Injured and aching, Hokies’ Cam Martin trudges grimly onward

BLACKSBURG—Rain still fell steadily last Saturday night as brothers Cam and Orion Martin walked across a parking lot next to Lane Stadium.

Virginia Tech just beat Miami 31-7, but the afternoon proved bittersweet for Cam, a fifth-year senior whip linebacker who started the past two seasons. When the game ended, he limped off the field, a heavy brace on his right knee, no expression his face. He had played zero defensive snaps for the first time since 2006.

Orion, a senior defensive end at Tech last season, waited for Cam afterward. They walked to Cam’s car together. Cam barely spoke, and Orion saw the frustration on his face.

“Keep your head up and don’t let it get to you,“ Orion remembers telling him.

“Yeah, I know,“ Cam responded.

Orion didn’t talk to Cam about the knee. He tries not to. That knee robbed his little brother of a starting job and significantly decreased his chances of playing in the NFL. Cam battled lots of other injuries—shoulder, hernia, elbow, foot, even a dislocated finger joint that broke through his skin in this season’s second game. But none impacted him like this right knee, which he originally hurt in the 2007 ACC championship game.

He fought the pain last season, aided by numbing injections, and rotated every two series with Cody Grimm. In January, he underwent surgery to repair the knee’s torn posterior cruciate ligament. During the procedure, the surgeon found something more serious: a cartilage lesion, which is “like a pothole in the end of cartilage,“ said Tech’s trainer, Mike Goforth. This required micro-fracture surgery, a “very serious” procedure, Goforth said, in which “they go in and put all these little holes in it so it’ll bleed and form new cartilage.“

Martin emerged from the operating room a different player. His knee doesn’t bother him much when he runs straight ahead, but when he cuts, he sometimes feels bones rubbing together.

He is “still in considerable pain,“ Goforth said, putting Martin at seven or eight on a 10-point scale. Because he is, as Orion said, “nowhere near like he used to be,“ Martin must account for being slower by studying more film, so he can put himself in proper position on the field.

Sometimes, even that isn’t enough. Two weeks ago against Nebraska, Martin played nine snaps, Grimm 61. All told, Martin has played 43 snaps this season, Grimm 227. “I’m not dumb,“ Martin said. “I realize that Cody is faster than me. I realize that I’ve lost a step as of right now.“

Grimm, also a fifth-year senior, is “playing at an ultra-high level,“ said whips and rovers coach Jim Cavanaugh. Midway through the fourth quarter against Miami, Grimm ran 20 yards, stride for stride, with tight end Dedrick Epps (Huguenot High), and punched away a pass intended for Epps in the end zone. “I don’t know if Cam would have been able to do that,“ Cavanaugh said.

Martin’s father, David, aches when he watches the knee hamper what might be his son’s final season playing football.

“The hard part is, I’ve seen him at his best,“ David said. He also saw Martin fall in love with the sport as a 7-year-old, when David coached at Person County High in North Carolina. His sons stood by him on the sideline during practice and in the locker room before games.

David told his boys, “Every game is a wonderful opportunity to play, and you play it like it’s the last one.“ Martin maintains this attitude when teammates wonder why he doesn’t ask coach Frank Beamer to remove him from kickoff coverage, which accounted for his six special-teams snaps against Miami. Martin’s response to his teammates: Why?

Martin, 22, has already graduated, and he admitted he considered giving up football “a couple times,“ but “my parents never raised me to quit anything. This is my last year and I’m going to make the most of it.“

Tech’s players and coaches said Martin never complains about his injury, and teammates only know he aches because they sometimes see him wince after he cuts during practice—silent tenacity many within the program admire.

“One of the toughest people I’ve met,“ said defensive tackle John Graves, of Meadowbrook. “A very special kid,“ Cavanaugh said. “There aren’t very many Cam Martins out there.“

Though Martin remains diligent in trying to heal his knee, he knows his future was altered by a routine play on Dec. 1, 2007, in Jacksonville, Fla. A Boston College receiver broke a couple tackles, and Martin brought him down from behind. Then Martin’s knee hit the ground. “It didn’t look serious,“ he said.

What if the receiver hadn’t broken those tackles? Would Martin be auditioning this season for a spot in the NFL draft, instead of cherishing his few special-teams snaps? The questions will remain forever unanswered, as Martin considers an alternative future: coaching.

When he came to Tech, he figured he’d never follow the path of his dad and uncle Bobby, who coached him at George Washington High in Danville. But while Martin recovered from surgery during spring practices, Cavanaugh asked him to help younger players, and Martin liked it.

The future also holds another surgery for Martin, who has undergone two hernia operations and a right-knee procedure in high school. The next one: his right elbow, which he said has been “real jacked up” since high school and now doesn’t straighten all the way.

But David wants more immediate health and happiness for his boy. He visited with Cam after the Miami game and saw that “he was hurting,“ David said. “I was hurting with him.“ He encourages Cam to “do your very best every chance you get.“ David and his wife, Denese, are devout Christians, and they pray for their son. David even asks God, “How can I help him?“

“I still believe it’s not gonna end the way it is right now,“ David said. “I still believe he’s gonna go out with a bang. I still believe that someway, somehow he’s gonna leave a mark on that program that will never be forgotten. I still think there’s some more football in him. I believe that.“

Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 or