Thursday, August 30, 2007
Proud Pops looking after his boys
Randy King
Randy King's Tech Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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Not having nearly enough room to include everything I wanted in my feature story on the Martins -- Orion and Cam, the starting brothers on Tech’s defense -- that will run in Friday’s edition of The Roanoke Times, I’ve decided to spill some of the stuff that didn’t make the final cut here in this space.
Hey, if all these blog boys on the Tech beat can simply play stenographers and dump their tape recorders’ words online, I figure I can get away with taking the easy way out, too.
OK, where’s the Girl Friday to transcribe this stuff so I can have a beer? Well, she's hung up at the nails salon, I hear, so I guess I will have to do it.
First on the tee is the Martin brothers’ father, David. If not for a bold move he made, who knows if either of his boys are playing on one of major college football’s best teams this fall, or for that matter, any other Division I program.
So what did Big Daddy Martin of Martinsville do? Talk about going the extra mile to make certain his two sons were given the best opportunity possible to play college football at its highest level.
Astutely realizing his boys weren’t going to get the recruiting exposure, not to mention the high level of competition needed playing at Group A Fieldale-Collinsville High, David Martin purchased a second home in Danville so they would be eligible to attend Group AAA George Washington High.
"We live in Martinsville ... my Mom lives right here on the farm and all our family lives right here around her," Martin said. "I’m an English teacher at GW, and I knew Coach Everett Woods [Eagles head football coach] was going to teach the boys how to play the game. And I knew my brother, Bobby, who played at Tech [1986-89] and was GW’s defensive coordinator, was going to do that, so the boys were going to have a circle of friends around them.
"But in order to get Orion and Cam into GW, and do it legally, we had to buy a house and be residents of Danville for a year. So we kept the place here [in Martinsville], but we basically lived in Danville.
Orion played his final two years of high school football at GW, and Cam played his entire prep career for the Eagles. Now both are on scholarship at Tech, so it’s a move that paid off in the long run for the Martins.
Daddy Martin said he took some heat from folks in Martinsville and Danville for the move.
"Oh, people thought I was crazy," David Martin said. "I’m not dissing Fieldale-Collinsville at all, but that’s a single-A program and I’m taking them to triple-A program. I even had people in Danville who thought I was a complete idiot. But I believed and I knew that GW was the right place for them because they’re playing against guys now they played against in high school."
Certainly, David and Denese Martin did a wonderful job of raising their two children. Talk to Orion and Cam and you’ll get a lot of yes, sir and no, sir, responses. While many brothers would have perhaps split after so many years together, the Martin boys have roomed together ever since they showed up in Blacksburg.
"His room in our apartment is right beside mine, so we’ve been living together for almost 21 years now," said Orion, laughing. "We give each other space. Cam has got his own friends and I’ve got my friends. But we’re there for each other. We’re family and we’re going to look out for each other."
Cam, who is two years younger than his older brother, said his first inclination was not rooming with Orion. That thought didn’t last long, however.
"Now I look at it and you can’t ask for anything better," he said. "We’ve always stuck together. We’ve just always been tight."
The Martins are two guys on the roster that Frank Beamer doesn’t have to worry about winding up on police-blotter list. Mention Orion and Cam, and Beamer will tell you what kind of people they are before extolling on their football skills.
"Great to hear that," David Martin said. "Doing the right thing ... that means everything to me. Because if football doesn’t work, I want them to be good men."
Injustice cleared up
Upon receiving the list of candidates for the 2007 Doak Walker Award last week, I was totally dumbstruck to see Branden Ore’s name not listed among the 51 candidates for the award given to the nation’s top running back. There were six ACC backs on the list -- Clemson’s C.J. Spiller and James Davis, North Carolina State’s Andre Brown and Toney Baker, Maryland’s Lance Ball, and Miami’s Javarris James.
What about Ore, a guy I thought so much about that I cast a ballot for him as preseason ACC player of the year?
My immediate reaction was someone in the Tech sports information department had fumbled the ball since it’s up to each school to submit nominations to the Walker committee.
Well, relax. Ore’s name will be added to the list of nominees, Hokies assistant SID Bryan "B.J." Johnston assured.
Just a computer glitch, Johnston said.
"The guy from the SMU Athletic Forum [which oversees the Walker award], sent us the stuff via e-mail this summer, but apparently it bounced back to him and we never got it," Johnston said. "The deadline [for nominations] passed and we never knew what the timeline was and missed it. But I talked to the guy [Wednesday] and Branden is now on the list, but it just won’t be re-released. He’ll just be on the weekly updates from here on out."
Ore, a junior, certainly has to be considered as a viable candidate in what many suspect will be his final year at Tech. Another strong season this fall and Ore has all the makeup of a guy who will test the NFL waters as a draft-eligible underclasssman next spring.
