Kyle Trask sits in the Gators locker room prior to his first career start last season against Tennessee. (Photo: Evan Lepak/UAA Communications)
Trask's High School Coach Still Marvels at His Manvel Days
Thursday, August 27, 2020 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The stories never get old for Kirk Martin, and considering their protagonist, that's a good thing. The tales are ones Martin is likely to recall again and again as the years pass.
Maybe one day, as Martin likes to wisecrack, ESPN will make a "30 for 30" documentary on Gators quarterback Kyle Trask. It would be your classic underdog-beats-the-odds story, the kind they make movies about.
Martin can suggest scenes to the script writer if needed.
For example, here is one that could work for the opening: Trask as a seventh-grader tagging along with his older brother Hayden, an undersized linebacker at Manvel (Texas) High, who drips with sweat and a scowl as he fights off blocks. As the Mavericks practice one day, Martin notices the younger Trask tossing a football around. Martin makes a mental note and finds out more about the kid.
"Kyle always had a football with him,'' Martin said this summer. "He's known forever that he was going to be a quarterback and be a dang good one. I've known Kyle was a stud for a long time."
Back then, Trask was too young to comprehend much other than going to practice with his older brother was fun. It allowed him to dream and be one of the guys. Someday, he was going to be a Maverick like Hayden.
"I was always around when he was in high school,'' Trask said. "When you are in middle school or junior high coming up to high school, you are so excited to be on a high school team."
As Trask blossomed to become one of college football's best stories in 2019, the lifelong backup who finally got his chance on the big stage, Martin watched from afar in Syracuse, N.Y., where he was in his second season as Syracuse University's quarterbacks coach. While the story unfolded, Martin remained focused on the Orange – sharing in the fun on a group text that included Trask's former prep teammates and coaches – while others back in Manvel shared memories of Trask with the media.
Gators quarterback Kyle Trask in action during his career at Manvel (Texas) High. (Photos: Courtesy of Houston Chronicle)
A lot has changed for Martin since last season. He returned to his native Texas in February for family reasons and to become a head coach again at the high school level, taking over at Colleyville Heritage High in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. If Gators head coach Dan Mullen is considered a quarterback whisperer in the college ranks, Martin has earned that distinction among high school coaches in the Lone Star State.
In 10 seasons at Manvel High prior to his two-year stint at Syracuse, Martin's teams won 11 games eight times and produced a constant stream of college quarterbacks, including Trask, current Miami quarterback D'Eriq King, Shane McCarley (Old Dominion), Travaughn Colwell (New Mexico State), Dexter Foreman (Minnesota), Julian Walker (Citadel), Josh Coltrin (Tulane) and Martin's youngest son, Kason Martin, who is now at North Texas and one of the reasons the Martin family returned home earlier this year.
Martin's proficiency at developing quarterbacks leads to another potential scene that took place during Trask's sophomore season in 2013. On the first day of two-a-days, Martin had nine players on the field competing at quarterback.
"I didn't know who my guy was going to be,'' Martin said. "I thought it could be Kyle as a sophomore because he was undefeated as a Freshman A-Team quarterback. He was just really good with the ball in his hands. A big frame, a big arm and really, really smart. Makes great decisions."
At football-crazed Manvel there is a varsity team, two freshman teams and two junior-varsity teams, so Martin was never short on position battles. While he expected Trask to make a run at the job, what Martin didn't know on that first day of practice was that King, a newcomer who had transferred with his older brother Keshon from another Houston-area school, was a perfect fit for the Air Raid-type offensive scheme Martin used.
Soon, King separated himself as the starter as Trask and a pair of other talented players in the mix, Stefan Kahn and Clay Roberts, were left battling for the leftover snaps.
"I didn't know him from Adam,'' Martin said of King, who transferred from Houston to Miami in the offseason. "Now, D'Eriq was really good. We threw him out there and he and Kyle were really the best two. D'Eriq just gave us a little bit more than Kyle did, but I never shied away from putting Kyle in regardless of who we were playing."
That's the way it stayed for the next three seasons. King was the starter and Trask, after a brief stint his sophomore season on the junior-varsity A-Team, the reliable backup who entered the game usually every third and seventh series. By the end of Trask's sophomore season, he had moved ahead of Kahn and Roberts on the depth chart. Both players transferred to finish their careers elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Trask stayed and learned as much as he could. At one point, Trask's father suggested he transfer for a better opportunity. His mom told him to stay put. Martin told them he would "sell the heck out of him" to every coach who stopped by. That is how much he believed in him. Trask met one morning in Martin's office to tell him he wasn't going anywhere regardless of what others were saying. Former Manvel High head coach Kirk Martin.
The memory reminds Martin of Trask's steadiness through it all.
"He won't be divorced,'' Martin said. "That kid, he'll marry and it will be forever. He'll work hard at his marriage. He has been wise beyond his years for a long time. It's heartwarming to see the story of that kid and how he has persevered and fought his tail off his whole life."
When talking about Trask's time at Manvel, Martin enjoys reciting one statistic above all others: no interceptions. In three seasons on varsity as King's backup, Trask completed more than 70 percent of his passes for more than 1,700 yards, 17 touchdowns and zero picks.
While Trask's preparation for his final season with the Gators has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, he returned to Manvel in the spring to finish the semester. While there, he reunited with King for workouts at a local quarterback training center.
The unexpected detour allowed him time to reflect on how far he has come since former Gators offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier dropped by a Manvel practice his senior season and kept asking questions about the backup. Why was Houston Baptist the only school that had offered him a scholarship? Why wasn't he starting? Why hadn't he transferred?
The story leads to another possible scene, one where the unassuming Trask walks slowly to Martin's office wondering if this is the day someone might take a chance and make his dream a reality.
"At the end of my junior year, I was still a backup and I had no offers,'' Trask said. "I honestly didn't know if I would be playing in college. I had that thought in the back of my mind. I just kind of went with it and kept working really hard and see what happens. Coach Martin kept calling me down to his office and introducing me to all of these coaches. That instilled some confidence in me, that he sees something in me that maybe I could play at the next level. It just kind of let me know that I was talented enough to play in college."
Martin developed a routine when college coaches would visit to take a look at King and other players on Manvel's roster. He would tell Trask to grab a ball and some receivers. Martin would then use an unorthodox practice to help convince them of the talent in front of them.
"I would put him on the opposite hash whenever those recruiters would come there, and I would have him throw a 22-yard comeback, which we don't even do that, but I was just showing arm strength," Martin said. "And he would throw it on time and 'whoosh.' I mean, that's NFL-type stuff. I'd tell them, 'believe your eyes. He's not playing behind a donkey. This guy is playing behind a guy who ended up setting the Texas high school record for touchdown passes in his career.' "
Martin has spent the past six months transitioning back to Texas and settling into his new job. The goal is to build the type of program he had at Manvel with quarterbacks like King and Trask. That is a tall task.
Still, while 2020 has created uncertainty in all facets of life, Martin is hoping to see his former pupils shine on the field in their final college seasons. If it happens, what a perfect scene to cap that documentary on Trask. He and King on the big stage together this time, turning a spotlight on the Manvel Mavericks like they have never known.
"Hopefully they'll both be at the Heisman presentation,'' Martin said. "Wouldn't that be something."
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