Adversity has molded Martavious Collins. Instead of buckling under a series of struggles he has faced in his young life, the hardships have somehow only hardened his resolve to work his way into a better life.
“I think what separates me from a lot of other guys is that I get my inspiration from knowing I haven’t been as fortunate as them,” said Collins, who is No. 6 on this year’s Dynamite Baker’s Dozen countdown of the Chattanooga area’s top 13 football players entering the 2023 season.
“I used to go to friends’ houses, and I’d see how they had a dad they were close with, and I knew that my dad left my mom before I was even born,” Collins added. “It got so bad at one point that my mom sent me and my brothers to live with my aunt in Alabama. Since I could remember, me and my family moved from place to place and never really had a set home to live in. All of that made me want to make something for myself.
“Thankfully, God has given me the ability to play football, and I promised myself I will use that gift to keep going until the day I can’t anymore.”
It was a winding and often frustrating road that led the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Collins to South Pittsburg High School, where he transferred for his senior season. After playing his first three prep seasons at Rome, a region and state power in northwest Georgia, Collins transferred to Calhoun last spring but was declared ineligible by the GHSA after it was discovered his mother received payment from someone associated with the program to help with the move.