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Sibling bond propels success on football field

KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — Ever since he was a little boy, Khalid Martin had a passion for football right alongside his older brother Nique.

"We always compete with each other, workouts I always try to out lift him, outrun him, always try to guard him," Khalid said. "We would trash talk a little bit too, but it's always brotherly love."

Khalid is a safety for the East Forsyth Eagles, and was a 4-star recruit heavily sought after by several schools, before he began his senior year of high school. In fact, Martin received offers from 16 programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

"It's a dream come true," Martin said. "It's kind of like a fairytale that is not finished yet."

Martin narrowed his final college choices down to five schools including Appalachian State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and the Wolfpack.

Martin chose to play his collegiate ball for N.C. State in 2019 and beyond, and the first person to know about the news was his brother.

"At the end of the day, I felt like I wouldn't be person or player I am without him, without the work he put me through," Martin said. "Without the pain and trials and tribulations he put me through, so I feel like I owed it to him."

The younger of the two, Khalid always worked with Nique over the years to improve their craft on the playing field. The younger Martin wanted to play on offense alongside his brother during his freshman year of high school, but had to make a big position change in able to make that happen.

"Knowing the firepower we had on offense that year I knew I wasn't going to be able to make varsity and I wanted to be able to play with my big brother," Khalid said. "So changes had to be made in the summer of my freshman year so I could play, so I switched to defensive back and I learned the game."

Both men learned the game extremely well, as Nique plays wide out for N.C. Central (a division 1 program) while Martin will soon become a part of the Wolfpack in the months ahead.

A clear sign football and success runs in the family name. Their Head Coach Todd Willert is quick to agree.

"To see a family have two kids go on that have come through our program to have both older brother and younger brothers make it to the next level and play on Saturday," Willert said. "That is pretty satisfying as a head coach and for our program at East Forsyth."

Pretty satisfying indeed.

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