Favorite Jay Martin Story
Franklin Rodriguez '25
Santiago, Dominican Republic
I never toured OWU and did not know much about what the school was like until I was being recruited for the soccer team, but my first encounter with Jay made my choice easy. I remember my first Zoom meeting with Jay and Matt, where Jay explained how the program works and how this is a "player's program." I had never heard of this ideology before and it really interested me.
Jay's way of speaking about how the player's intrinsic motivation and doing the "little things" has made the program so successful struck me. I had read about all of his achievements and awards, but he didn't even mention them during the meeting like all the other coaches do. He also said how this program doesn't aim to create great soccer players only, but prepares soccer players to be great men for the rest of their lives.
As I have had the honor to be coached by Jay for four years, I have witnessed first-hand how doing the little things that Jay emphasizes daily impacts how we play and our everyday lives. Maybe we won't have to pick up a single cone after we are done with soccer for the rest of our lives, but we will be men, brothers, coworkers, husbands, and fathers who will be prepared to make our surroundings better than how we found them.