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One of the area’s top prospects is back on the open market – just weeks before National Signing Day.
Ellender Memorial High School graduate Davontavean Martin announced on Twitter this weekend that he has decommitted from Tulane – going back on a pledge he’d given the school before the start of the 2016 prep football season.
Martin is a 6-foot, 4-inch standout prospect who has options. He’s being recruited as both a football player and also on the basketball hardwood.
The Patriots standout said he still may sign with Tulane, but wants to survey his options – especially after picking up offers from power-5 conference universities in the past few weeks.
“I feel this is the best move for me,” Martin said in his statement. “I want to thank (Tulane coach Willie) Fritz and the rest of the Tulane staff for believing in my talents and recruiting me. Tulane is still not out of the question, but I think I just need to do some re-evaluating and figure out what is the best landing spot for me.”
Martin’s recruitment has heated up significantly in the past few weeks. He received an offer from Virginia last week, and he’s also collected offers from Southern Miss, Alabama-Birmingham, Toledo and Texas-San Antonio in addition to the offer from the Green Wave.
He has a strong 2016 football season to thank for that.
Martin was a multi-position star for Ellender this past season, helping the Patriots go from the bottom of the standings to the Class 4A State Playoffs.
As a quarterback, Martin completed 24-of-49 passes for 376 yards and four touchdowns. His biggest threat as a quarterback was as a zone-read rusher. He carried 82 times for 493 yards and five scores on the season.
But Martin’s biggest football talents are on the edges as a wide receiver and defensive back.
As a receiver, Martin used his speed, strength and length to overpower defenders, catching 45 passes for 751 yards and eight scores.
In the defensive backfield, Martin recorded 36 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions, while recovering a fumble.
“He can play almost any position,” Ellender coach David McCormick said during the season. “He is so explosive, elusive and everything else. But the thing that’s the most special about Tay is that he’s really, truly one of our hardest workers on the team. He’s always looking to get in to do some lifting or to study some tape or whatever. He expects a lot of himself and pushes himself really hard.”
On the basketball hardwood, Martin isn’t too shabby, either.
Martin is the top player on an Ellender team that’s expected to contend for the Class 4A State Championship – a talented wing who has elite shooting ability, but also the quickness and athleticism to attack the basket above the rim.
Scouts discovered Martin as a basketball talent before he burst onto the scene on the gridiron.
Last season, Martin committed to UNO for hoops – a pledge that he backed away from as his football prospects started to grow.
He has offers from UNO, Nicholls, Southeastern and several other regional programs for basketball.
The pledge to Tulane was supposed to be the best of both worlds, because Green Wave coaches vowed to give Martin an opportunity to play football in the fall and then basketball in the winter and spring.
But those plans are now on hold as he ponders what sport to play and where to go.
“He’s a great talent,” Ellender boys’ basketball coach Cornell Scott said earlier this season. “He’s a player that almost all of the other coaches in the state would love to have.”
National Signing Day is on February 1, 2017. •
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