Late bloomer Wilson attracts a crowd
Simeon's versatile Martez Wilson is the top-rated football prospect in Illinois
By Brian Hamilton
Tribune staff reporter
August 19, 2006, 8:33 PM CDT
The cornerback from Virginia approached the line of scrimmage. He looked like all the others at the Nike Camp at Ohio State in May: spindly, little, like you could fold him up and store him in a shoebox.
Oh, my God, Martez Wilson thought. I'm fittin' to just kill him.
The route had been mapped out with the quarterback for this one-on-one encounter, Sam Donatucci of Buffalo Grove. A post-corner.
He can't remember if the little cornerback from Virginia jammed him. At 6 feet 4 inches, 230 pounds, Martez Wilson might not have cared if he did. In any case, the Simeon standout slowed after few yards, juked toward the middle of the field as if running the post, then broke off the route toward the corner. The ball floated into his hands near the sideline.
The cornerback from Virginia was at least 5 yards away.
"It looked so pretty," Wilson said a few months later, flashing a rascally smirk, and you wonder if that cornerback from Virginia realized one of the best defensive end college prospects in the country was his undoing in his side job as a wide receiver.
In demand
On Thanksgiving 2005, Martez Wilson had more bare bones on his dinner plate than scholarship offers. Today he is a consensus top 30 national prospect, No. 1 in Illinois. As he prepares to open the season Saturday against Fenwick at Soldier Field, Wilson's recruiting calendar looks like the cover of a college football preview magazine.
Southern California, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Illinois are all on the docket. For his fifth visit, Wilson can choose between the likes of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Tennessee—a luxury not unlike browsing through a top-end car showroom for a demolition derby ride. All less than a year after having nothing.
"He was kind of a regional secret, and the thing that really blew him up was Nike Camp," Illinois-based Rivals.com analyst Tim O'Halloran said. "I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but when you see a kid listed as a defensive end/wide receiver, he's usually pretty darn athletic. That's exactly what he showed."
Wilson didn't play organized football until the 8th grade—didn't even know how to put the pads in his pants—but he was the captain for the Simeon freshman team. After his first reception as a junior, Wilson inexplicably paused for "what must have been 15 seconds," according to Simeon coach Jesse Chick; then Wilson grew assertive and finished the season with 18 sacks and five touchdown receptions.
So, fittingly, it took a 400-mile trip to the Ohio State camp before Wilson's ability was out front for all to see.
"I was like, man, I'm going to go ahead and dominate," Wilson said. "I had to really make a name for myself. That's what I did."
Previously, it had been a furtive ascent.
He watched his father and uncle play football with their neighborhood team from Ogden Park. Then, on any available patch of grass—outside his South Side home at 39th and Federal, behind the school, wherever—Wilson and other kids would play the game.
"It brings people together that don't even know each other," Wilson said. "It doesn't matter where you go. I've visited a lot of colleges; they show you respect and all that. It brings a lot of kids together, keeps them off the street, keeps them out of trouble."
It takes one to know. Wilson lived with his mother early in his life, but his uncle, Eddie Whitehead, said the family once moved to Minnesota and spent time in a shelter there. At one point, Whitehead said, Wilson wasn't attending grammar school.
Ultimately, Wilson's father, Michael Whitehead, would assume custody, and Wilson has lived with six stepbrothers and stepsisters since. When Chick says it seems Wilson is on a mission, it is easy to understand why.
"He went through a lot of adversity coming up," Eddie Whitehead said. "He was in bad situations a few times, but through it all, he stayed focused. I guess that's a good thing."
Two stars, one school
Simeon coincidentally boasts the top prospects in the two most prominent high school sports: Wilson, the football standout, and Derrick Rose, the basketball virtuoso. Though similar in some ways, they are far from facsimiles.
"He's more vocal than Derrick," Chick said of Wilson. "Derrick, his personality is very introverted. Martez is in between."
"In between," then, must include the propensity to inform friends of a college coach's text message within seconds of arrival.
It must involve losing in a school-wide video game tournament, congratulating the opponent—and making sure to mention that luck was a factor.
"He does walk with his head high," said Simeon senior Elvin McMillian, a longtime friend. "But it's not like he thinks he's better than people; he's just got that swagger."
But it is fueled by exuberance, not arrogance. That No. 1 status in Illinois? A digit, not a badge.
"It isn't really any [added] pressure because I'm still the same guy," Wilson said. "Those are just rankings. They don't mean anything. They can be wrong, they can be right. It's only up to me to really prove it."
The evidence points to Wilson being that uncommon talent with sincerity and compassion. When McMillian bought a new car but needed a few extra bucks to cover his license plates, Wilson dug into his pockets. During one of the first practices this season, Chick spied Wilson chatting with a freshman, the kind of subtle gesture that demolishes hierarchies.
And he is first, always first, in the wind sprints at the end of practices.
"Even when it's time to do extra ones, he knows he has to be that person who perseveres and runs harder," Simeon receivers coach Willie Simpson said. "He knows: Everybody is watching him."
They probably should get used to the perspective.
"I like being in front," Wilson said. "I don't like being behind [anybody]."
Tough choice to make
The feeling was the same at Notre Dame's spring game, at the Illinois practice, when he saw Ohio State players file past.
"I felt like I could put on some equipment and play with them right now," Wilson said.
That will wait until next fall. And as for which college teammates he will join, Wilson said he might wait until the U.S. Army All-American Bowl next January to announce a choice.
"It's hard, because so many good schools want you," Wilson said. "You're like, do I want to go there, or will it be a mistake if I go there?
"You have to really trust the coaches. You have to let your heart guide you. That's the decision you're going to live with for the next four years of your life."
A day later, Wilson would begin two-a-day practices, bringing freshmen into the fold with a kind word, bringing teammates up to speed just by staying in front.
After waiting so long to start in the game, after waiting to feel comfortable enough to assert himself, after waiting to capture the nation's attention … well, the No. 1 prospect in Illinois doesn't wait for much anymore.
It would seem that Martez Wilson is free to seize whatever he wants.
"He doesn't feel like he's full," McMillian said. "He still feels like he's hungry."
bchamilton@tribune.com
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08-19-2006, 07:59 AM
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