JMU's Stone 'Grinding'
HARRISONBURG — Martez Stone called it the “lowest point” of his football playing days.
A year ago, while the James Madison defensive tackle was enduring his first preseason camp as a member of the Dukes, coaches told him that he wouldn’t be able to play during the regular season.
“In the middle of training camp, I was out here working hard like everyone else trying to earn a starting position or some playing time on the field, but then I was hit with the fact that I wasn’t eligible due to credit issues,” Stone said.
The Cleveland native had walked-on at West Virginia University in 2013 after spending 2012 at Cleveland State as a student. Following his one season on the West Virginia roster, he transferred to Lackawanna — a junior college — in Scranton, Pa., in order to play and eventually make his way into another four-year school.
But on that August day in 2015, coaches told the then-junior that not enough of his credits transferred to JMU, Stone said, and he would have to watch the 2015 season instead of playing.
“He had a huge mountain to climb,” said Quintrel Lenore, Stone’s academic advisor at JMU. “By their junior years, players have to get 72 credit hours. Some guys are already at 90 credit hours by their junior year. Imagine, Martez being short of 72 before his junior year and then having to get to 96 credits by the next fall for his senior year.”
Not many, even inside the JMU football program, believed Stone could makeup all the credits he needed before this season.
When Dukes coach Mike Houston was hired in January, he said he met with Stone to let the 6-foor-1, 270-pounder know how he felt.
“I would’ve given him zero chance of being eligible. There was no way. It was too big of a hole,” Houston said. “I said to him, ‘This is the deal — you have one year of eligibility left. You’re not eligible right now and I don’t think you can get eligible.’ I said, ‘Your social life is going to be nil.’ I told him that even football takes a back seat and that the academics have to be there.”
Stone understood.
A “few credits shy” of the 72 threshold, Stone said, Lenore and Ashley Parsons, the team’s other academic advisor, as well Stephanie Hutchinson, the athletic department’s learning specialist, created a plan to help the senior get eligible.
The plan included pursuing two degrees — one in engineering and the other in sociology.
“From an advising standpoint, it was in his best interest to double major in order for him to have more opportunities to have classes available to count toward his eligibility,” Lenore said. “And Martez was also very open about his long-term goals. He likes to work hands-on with things, so he expressed interest in engineering and industrial design. He also expressed interest in working with people, so it’s two different majors and degree plans that you blend together to fit his long-term goals.”
Motivated to get back on the field, Stone followed the plan. He said he took 17 credit hours last fall, 14 in the spring and another 14 in the summer to become eligible.
“JMU is not an easy academic school,” Stone said. “I had to work hard. I didn’t go home. I stayed, working hard and grinding.”
In addition to digging himself out of the credit deficit, Stone is also on track to graduate in May, Lenore said.
“I’ve been in the profession for three years now and it’s amazing when you see someone completely take ownership,” Lenore said. “He was hungry. All credit goes to him.”
Quarterback Bryan Schor crossed paths with Stone for the first time in the spring of 2014 at Lackawanna College. The Dukes’ signal caller said Stone was the first person he ate dinner with at junior college.
Schor said he understands just how difficult the path was for his two-time teammate.
“I was devastated last year when I heard that he wasn’t going to be eligible because of the class situation,” Schor said. “I know the type of hours that you have to put in when you go to junior college and the grind it takes on you just to get back out to a bigger school, but I don’t know what it takes to do that and then come here not to be eligible. To see him work to get eligible for us, I’m proud of him for that.”
With less than a week left in preseason camp, Stone is still vying for a starting role on the interior defensive line. Position coach Jeff Hanson said regardless of whether Stone wins the starting job or not that he’ll help James Madison this season.
“Martez is doing great in school now and he’s getting better and better as a football player,” Hanson said. “He understands what he needs to bring everyday, which is everything he’s got.”
The Dukes open the season on Sept. 3 at Bridgeforth Stadium against Morehead State — a game Stone said that he’s waited too long for.
“I think I’m going to cry,” Stone said with a smile stretched across his face. “This will be my last year and as I look back, I remember those down times when I thought football wasn’t for me. To be actually ready to come out here and play a full season with this team, I probably will cry.”