ÎÞëÊÓƵ

Aug 19, 2024 By Rob Burchianti 9 min read

David Martin III’s long journey through football, and also rugby, was filled with twists, turns and setbacks and it led to his first high school head coaching position.

That job won’t be an easy one as he settles in as the head coach of a struggling Brownsville program that’s gone 1-29 over the past three seasons.

After what Martin’s been through, coaching the Falcons might seem like a piece of cake.

Martin was born and raised in Pittsburgh and is a 2007 Woodland Hills graduate.

“I played fullback and more so outside linebacker at Woodland Hills,” said the 34-year-old Martin.

That was when severe injury No. 1 occurred.

“I tore my LCL and missed my whole senior year,” said Martin, who had his hopes of playing college football put on hold. “I have two screws holding in place right now.

“After that I took some time away from football and went and got my Associates Degree at ITT Tech in Computer and Electronics Engineering.”

Martin took another health hit during that time.

“Towards the end of that I was diagnosed with diabetes,” Martin said.

He didn’t allow that to slow him down.

“I started working out and hitting the iron pretty hard and started feeling good so I thought let me give it another shot,” Martin said of his college football aspirations. “I started doing speed and agility training with 2Tenths up in Pittsburgh, the best training in the nation, tons of D-I athletes and tons of guys in the NFL including Aaron Donald have gone there.

“I started looking around at some D-III schools and met a Woodland Hills alum who was coaching at Saint Vincent College. He recruited me so went up there and got in but that particular coach got a job as a recruiting coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers so he left before the season got started.

His battle with diabetes also hindered him.

“Prior to the start of camp I had some complications due to diabetes that put me in the hospital,” Martin pointed out. “They got my medical records and the team doctor was uncomfortable with clearing me right away so I spent half the season medically unable to perform. I had to see the campus doctors weekly to make sure my blood sugars were in check and everything.

“Week five I was cleared to play. Prior to that I was just working as an equipment manager so I could be around the team and hanging around the coaches and just watching how they did things. That’s where I started picking up learning how to coach.”

Martin finally was cleared to participate but while he practiced he didn’t play in any of the Bearcats games.

“After that semester I went back home and began coaching youth league and taking some classes at CCAC and looking around other schools for a better fit,” Martin said. “That’s when I came across Cal U. I applied and got accepted there. A player I played with in high school who was a Cal U alum named Rontez Miles – he played for the New York Jets for six years – spoke on my behalf to the coaches so they gave me a walk-on trial.

“Before I was able to have that walk-on trial in December, I joined the rugby team just to stay active. The football coach at that point in time took another job and a new head coach came in who’s currently there now and he pretty much rejected whatever the former head coach had going on.

“That’s pretty much where I stopped pursuing football and just played rugby from there.”

Then came severe injury No. 2.

“I actually tore my ACL and my meniscus playing rugby in the same knee, the last day of our spring season, 2016,” Martin recalled. “So then I went through rehab again.

“In the spring of 2017 I played lacrosse because I wanted to see how the knee felt before I went out and played a game like rugby again. It was a successful trial.”

But eventually, severe injury No. 3 would pop up.

“so the fall of 2017 I went back out for the rugby team … and fractured my knee after about three games, the same knee again.

“I had a family. I had two kids at that point in time, so I had to step back from taking classes and go back to working full time.”

Putting his football/rugby injuries behind him, Martin began concentrating on coaching. He got his first taste of coaching high school football the next year in 2018.

“I was still living in the California area and I was able to meet coach Darrin Dillow who was the head coach of California High School at the time,” Martin said. “We had a positive conversation and he brought me on as a volunteer coach of running backs and linebackers.

“At that time I had a couple years of coaching youth football under my belt and had done pretty well at that. I came in following that monster year California had in 2017 when they made it to the semifinals of the WPIAL playoffs. We did pretty well the first year I was there with a three-way split (for the conference championship) in the Tri-County South.

“Coach Dillow stepped away after that and the staff sort of disbanded from there. So I reached out to Waynesburg University and went down there and had an interview with Chris Smithley who was their head coach at the time in 2019. He hired me as a volunteer coach and I coached wide receivers, halfbacks, and d-line. He moved me around a lot and I got a ton of experience there, again at the college level.”

Martin stayed at Waynesburg one year.

“The following year covid took place,” Martin said. “I had reached out to Monessen because I saw they were opening their head coaching position, but at that point in time I didn’t think I was ready for that so I asked them to forward my resume to whoever they hired because I’d be interested in joining the staff. They told me to come in and interview for the position anyhow, but they ended up selecting another gentleman and I had a positive talk with him and he brought me on to his staff.”

That union didn’t last long, however.

“We began offseason workouts in about February but by March 2020 that’s when covid hit,” Martin said. “Everything got shut down until June. Then it seemed we had too many differing opinions and it didn’t work out so we decided to part ways.

“Then I found myself with an opportunity at Ringgold Middle School as an offensive coordinator and we had a pretty solid season going but after five games some of the middle school teachers came down with covid and they shut our season down.”

Soon after Martin found himself at Monessen again.

“At that point Monessen had hired the coach that was there now, Wade Brown, and they invited me back,” Martin said. “I coached running backs and linebackers there for 2021 and 2022.

“After that I moved on because I was looking to increase my role. I was looking for more of a coordinator/head coaching position. I thought I was ready to take that on.”

It was here where Martin branched off into coaching another sport he used to play.

“I spoke to a few schools about football positions but I didn’t have any luck so I started to think about coaching rugby,” Martin said.

Martin inquired at Cal U, was invited to watch a game by the head coach and got offered a rugby coaching position soon after in the fall of 2023. He was to be the assistant coach in the spring of 2024 and was going to transition to being the head coach in the fall.

“At some point before the start of our 2024 spring season he felt it would be better if I took over as head coach at that point so here I am with my first head coaching opportunity at a team I’m an alum for.

“I had never coached rugby before but I had played the sport quite a few years. Even after all my injuries there I had played a couple years with a few men’s teams in Pittsburgh, one of which I’m still a member with now. So I hit the ground running as the Cal U rugby coach.”

The Vulcans club team had a successful spring season of playing Sevens (seven-man teams as opposed to the regular 15-man teams).

“We finished No. 5 in the region out of 23 active teams,” Martin pointed out. “I had full plans to continue building and maintaining that program, and then the Brownsville job opened up.

“I had applied for that job twice in the past and had no luck. This time some guys in the area who knew me, high school players that I coached in the past, kept pushing me. I got the first interview and did well, got the second one and did well, and to me it became pretty obvious they were going to give me the job.

“So here I am.”

While succeeding at Brownsville poses a tremendous challenge, Martin wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve always wanted to come into a program that I could build from the ground up,” Martin said. “It’s working out pretty well. I’ve seen a lot of growth in the team overall already. I immediately came in and implemented an offseason workout plan for them and they were going at it. The improvement I’ve seen strength-wise, speed-wise, agility and just football knowledge is just tremendous.

“Still, I realize it’s not going to be easy. But I’m happy for the opportunity.”