BB&N’s Tyler Martin: From 8th grade to Grade A

It was just a preseason practice, but Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School coach Mike Willey wanted to see exactly what he had in a promising, young 8th grader named Tyler Martin.

Willey remembers telling Martin, “Listen, we think you’re going to be able to play with the varsity, but you need to prove us right.”

It did not take long for Martin to do just that.

Desi O’Mahony — then a senior and now a player at Williams — lined up at fullback and charged forward to block Martin, who was on the scout team at linebacker.

“And little Tyler, little 8th-grade Tyler, whacked (O’Mahony),” Willey said. “And everybody was like, ‘Ooh! Who was that?’ I think from that point on, we kind of understood that he belonged.”

“I kind of knew then,” said Martin, now 6-foot-3, 235 pounds. “I think I’ve proved that I can hang. But that’s definitely a story that I always remember and I talk about it a bunch with Coach Willey.”

Martin went on to lead the Knights in tackles as an 8th grader, and he has done that each year at BB&N, with the exception of what would have been his junior year, as the Independent School League did not have any games due to COVID-19.

People quickly took even more notice of Martin that year when Don Brown, then the defensive coordinator at Michigan, offered the linebacker based on his film. In a nice bit of things coming full circle, Martin verbally committed to Arizona last Thursday. That’s where Brown landed after getting fired at Michigan.

Tucson is a long way from Massachusetts, but Martin still felt confident in his decision. The other schools he was considering the most were Nebraska, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.

“(The distance to Arizona) was probably the biggest concern out of everything,” Martin said. “The school is great. The coaching staff and everything like that is awesome. The biggest concern was the distance. My parents are a little nervous about it being far, but they know they’ll find a way to make it work.”

Obviously, Martin’s play at linebacker and, at times, fullback, has been impressive. A two-time Herald All-Scholastic, Martin is a load when he gets a head of steam. But what makes Willey so proud is Martin’s development as a team leader.

“So you can talk about legacy as winning all those games, all that stuff,” Willey said. “But I think it’s really about, this is a five-year guy that has really bought into our program and really led it for longer than maybe anyone has, and really established a culture that’s really strong.”

Martin goes along with that sentiment.

“More than anything on the field, it’s definitely something that I’m really proud of,” Martin said. “My parents have always raised me to be the best teammate I possibly can be. Coach Willey is the same way. He really doesn’t care if I don’t have a great game or do have a great game. As long as I’m doing the things I have to do to bring people along and make sure people feel respected and, honestly, loved on the team is a big thing.”

With recruiting out of the way, Martin is excited to get back on the field for his first ISL game in two years.

“There’s nothing like playing for your high school with all your buddies,” he said. “I think that’s something that I’m most excited for. It’s definitely something I missed tremendously last year. Covid was such a hard thing for so many people. It was hard to not go out and hang out with friends. To me, playing football with my friends is better than anything.”