Conway’s Martin motivated by memory of late cousin

When Jah’Maine Martin transferred from a Georgia school to Conway High in the middle of his sophomore year, he knew exactly what number he wanted to wear for the Tigers football team, and he had no problem acquiring it.

He snatched up No. 30.

That was the number his cousin, sophomore running back Martwain Bellamy-Gregg, had worn during the recently-completed 2013 season. But Bellamy-Gregg wasn’t going to be wearing the number in 2014.

Just before Thanksgiving in 2013, Bellamy-Gregg was diagnosed with leukemia, and he was the reason Martin moved back to the Conway area. “I moved back down here to be with him,” Martin said.

They lived in the same Bucksport area house growing up and were nearly inseparable before Martin moved out of state with his mother following fourth grade. “That was my brother, that’s what we called each other,” Martin said. “We grew up with each other our whole lives. If you saw him you saw me. We were always right there together. We did everything together.”

Bellamy-Grigg died from his disease and related complications on July 7, and the time Martin spent with him in his final 18 months, and now his memory, have been an inspiration to Martin on and off the football field.

Bellamy-Gregg provided motivation as Martin rushed for 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons and helped Conway reach the playoffs this year, and he’ll provide motivation Saturday when Martin takes the field for the South squad in the Touchstone Energy Bowl North vs. South All-Star Football Game at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium.

“Everything I do, I do it for him, including football,” Martin said. “It’s a blessing to even be alive, you know. He’s gone, and I know he would want me to do the right thing. So if it gets hard and I feel like quitting I just think about him. He wouldn’t quit. He keeps my spirits up.”

Martin was a big part of a turnaround season at Conway. He rushed for 1,080 yards, scored 19 touchdowns and averaged 7.2 yards per carry this season after rushing for 1,132 yards and scoring 11 touchdowns as a junior.

He was Conway’s cog on the ground, as the running back with the second most yardage had less than 300 yards rushing.

His two-year totals are with no prior experience at running back, as he was a safety on the Banneker High team in College Springs, Ga. as a freshman and sophomore. Conway coach Chuck Jordan said the team’s coaches were considering giving him more time at safety in the playoffs but they lost in the first round.

“We’ve seen tremendous progression [at running back], but he’s got a lot of football to go,” Jordan said. “He’s going to do a lot more learning.”

Conway went 9-3 this season after going 2-9 in 2014. “We were on one beat. We were a team this year,” Martin said. “We didn’t have a lot of selfish people who wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. We put it all together. We had great fan support, student section, parents, everybody was out. We loved it.”

Martin hopes he was part of a turnaround at Conway that will endure. “We had a young team and they’re buying into it,” Martin said. “I think they’ll be alright and hopefully have a better season than us.”

Martin’s football career will continue at the collegiate level in the fall, Martin just hasn’t decided where yet.

He said he has scholarship offers from numerous schools including Coastal Carolina, Army, The Citadel, Western Carolina, Alabama A&M and Gardner-Webb.

He said another scholarship offer from Old Dominion was rescinded after Myrtle Beach senior Brandon Sinclair accepted the only scholarship being offered by the school to a running back in the 2016 class.

His week of practices in Myrtle Beach and exposure in Saturday’s all-star game could garner Martin additional offers.

He plans to take most or all of his five allowed official visits in January or early February and sign a scholarship on or around national signing day on Feb. 3.

He said he’s open to attending a military academy and plans to take one of his official visits to West Point. He wants to major in business management or accounting.

“I’m very excited,” Martin said. “It’s a blessing because … last year we had a lot of seniors and a lot of them didn’t get to go play college ball. A lot of kids don’t get to go play college ball, and the Lord blessed me with the ability to play in college. I’m going to maximize my opportunity.”

Martin grew up in Bucksport before moving with his mother to Alabama after fourth grade. He then moved to College Park, Ga., after seventh grade and attended Banneker High through the first semester of his sophomore season, when his mother moved back to Alabama and Martin moved in with paternal relatives and has lived with them since.

In addition to playing on the Conway football team, Bellamy-Gregg was a sprinter on the track team, had a 3.5 GPA and was interested in studying architectural engineering.

“I got to see him a little bit more,” Martin said of moving back to the Conway area. “If I had been with my mom, I always came down on special events like Christmas and stuff like that, so I probably wouldn’t have been able to see him that much.”

Martin said Bellamy-Gregg was beating leukemia for a short time and the two were able to spend quality time together. “We didn’t like to be in the house,” Martin said. “We’d go to movies and the Conway basketball games. We’d just go out. He’d take his medicine with him.”

Bellamy-Gregg had to eat very freshly prepared foods to avoid high bacteria levels, so the duo either had to go home to eat or visit a restaurant where the cooks knew how his food had to be prepared.

Bellamy-Gregg eventually suffered a relapse that was more debilitating than his first bout with leukemia. He went to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., for treatment and Martin and other family members visited him there before he died.

“He beat it and that’s when we were hanging out a lot, but then it came back, and it came back stronger,” Martin said.

The Conway football team attended the funeral and his teammates have been there to support him.

“He’s the kind of kid that you’re going to rally around anyway,” Jordan said. “He’s one of our captains. He’s a leader. He’s worked hard. He’s fully qualified [academically] and busted his chops in the classroom. He’s been a great addition for us. I can’t say enough about him.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Conway’s Martin motivated by memory of late cousin."