Couple find NC student athletes millions in college scholarships

When Keschia and Emerson Martin, newly married, were busy raising two young sons in 2002, they adopted a 15-year-old boy from Elizabethtown.

Derrick Jones was a fantastic running back for his high school where Emerson Martin, a former NFL player, was his coach. But the boy needed more, and the young couple were determined he get it.

“It started off with us taking Derrick under our wing, taking him on trips, taking him outside of his area, making him dream and want better,” Emerson Martin says. “He needed to be guided and work on his grades. He was a good kid in his heart, but he was just acting out, and you could tell some things were going on.”

Jones, now 31, said the Martins taught him what he needed to be successful.

“During that time in my life, I was in a dark place,” Jones says. “I needed guidance, structure, discipline and a mentor. After becoming Emerson and Keschia’s adopted son, my life began to transition. I learned etiquette, responsibility and how to become the man I am today.”

The couple moved to Raleigh so Emerson could take a coaching job at St. Augustine’s University. Emerson continued coaching Jones, using NFL strategies and regimens.

“The coaching I received was one-on-one. I was far more advanced than others my age,” says Jones, who earned a football scholarship to East Carolina University. “My pops Emerson was the mentor I needed. He saw something in me that I would have never seen in myself during that period of my life.”

Eight years later, and after Jones had talked to his parents about how the experience changed his life, Keschia Martin launched Players2Pros, a coaching business that helps student athletes nationwide find college scholarships. She handles the marketing, website and finances while her husband does the coaching and placement.

In addition to time on the field, students often need mentoring and help with schoolwork. The Martins connect players with they resources they need. A player may be good enough for college ball, says Keschia Martin, but is he ready for college?

“What I learned (from Derrick) was whatever an athlete is getting or experiencing five days a week or seven days a week in his household, that is what’s going to be in his mind,” she says. “Whether or not he can believe in himself and believe that he can achieve the goal of going to college and even play well in a Friday night game, it’s all going to be contingent on what’s fed to him in his life.”

Last year alone, Players2Pros athletes in North Carolina received more than $1.1 million in scholarships, with seven players receiving “full rides,” including Larrell Murchison, who’ll play defensive tackle this year for N.C. State University. Since the company’s inception in 2012, 14 athletes have earned full rides; 24 have earned partial scholarships.

The company’s “Extreme Exposure Bus Tour” is one way it helps hopefuls get in front of college scouts and coaches, traveling now through the end of July to Campbell and Elon universities and the Universities of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. On a recent Friday, players got an audience with N.C. State coaches at the Close-King Indoor Practice Facility.

Jessica Harris, whose son Joshua met with the State coaches, said the help from Players2Pros goes beyond football.

“They have bought my son cleats and equipment and never expected anything in return,” she says. “The program has given my son an opportunity that we would only dream about. I’m a single mom with four children, so my boy going to college is a dream that’s going to come true.”

Help with college, that’s the goal.

“Everybody’s not going to go to N.C. State, but they might go Campbell, or they might go to Mars Hill,” Emerson says. “We can still put a package together that’s a free education, and they get to play. My thing is not to get kids to the NFL, although we have some that will, but it’s to get them a free education.”

A football network

Emerson Martin launched his NFL career after graduating from Hampton University in Virginia, signing on as a free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993.

“I was able to play in 1994 with Joe Montana,” Emerson says. “Then the expansion draft came to Carolina, so I started with the Panthers; I’m an original Panther. I got released midway through season, ended up in Pittsburgh and went to Super Bowl 30; we lost to Dallas. I stayed in Pittsburgh for three years after that.”

A back injury forced Emerson to retire, and he started coaching – first for the Carolina Cobras in 1999, an arena football team in Raleigh. When the Cobras moved to Charlotte, he began coaching high school in Elizabethtown and then at St. Augustine’s University. His experience as a coach and a player – and his network of contacts – is key.

“I played in the ’90s, and a lot of the guys I played with are now coaches, so they respect me from the field,” he says. “When I say I have a kid, they take a look at him, and if they don’t need him, they call other coaches.”

In addition to back surgery, Emerson has had surgeries on his knee and wrist and has also been diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms.

“My psychiatrist told me to do things I enjoy,” he says. “I have a degree in mathematics, so I tutor kids in math and I do football.”

Keeping it going

Although Players2Pros is a for-profit organization, the Martins don’t earn a living from it – not yet, anyway. They do get help from a few corporate sponsors, but both work other full-time jobs; Keschia as an administrative assistant and Emerson as a football coach at Village Christian Academy in Fayetteville.

They don’t always get paid, but they’re proud they have no debt or loans attached to the business.

“We got it started from our savings,” Emerson says. “We decided we were going to make an investment and invest in kids. I wanted to change the way football is seen in North Carolina. I wanted to open up opportunities for young men to get scholarships.”

Last year was the first year the Martins organized the bus tour, which doesn’t involve an actual bus – that’s too expensive; instead parents caravan players. The Martins paid for the tour last year, but money was tight this year.

“We weren’t able to fund it, but our parents see the value in it, so they paid for it,” Emerson said.

Training sessions are $25 each and are open to rising ninth- through 12^th-graders every Saturday at 10 a.m. at Chavis Memorial Park Field in Raleigh. The money is enough to pay the coaches – who include their son Derrick – but not always themselves. Currently, about 20 young men participate in Raleigh. A sister program in Charlotte is bigger, training about 60 each week.

Players2Pros could raise its prices, but the Martins don’t want to price people out. “Our goal is to make sure there is not one kid who misses out on an opportunity because of the money,” Keschia Martin says.

Adds her husband: “If a kid shows up, and we’re on the field coaching and he’s practicing by himself, I’ll walk up and say, ‘What are you doing?’ and if he says, ‘I’m trying to get better,’ I say, ‘Well c’mon.’ ” With the help of their church, the Martins have started a nonprofit, We Build Champions, to sponsor players who can’t afford sessions.

A good team

In marriage and in business, Keschia Martin says she’s the practical one. Emerson Martin is the idealist.

“My husband’s a dreamer; he’s always been that guy,” she says. “He’s experienced things most people haven’t experienced. Me being a realist is about me seeing the reality of where we are in the moment and creating the plan.”

Personalities aside, both believe in what they’re doing.

“One of the things I’ve always said to my wife was that I want a life of purpose; I want to be remembered when I’m gone,” Emerson Martin says. “You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t touch anybody, it doesn’t mean anything.”

Keschia Martin, who had never even watched a football game before meeting her husband, loves how the game is an equalizer.

“Our guys come from everywhere,” she says. “They’re all races, they’re all ages. When we get on the field on Saturdays, there are no politics; there are no issues or lines drawn in the sand. The only thing we have are a bunch of guys working together, building brotherhood, to create better futures for themselves. That feels so good.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2017 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Couple find NC student athletes millions in college scholarships."