HOPATCONG, N.J. It is approximately a 25-minute drive from Hopatcong High School to the nearest shopping mall, and it is 20 minutes to the nearest movie theater, which means there is not much for a teenager to do in this town except hang around with his friends.
We have a park, and that’s basically it, Joe Martinek said.
So Martinek, who at 17 is the closest thing Hopatcong has to a local celebrity, does his fair share of hanging around. On a recent afternoon, you could find Martinek, the most prolific rusher in the history of New Jersey high school football, reclined on a couch in the office of his coach, Paul Reduzzi. There he was, watching game film with the same friends and teammates who opened up holes for him as a junior high school running back in Hopatcong’s youth-league program, the same friends and teammates he has been playing with for the past 11 years.
Martinek could have left this area several years ago. It is a rare thing for a town like this one (population about 16,000), located a few miles off Route 80 in Sussex County, to produce an athlete of Martinek’s caliber. He is not only a football star but is also a decathlete who, according to his track and field coach, Mike Juskus, is the county’s greatest track talent ever. (Juskus competed in the 1984 Olympic Trials as a javelin thrower.)
So it was not a surprise when the coaches at a nearby Catholic school recognized Martinek’s talent as an eighth-grader and offered him a scholarship.
He was a star in Pop Warner, said the New Jersey recruiting analyst Chris Melvin, adding that Martinek could have gone to a number of large Catholic high schools in the state.
But for the simplest of reasons, Martinek decided to stay in Hopatcong. I knew if I stayed here, I’d have fun, he said. And we’d be pretty good.
Now a senior, Martinek has rushed for more than 7,000 yards. In October, before a standing-room-only homecoming crowd, he broke the all-time state rushing record of 6,720 yards, set by Kenny Cattouse of Keyport in 2003. And the same Hopatcong program that went 1-9 in Martinek’s freshman season began its drive toward a second consecutive state championship when Martinek scored five touchdowns in a first-round playoff victory Nov. 10.
It made sense, then, when Martinek became one of several in-state commitments at Rutgers, even before the Scarlet Knights’ emergence on the national scene. Martinek, who was offered a scholarship before his junior season, committed in August. Some scouts, including Melvin, question whether Martinek has the ability to play running back at the Division I level he received only three solid Division I offers, from Rutgers, Vanderbilt and Florida International, although other colleges were interested in him as a defensive player. But his commitment to Rutgers is the sort of statewide public-relations coup that Coach Greg Schiano is counting on to solidify his recruiting base within the state.
Several other in-state players, including Manny Abreu of Union Hill High School, a premier linebacking prospect, have already committed to the Scarlet Knights, and Anthony Davis, a Piscataway native who is perhaps the top offensive line prospect in the country, has said Rutgers is among his top three choices.
When I go to South Jersey, or Central Jersey, people talk about that kid who broke the state record, said Melvin, who projects Martinek as a strong safety or outside linebacker at Rutgers. Everyone knows that the kid broke the state record, so he must be special. And they say, ‘If he’s going there, why not me?’
At 6 feet and about 200 pounds, Martinek is not especially big for a major-college prospect. Because of that, and because he is a running back in a league that is not deep with talent, his coaches and his father spent the past four years sending out hundreds of DVDs with highlights from Martinek’s games.
Maybe if he had gone to a larger Catholic school, admitted the Hopatcong athletic director, Tom Vara, securing a college scholarship would not have required so much off-field effort.
But then Martinek may not have gotten to experience a moment like the one in last year’s state championship game, when he saved perhaps his finest play for a 2-point conversion that tied the score in the final minutes. He had always told Reduzzi, his coach, that he would be willing to attempt a leap over the pile at the goal line. After all, Martinek has high-jumped 6 feet 8 inches.
In a play that already has become a legend in this town, Martinek had the ball directly snapped to him, took two steps and jumped over everyone in his path.