FARMINGTON — Jared Martin admits his favorite position on the football field is tailback. Thankfully for Farmington, he didn’t limit his talents to just the offensive backfield during his Cardinals career.
Martin, who’ll play for the West team today in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association Football All-Star Game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, might be considered a running back first.
The 5-foot-9, 180-pound Martin gained 939 yards and 17 touchdowns on 151 carries last season despite missing three games to a sprained knee. He was part of a Farmington backfield that worked wonders as the team advanced the Class 4A semifinals.
But running the ball was just part of Martin’s importance to the Cardinals. He racked up 54 tackles, one sack and one interception as a tough-minded linebacker, and he served as a soft-spoken leader on the Cardinals defense.
Wherever Farmington needed Martin, he was willing to go. Whatever the Cardinals needed from Martin, he was more than willing to do it.
“I’ve never had a player in 33 years who works as hard as he does,” said Farmington coach Mike Adams, who’ serving as an assistant on the West team this year. “He gives you everything he’s got and that’s the way he is in the game.
“And other guys, especially the younger guys, they see the success he has and it carries over for those guys.”
Martin battled back from a sprained knee not once, but twice during his senior season. Along with quarterback Deon Clay and fellow running back Spencer Boudray, Martin helped the Cardinals to an 11-3 record and a 5-2 mark in the 4A-1 Conference.
Farmington earned wins over Dumas, Heber Springs and McGehee in the state playoffs before a loss to Malvern in the semifinals. The deep postseason run might have surprised some, but not Martin.
“This team and my senior class has been best friends since junior high, and we’ve set goals for ourselves to make it far in the playoffs, if not go all the way,” Martin said. “So we had high expectations for each other.”
Martin will attend Arkansas this fall, but getting the chance to compete against some of the state’s top football talent in the all-star game before he puts up the cleats is a thrill.
“This is a great honor to represent my school and to show that I can play with the best of the best,” Martin said. “It’s a great honor to be put in that environment, and I’m going to play as hard as I possibly can.”
Effort has never been a problem for Martin, who’ll get a final chance tonight to do whatever it takes.
“He just likes being a football player,” Adams said. “He played tailback his entire life, but he played a lot of linebacker for us this year, and this week is a great example. He’s making a lot of great plays out here this week
“He usually goes 100 miles and he just brings that intensity to whatever he’s doing on the football field.”