'I keep my game alive through them': How Tay Martin's path through adversity led him to great place with OSU
Jacob UnruhOklahoman
STILLWATER — Moments before every Oklahoma State kickoff, Tay Martin kneels near the goal line and bows his head.
He focuses on those he’s lost.
Martin speaks to his mom, April. He talks with teammates Tyler Hilinksi and Bryce Beekman.
Martin then moves his hand in the motion of a cross on his chest and points to the sky.
“I pray to them,” Martin said, “and hope they hear me and hope they get my message.”
These moments give him peace during the game. He can lock in. He can bear down.
Football is his escape, but it’s also his hope.
When No. 18-ranked Oklahoma State hosts No. 24 Baylor at 6 p.m. Saturday, there will be no player inside Boone Pickens Stadium who has been tested any more in life than Martin. None who has more on the line, either.
He grew up with little, tragically lost loved ones, became a father and is now on the cusp of stardom.
In his final college season, this is his opportunity to secure a better future for himself and his family.
“Honestly, I’m just grateful that I’m in this position, because I’m going to make the most of it,” Martin told The Oklahoman. “I knew I was going to get a shot in the NFL. It was just making it to that point, because with all the adversity I have in my life, I wanted to make sure everything was good until then on.”
For possibly the first time in his life, Martin is in a great place.
Two complete games into his fifth season — his second at OSU following his transfer from Washington State — he’s the Cowboys’ premier receiver, a dynamic 6-foot-3, 186-pound athlete who has been nearly unstoppable.
Martin turned adversity into his advantage. Hardships drove him. They made him stronger. They humbled him.
Misery prepared him for the spotlight.
“He’s got a great heart,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “He’s a good person, and he wants to do the right things for all the right reasons, so that gives him a chance.”
‘God had a plan for her’
April Martin often faced impossible choices.Some weeks, electricity was unaffordable. She and her four children would often shower elsewhere.
She worked two jobs, sometimes three, in an effort to just get by.
Life in Houma, Louisiana, was far from easy.
“I was used to not making it,” Tay Martin said. “It was hard growing up. But the way that she carried herself, you would never know anything was wrong.”
She was outgoing and beloved. And she worked to not show the stress. She did not miss Tay’s athletic events. She took her daughters to dance events. She was always there for her family.
Suddenly, that stopped the morning of April 11, 2016.
Tay awoke in the living room. He went to get April up. She was unresponsive. He tried and tried. He called 911, but emergency officials were unable to revive her.
April died overnight due to cardiac arrest. She was 34 and less than a month away from heart surgery.
In an instant, Tay’s world was flipped upside down.
At the time, his father, Brian Ross, was serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in a hit-and-run case. Without his father around, Tay went from being a high school junior to man of the house. He had two sisters and a brother to look after.
“I grew up pretty young,” Tay said. “But that was where I came from. We all grow up pretty young and have to make sacrifices. We grew up without sometimes. We just had to step up.
“That was common to me. But my whole situation wasn’t common.”
Tay and his siblings did not want to stay in the trailer that was home. They moved in with April’s sister Gusta.
The burden couldn’t fall entirely on Tay; he had a future to make.
“I needed support,” Tay said.
It was Gusta who helped Tay break out of a funk.
For nearly a month after April’s death, Tay lost interest in just about everything. But Gusta sat him down. She told him he had to be strong. His family needed him.
Tay tried to shake it off. He put on a brave face publicly and for his family.
He still often cried in the shower.
“I knew what my mom would want me to do,” he said. “I looked at it in that aspect. She didn’t want to leave so soon, but God had a plan for her. She would want me to get my education and do what I had to do to help my siblings.
“I was trying to be the best big brother I could at the time. I was numb to the pain. I had a lot of questions, but at the end of the day I had younger siblings. I knew if they see me any certain way then I’d be setting a bad example for them.”
