St. Peter’s Qadir Martin joins exclusive club after being named 75th annual Jaques Award winner

Qadir Martin was in the rare position of entering the current season as the reigning Warren Jaques Award winner after sharing the 2022-23 edition of the prestigious accolade with St. Joseph by-the-Sea’s Christian Greeley.

Naturally, the big question concerning Martin was what can he do for an encore during his senior year?

Martin, for starters, once again displayed an uncanny ability to dominate a game on the defensive end of the floor. Not only did he block or alter numerous shots, but he was a rebounding machine for the Eagles. He enjoyed success on offense as well a season ago, but the 6-foot-6 center enhanced his overall game this year after not only improving his perimeter game, but cleaning up any inconsistencies he might have experienced last season from the free-throw line.

Simply put, he was the whole package for St. Peter’s.

Martin’s dominance was a major factor in being selected the 75th annual Jaques Award winner as Staten Island’s most outstanding schoolboy basketball player, the Advance/SILive.com has learned.

Jaques Committee chairman Tim Gannon made the announcement late Thursday evening.

By earning the Jaques for the second straight season, the St. George resident joins an exclusive club among past winners as he became only the fifth player to take home the trophy twice. Martin joins St. Peter’s John Engles (1971-72), McKee’s Kenny Page (1976-77), Moore Catholic’s Kyle McAlarney (2004-05) and Curtis’ Malik Martin (2017-18) to achieve such an honor. Personally speaking, his selection gives his family — including Curtis’ Hassan Martin (2013) and the aforementioned Malik Martin — a total of five trophies overall.

As far as St. Peter’s is concerned, Qadir Martin became the 24th student-athlete from the New Brighton school to earn the award,…