Marco Martinez labors under an unforgiving summer sun, firing out of a three-point stance into a blocking sled.
“Push!” Durant High School coaches bark out.
Martinez, a beefy 5-foot-10, 285-pound offensive lineman, follows with a grunting surge as sweat pools at his feet.
This is Martinez’s first year playing football at any level. The senior goes through a constant collision course in practice, hitting everything from sleds to teammates. Often, he falls down. He sneaks in a few seconds of rest before popping back up.
“It’s tough, but the work I’ve put into becoming a football player is nothing to the work I actually do,” he said. “This is actually easy.”
Martinez, 18, spends the bulk of his downtime in the fields harvesting crops as a migrant worker. His shifts last 10 to 12 hours when he is not in school. He picks strawberries, cantaloupes, blueberries — whatever is in season.
The work is taxing. Martinez stoops through rows of crops, no matter the conditions. His back aches. His knees throb. His hands blister.
“The only time we ever really stop is when there’s lightning,” Martinez said. “I pretty much work all the time. Winter break. Spring break. Summer. There’s never really an off day.”
The grind is necessary. Martinez comes from a large family — four brothers, two sisters — and is in the fields with his mother to supplement their income.
He does not want to make it a career. He wants a college education and an escape from a life of seasonal farm work.
For now, football is his future.
FIELDS AND DREAMS
Martinez grew up playing soccer. He was bigger than most of the kids, which caused problems.
“I got in trouble because anytime I came in contact with another player, they would fall down, and the referees would penalize me,” Martinez said.
But he loved football too. The sport intrigued him, especially after getting so many inquiries to play because of his size. By the time Martinez was a freshman at Durant, he already weighed 260 pounds. The football coaches begged him to play.
“I had Marco in weightlifting class,” coach Mike Gottman said. “We were always on him, but we could never get him out there. We were always trying to figure out why.”
Family came first. Martinez’s parents, Miguel and Maria, came from Mexico to work before their children were born.
Martinez was 9 years old when his father died from a cancerous tumor near his heart. At the time, Miguel had a construction company that supported the family.
“It was very sudden and devastating for all of us,” Martinez said. “My parents started off as migrant workers, but my dad didn’t want the rest of the family to work once he started his business. After he died, we had to start over.”
Martinez’s mother went back to harvesting crops. The two oldest children, Miguel Jr. and Elena, helped her in the fields. Martinez joined them when he was 12.
Summer months in Florida are slow because of the heat. To find work, the family heads to South Haven, Michigan to pick blueberries from June through September. Often Martinez does not return until a few weeks after the school year begins, which ruled out playing football.
“I would just miss too much time,” he said. “By the time I got back, the football team was already a few games into the season.”
But after years of prodding, Martinez became more serious about playing. He talked to his coaches as well as his second cousin and guidance counselor, Jorge Salmeron.
“Marco asked if he should play. I asked him if that’s what he wanted or if he was doing it for others,” said Salmeron, who graduated from Durant in 2000 and has spent the past eight years working as an advocate for migrant workers. “He said it was something he always wanted to do.”
Salmeron said there are about 100 students at the school who are migrant workers, roughly 4% of the student body. Many of those students face pressure to stay home to care for family members or to work to bring home more money.
Salmeron has firsthand knowledge of such obstacles. He was a migrant worker who often worked in the same fields with the Martinez family. Salmeron assisted Miguel Jr., who attended Brandon High, with college applications and financial aid packages. Miguel Jr., now a nursing student at University of Florida, is the first from his family to attend college.
“I was the first of the children to be out in the fields,” Miguel Jr. said. “It’s tough because you’re constantly on the move. I told my mother I was serious about getting my education, about getting out of this line of work eventually.”
Salmeron found his way out of the family cycle of migrant work through sports. He played soccer and ran cross country and track at Durant. He had college scholarships in all three and chose to run cross country at Florida Southern to be close to his parents.
“I encourage all my migrant students to try sports,” Salmeron said. “It’s just another avenue to pursue college opportunities.”
MAKING THE CUT
Martinez worked hard in football conditioning during the spring. He became stronger and now bench presses more than 300 pounds. He shed weight, going from 335 to 285. His grades improved, from a 2.5 GPA to a 2.8.
The technical part to becoming a lineman was the most difficult. He did not know the basics, such as the proper stance and the number system for blocking assignments.
“I thought I had a pretty good idea about what the game was like, but there were a lot of things I needed to get corrected,” Martinez said. “I was lost at first. But I’m a quick learner, so as soon as the coaches started telling me what I needed to do, I could fix it.
“The hardest thing was to just keep going and not giving up.”
After going through spring practice, Martinez still was unsure if he would be able to continue playing. June was approaching and the family still planned to go to Michigan.
“I was a senior, and this was my last shot. I felt like it was worth the risk in asking my mother if I could stay here in the summer,” he said.
Football had already become a diversion for Martinez, who after working long hours sleeps on the couch so his younger siblings can sleep in their own rooms.
Martinez thought it would take more than himself to convince his mother, so he enlisted the help of his coaches, including assistant Wesley Wyatt. It didn’t take much for Maria to agree to stay.
“I was surprised at first that Marco wanted to play football so badly,” she said. “I saw how dedicated he was to it, more than anything else he’s ever done. So I decided the family would be here for him.”
To make up for the lost wages in Michigan, Martinez started working at a fast-food restaurant. His mother took a job at a cookie factory.
In the summer, Martinez went to linemen camps. At one of those camps he told his teammates about the loss of his father and what he did for a living.
“It’s a special story for a kid that doesn’t have a father,” Wyatt said. “He put a lot of heart and passion into this, and I think people are able to see that. I mean, you’ll never hear him complain. He’s proud of the work he does and what he can provide for his family.
“I was telling my brother the other day, ‘We take too much stuff for granted.’”
Martinez immediately became a starter on the offensive line. In the season opener, he helped pave the way for Durant to upset Hillsborough. Martinez’s entire family came to the game.
The Cougars followed that with a win against Spoto to start the season 2-0.
But Martinez’s goals are bigger than wins and district titles.
“I know I’m going to put myself farther in life than just working in the fields,” he said. “I want to make sure that after high school I’m able to go to college and get a good job so that I won’t have to do that, and I can support my mom.”
He knows that path is more attainable through football.
Contact Bob Putnam at bputnam@tampabay.com.
AREA ACTION
DURANT
The Cougars’ 16-14 win over Newsome was the program’s first in two seasons. To make it even better, it made up for last year’s final play. In 2014, Durant lost on a field goal attempt that sailed wide right; in 2015, Peyton Ledbetter was on the money.
East Bay picked up a 42-6 win over Riverview, mostly by ground, but quarterback Ian Kuykendall, running back Gaej Walker and wideout KJ Sails made some big plays by air. The Indians’ biggest win of the young season will give them plenty of momentum going into Durant.
As the district opener for both teams, the stakes are high and both teams will look to extend what have been solid starts to the 2015 season.
WHERE: Durant High, 4748 Cougar Path
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
PLANT CITY/STRAWBERRY CREST
After a scoreless first quarter, the Raiders kept a steady stream of offense going against former district rival Brandon. Thanks to some good fourth-quarter D, the team held on to a 21-13 win on the road. While none of Plant City’s most familiar names had a standout game on offense, punt returner Tydre Ward continued to make a name for himself with a 66-yard return for a score.
The Chargers spent much of their game against Middleton in control, perhaps even when it was tied at 7-7. But some fourth-quarter woes on both ends of the ball handed the game to the Tigers, at 14-13, and brought Crest down to an 0-3 record.
Plant City will look to exploit Crest’s defense (92 points allowed) in the district opener, while the Chargers will look to surprise a team that may not take them too seriously right out of the gate.
WHERE: Plant City High, 1 Raider Place
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
— Justin Kline