winter.

Carson soccer improved from 3-17-1 to 10-11-2 with a playoff berth and rose from 389th in the final MaxPreps state rankings in 2024 to No. 292 in 2025.

Martin remembers playing soccer at the East Rowan YMCA when she was 3.

She started with club soccer as a fifth-grader, competing against the best Charlotte and Lake Norman area girls. She continued to play at Erwin Middle School.

Martin lives in Rockwell, but she entered high school at Carson, as her mother is a teacher there.

“Freshman year of soccer, I had the Isleys (Hannah and Riley) to pass the ball to,” Martin said. “I didn’t have to score and focused on defense.”

She scored her first five high school goals that season.

Her sophomore year, Martin and the extra-fast Makayla Borst, who is now a Pfeiffer University track standout, were tasked with handling most of the scoring for the Cougars. Martin responded with 20 goals.

“I don’t know that I made that much of a jump that year as far as my skills,” Martin said. “But our personnel was so much different. I’ve always tried to adjust to our personnel.”

Martin played a successful junior tennis season, but then she suffered a left knee injury while competing for her club soccer team in October. She missed the basketball season (Carson won one game) and the soccer season with surgery followed by recovery and rehab.

She had suffered a traumatic injury, a torn ACL, plus partial tears of the meniscus and the MCL.

During her rehab, most school days started for Martin with 7 a.m. physical therapy in Charlotte, but after classes, she was still there after school for her basketball team, on the bench at every game, and at every practice, helping with her advice, helping with her presence, helping any way she could. She did the same thing for her soccer team. She couldn’t play, but those girls and coaches were still her team.

“It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen,” West said. “That was a very tough injury Allie had, but she was still a big part of her Carson teams, and her being there for her teammates is going to always speak volumes about the person that Allie Martin is. I’ll never forget that. Her teammates called her ‘Coach Allie.’ I know athletes who are injured often will go to the games, but to be at all the practices? I don’t think that happens much. The other thing that was wonderful was Allie’s family. They were still there at every game, cheering for Carson, supporting Allie’s teammates.”

Martin’s senior-year comeback started back in the fall with tennis. She was outstanding, an individual qualifier for the state tournament.

In basketball, she averaged a double-double — 12.5 points and 10.9 rebounds — and was first team all-county. Carson improved from a single win to 6-19, and the Cougars had a chance in about half of those 19 losses.

“We had some good young players, and I was able to give the team more ball-handling and more confidence,” Martin said. “I took some of the pressure off. The year I was out they just didn’t have any experience at point guard.”

On Senior Night of her basketball season, Martin played the pregame national anthem on the piano, displaying talent in yet another area, and there weren’t many dry eyes in the Carson gym.

“I started young with piano lessons,” Martin said. “My friends had been after me to play for them, and I told them, ‘Well, OK, Senior Night, I’ll do it.”

As solid as she was in tennis and basketball, soccer was still Martin’s main thing in athletics, and she returned as a senior to lead a new group of goal-scorers, including Caylee Miracco, who joined Martin on the All-Region team.

“Allie scored huge goals for us,” West said. “Equalizers, go-ahead goals. Goals in our rivalry games with South Rowan.”

When the soccer season ended with a first-round loss in the playoffs, Martin got to rest for a few weeks for the first time in a long time.

She was Carson’s Female Athlete of the Year for the school year, but her left knee still aches some, and she has gone through truckloads of ice since the injury.

“Our school trainers like to joke that I’m their best patient,” Martin said. “I know it’s not going to be easy giving up soccer. Soccer always has been such a big part of who I am.”

In her younger days, Martin looked like a certain college soccer player, but the injury has made her next life step an easy decision.

She made outstanding grades and was accepted at UNC. She’ll be a regular student there. That’s her dream school. She’s been a UNC fan as far back as she can remember.

Her major?
“Exercise science, physical therapy,” Martin said cheerfully. “I’ve already had a lot of experience with that.”