Clarence Martin believes he is prepared and the right person for the job to take over as the new head football coach at Wakefield High School.
Martin recently was hired as the Warriors new coach and was introduced during a Feb. 28 afternoon school ceremony in the cafeteria, with 62 potential players in attendance. He inherits a team that finished 0-10 this past fall and was badly blown out of most games.
“This is somebody you are going to want to bust the wall down for,” Wakefield director of student activities Nate Hailey told the players as he introduced Martin.
Taking over a struggling program is nothing new for Martin. He did the same at prior head-coaching stints at J.E.B Stuart High School (now named Justice), Robert E. Lee (now named John Lewis) and Potomac in Prince William County. All three teams were struggling when he took over, with each eventually returning to respectability, and, in some cases, earning region-playoff berths under Martin.
“This is what I like to do, because I understand the situation and what it takes to change things, and that’s a big challenge to me,” Martin said. “We’ve had success doing that before. I want to be at Wakefield for a long time. I like that community and its diversity.”
Martin was an assistant coach at Marshall High School in Falls Church the past two seasons, where he is a full-time school counselor on the faculty. That came after a 10-year run as the head coach at Potomac, Lee and Stuart.
“I needed a couple of years to step away from being a head coach. Now I feel the time and place is right to run a program again,” Martin said.
The new coach believes success comes from building trust and relationships with players, and hard work, and he eventually hopes to join the faculty at Wakefield so he will be around the team and players year -round.
“Marshall played Wakefield the last two seasons when I was there, and we played them when I was at Stuart and Lee,” Martin said. “I saw a lot of talent and athletes on that Wakefield team. They had recent success when Wayne [Hogwood] was the head coach there, so you can win at Wakefield.”
Martin replaces Darrell Weeks, who stepped down after that winless 2022 season.
On offense, Martin said Wakefield likely will play a fast uptempo wide-open spread offensive attack. He likes a 3-5-3 setup on defense.
“We want to have a football program at Wakefield the community, school and administration can be proud of,” Martin said. “Football is changing, and everyone here will have a clean slate. But we need dedication, hard work and commitment from everyone, and we don’t want anyone creating a narrative for us.”
Martin is a Northern Virginia native. He played football at T.C. Williams High School (now named Alexandria City), where he graduated in 1997. He then played in college at Salisbury University. He also did some coaching as an assistant at T.C. and West Potomac High, and he has coached the sport on the youth levels.
“It sounds like Wakefield found a good coach, and I wish him luck,” said Bruce Hanson, the longtime head coach at Wakefield’s Arlington rival Yorktown High School.
