With L-L League football Media Day set for Aug. 5, and with pigskin camps set to open on Aug. 11, PennLive presents 12 players to watch for the upcoming season.
The players are listed in no particular order, and we’ll release one a day for the next 12 days.
Here’s No. 5: Garden Spot senior Mitch Martin.
POSITION: Quarterback
2013 STATS/HONORS: Piloted an offense that averaged 369.6 yards — fourth in the L-L League — and 32.7 points per game by completing 89-of-186 passes for 1,667 yards with 19 touchdown tosses against 11 picks for an NCAA QB rating of 145.0 — eighth in the L-L League. Also rushed for 768 yards with nine TD keepers for Garden Spot, which went 8-3 — and fell to eventual runner-up Manheim Central in the first round of the District 3-AAA playoffs — in its final season in Section 3 before shuffling back up to Section 2 this season. … Martin, set to return for his third season as the Spartans’ starter, earned first-team Section 3 all-star honors last fall — one year after his breakout sophomore campaign, when he passed for 1,163 yards and 15 TD while rushing for 632 yards and 10 scores, leading the Spartans to the Section 3 crown — and a postseason trip — in 2012.
Final 2013 L-L League football stats
WHAT TO EXPECT: Likely more big numbers for Martin, but he’ll have four new offensive linemen in front of him, so there could be some growing pains at the outset; guards Zach Walker and Alex Wilson, C Chris Trostle and OT Zach Jones, all stalwarts, all graduated. Still, Martin has plenty of moxie — and experience — in the pocket running Garden Spot’s pistol scheme. Anxious to see how he handles the Section 2 grind, with Manheim Central, Cocalico, Lampeter-Strasburg, Lancaster Catholic — etc. — all bringing heat against the Spartans’ revamped o-line. Really nice career for Martin, who hopes to cap it off with another postseason trip before his days in New Holland are over.
PREVIOUS POSTS
July 23 — Manheim Central's Justin Moreno
July 24 — Hempfield's Devin Washington
July 25 — Lancaster Catholic's Keegan Sheedy
July 26 — Wilson's Shane Dantzler