Player: Hudson Shrewsbury Position: T Height: 6' 0" Weight: 205 lb Academic: Junior School: PikeView

By BRIAN WOODSON

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WELCH — LaQuell Martin won’t be late to school today.

Martin, a senior at Mount View, had to sit out of practice on Wednesday after arriving a late that morning.

“I feel like I let my team down because I didn’t get to practice when we have got a big game coming up this Friday,” Martin said. “I will be here on time, early tomorrow, I want to make sure I can get out here.

“That is why I am here today. I know what we are going to run Friday, but I just want to be here. I don’t want to let my team down not showing up.”

He hopes to make up for that indiscretion on Friday when the Golden Knights (1-3) travel to No. 8 Wyoming East (3-1) in a rematch of last year’s contest in which Mount View upset the Warriors to snap Mount View’s 31-game losing skid.

“I have heard a bunch of rumors that they are waiting on us to come,” Martin said. “Hey, I am ready to go over there, we beat them last year when they were No. 8. We are 23, we are the same team, they have got the same team. We have done got faster and stronger and a lot better than last year.”

Especially the 5-foot-10, 176-pound Martin, who led Mount View to its first win of the season last Friday, running for 273 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-8 win over Liberty. It was Martin’s fourth 200-yard game in the last two seasons, including a school record 301 in a half last year at Grundy.

“That game was very big for because I broke the school record,” Martin said. “Everybody in the county, they know me so I am just trying to break my own record of 301 yards again.”

“He goes both ways for us now, plays on all our special teams,” added Mount View head coach Todd McCoy. “He has just stepped it up, he had that one 300-yard game last year, he is a capable of doing it every week.

“We had a 407 rushing yards Friday. I wouldn’t say we dominated, but we controlled the line of scrimmage and we haven’t done that in the past.”

Martin’s efforts deserved acclaim, and he got it, having been selected as the Pocahontas Coal Association/Bluefield Daily Telegraph Player of the Week. He wants a repeat, perhaps as soon as next week.

“I feel good right now talking to you,” Martin said. “I will go home and thank the Lord and hope for next week I will have the same thing and come talking to you about a big win.”

Mount View started the season without scoring points in either of their first two games, but Martin finally put them on the board with a 76-yard scoring run in a hard-fought 18-12 loss at Tug Valley. He finished that game with 120 yards.

“It was kind of aggravating because we couldn’t put nothing together and score,” Martin said. “I was kind of frustrated, but, hey, I got out here in the third game and scored at home, it was a nice little touchdown. It felt good, I was screaming the whole way too, it was like ‘yes, we finally got one’.”

He couldn’t be blamed for doing more screaming at Liberty, rolling up 273 yards on 20 carries. He also caught one pass for 17 yards, and had two pass breakups in the secondary. Martin had two scores, and had two more carries of nearly 70 yards called back by penalty.

“He is a good player, I think he is college bound,” said McCoy, who said Martin has gotten looks from Middle Tennessee State, West Virginia State, Concord and rumor has it West Virginia has shown some interest too. “He has got some options, we are trying to get him to keep his grades up. I think he has got the talent to play college football, he has got some work to do in some other areas, but he will be there playing somewhere.”

On the bus ride to Liberty, Martin was reminded by Mount View center C.J. Lester that he started to break loose at this point last season, a campaign that ended with 986 yards on the ground.

“I talked to the offensive line, we prayed, we talked. Like I told them, if it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t have got them yards,” Martin said. “I can’t get those yards by myself, that many anyway.

“When I got my first touchdown, I was thinking ‘Hey, this early in the game, I want another one’ and I tried to get three, but I couldn’t make it. Then they announced I had 200 and some yards. I didn’t even want to get in the game, coach said you are done for tonight.”

He had earned a break.

“He is one of those running backs, he gets stronger as the game goes,” McCoy said. “The more carries you get him the better he gets. He is stronger in the fourth quarter than he is in the first. It takes him a while to get cranked up and once he gets it, he wants to ball and we try our best to give it to him.”

No one enjoys Martin’s exploits more than his large family, which includes his mother, Francis Martin, along with LaQuell’s stepfather, has raised seven boys and three girls, and another sister was killed in a car accident.

“I want to thank my mom because without her I wouldn’t be me,” Martin said. “She is a one-parent mom, she takes care of all my brothers and sisters, she put them all through high school and college. I am just trying to be the next one — I am the baby — to go to college.”

Martin also deflects credit to his team, including fellow backs Jamari Perry — who had 82 yards against Liberty — Donnell Bonds and Montay Bailey, quarterback Chris Muncy and an offensive line that includes Lester, Jhamel Scott and Jacob Ferrell, among others.

“With that line, I love them, they don’t stop blocking until the whistle blows,” said Martin, who expects to eclipse 1,000 yards this season, but has a goal of 1,800.

Martin, who was part of two teams at Mount View that didn’t win a game, was proud to be part of a club that snapped that long losing skid and then went on a three-game win streak last season.

“It felt real good, three games in a row, and it feels good when you know you put a part in those wins,” Martin said. “I put up some touchdowns, I did some big plays, I play defense, I am not saying it is all me, it is a team effort and I just feel like I have done got better myself this summer.

“I ran, I stay in Keystone so I run from Keystone to Northfork, even further than that every day to get my wind back and it is paying off.”

Definitely. Martin has more than just success on the gridiron driving him to succeed.

“All my sisters and brothers, they support me hard, they are behind me, making sure I stay off these streets,” Martin said. “I see people that stay in my neighborhood, they could have made it out, but they are still in the same spot.

“I don’t want to be that same person. I want to make a change in my life and hopefully in five years when you will see me, I hope I will be in somebody’s college graduating college and getting drafted somewhere.”

Mount View has a long, proud history on the gridiron, and Martin thinks the Knights are starting to draw back some of the fans who may have lost interest during the hard times.

His goal is playoffs, a destination the Knights haven’t reached since 2006.

“It felt so good, that first win, it feels good when you wake up the next morning and you know you have won,” Martin said. “Basically the country is on your side again, you don’t want a losing record and the county kind of stayed out to the side, I feel like we got them back on our side...

“I am not saying we are going to make playoffs. Hopefully we will make the playoffs, put it in God’s hands and I will do whatever I am capable of doing.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

bwoodson@bdtonline.com

Player of Week Honorable Mention

Bluefield: D.J. Stewart, 154 yards, 3 td rush; D.J. Edwards, 105 yards, 1 td total toffense; R.J. Bourne, 1 td rush, 1 td pass; Corey Coppola, 60 yards, 1 td rush.

Giles: Brett Whitlow, 95 yards, 1 td rush, 4 extra point kicks; Tyler Perdue, 80 yards, 2 td rush; Dusty Boggess, 2 td rush; Brian Mann, 1 td rush, 1 td pass.

Graham: Dylan Cook, 100 yards, 2 td rush; Charlie Benfield, 147 all-purpose yards, 1 td rush, 1 interception on defense; Adam Carbaugh, 16 tkls, 1 interception return for td for defense that held Grundy to 77 yards, and forced six turnovers.

Haysi: Jeffrey Bowen, 15-205, 3 td rush, 2 2-point conversion runs; Tristan Yates, 13 tackles, 1 td rush; Tanner O’Quinn, 1 td rush, 1 td catch.

Honaker: Casey Dye, 7-72, 1 td rush, 2 td pass; Austin Smith, 20-69, 1 td rush.

James Monroe: Tyler Moore, 7-102, 1 td rush; Reed McNeer, 17-98, 1 td rush, 2 point conversion run and pass; Isaiah Clarkson, 13-67 rush.

Montcalm: Jason Grose, 20-119, 3 td rush; Ryan Absher, 8-67 rush, 2-52 catch; Dakota Lanter, 8-94, 1 td rush, 5-11, 100 yards pass.

Mount View: Jamari Perry, 13-82 rush.

PikeView: John Jennings, 6-93 rush; Hunter Moses, 16-54, 1 td rush.

Princeton: Tahj Sho-Johnson, 20-84, 1 td rush; Jordan Jones, 4-63, 1 td rush; Devin Allen, 16-56, 1 td rush.

Summers County: Isaiah Brown, 18-139 rush, 70-yard kick return for td; Jaquan Ayers, 14-67 rush; Erik Lindsay, game-saving tackle end of game; Tristan Sears, 30 yard field goal.

Tazewell: Malik Davis, 365 total yards, 239 yards, 3 td passing, 126 yards, 2 td rush; Jesse Mountain, 128 yards, 3 td catches, all in four quarter.

Twin Valley: Jake Kowalski, 2 td rush.

Wyoming East: Brian Whitt, 12-91, td rush; Coty Bishop, 8-40, 1 td rush; Aaron Griffith, 7-66 rush.

Editor’s Note: Recommendations for this award can be made to sports@bdtonline.com by Tuesday at 5 p.m.