25 teams in 25 Days: St. Martin Yellow Jackets

“I have been dreaming and thinking about putting on pads all summer. It’s around the corner so I am ready for it.”

Now that we are in August, St. Martin senior Monclair Brave is right – Friday night lights are just around the corner. The Yellow Jackets are coming off a season that saw most starter positions filled by freshman and sophomores. With a year of experience now under their belt, head coach Ty Smith says his team never let last years record define them.

“Our kids showed up to practice everyday like we were getting ready for a playoff game,” Smith said. “A lot of teams, after they see that the season is not going the way that they want it to, they will tap out. They will quit. The coaches, the kids, everybody kept pushing and kept working.”

Now the Yellow Jackets are ready to prove teams and those with opinions wrong. More importantly they are ready to prove themselves right.

“It is a huge chip on our shoulder,” Brave said. “Everybody thinks St. Martin this, St. Martin that. This year we are going to show them that we are a lot better.”

“We are really excited to put in work because everyone thinks they are going to run us over again,” senior Noel Entrada said. “It isn’t happening like that this year. We are coming this year. We are coming for everybody.”

“Last year didn’t really go well so I feel like let’s prove everybody wrong and change the program,” senior Romane Grant said. “We can set the future course of this program in a better direction than we did.”

Family seems to have a deeper meaning within the St. Martin football program. Grant, Entrada, and Brave all spoke on going to war not for themselves, but for each other.

“This SM means family, like, I grew up with these people,” Grant said. “There’s been a lot of football with them. I am excited to prove everyone wrong because it was a bad year last year and I am trying to change the program around for the better.”

“Going out with my brothers, I am just excited,” Entrada said. “We have all been thinking about this since we were little. Coming here and watching the high schools on Friday. Now it is going to be us so we are just excited.”

“It feels great,” Brave said. “I love being out here. I call them my second family so I love being out here with my brothers and working out with them.”

When St. martin players take the field for practice and games it’s clear they are more than just teammates. They are brothers. Head coach Ty Smith says he could not be prouder of the group of guys he gets to coach every day.

“The biggest thing is I want these kids to understand how proud of them we are as a staff. From top down they are showing up, they are working. They come back in the afternoon and meet one of the coaches. They can’t get enough of it.