Tony Sanchez will be back on the same field with two of his former players when UNLV plays Ohio State on Saturday.
Before Sanchez became the head coach at UNLV, he was the head coach at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. In his final season at Bishop Gorman in 2014, his roster included two players – Tate Martell and Haskell Garrett – who are now freshmen at Ohio State.
Martell and Garrett both transferred to Bishop Gorman prior to their sophomore years of high school – Martell from Poway High School (California), Garrett from Honolulu St. Louis (Hawaii) – to play for Sanchez’s team. With Martell as the starting quarterback and Garrett at defensive tackle, Bishop Gorman won all 15 of its games in 2014 and won the national championship, a feat the Gaels repeated in 2015 and 2016 with Sanchez’s brother, Kenny, as head coach.
"Those guys came in and had a huge impact on that 2014 season," Tony Sanchez told Eleven Warriors on Monday. "And then you look at their careers and how their careers continued on from there, they’re a part of something special. Not many people are going to play three years of varsity football and win three national titles. It was really special what they were able to accomplish."
While Martell went on to become the star of the Gaels, earning Gatorade National Player of the Year honors in 2016, Sanchez said it was Garrett – with his size and athleticism – who made the biggest first impression of the two when the 2014 season began.
"He’s kind of an old soul," Sanchez said of Garrett, who ended up being a four-star recruit. "He was a tough, tough competitor from the get-go. Once we got him locked in … he ended up being a great player for us."
Before coming to Ohio State, Haskell Garrett was a star defender for Tony Sanchez's team at Bishop Gorman High School.
Martell began the 2014 season as Bishop Gorman’s backup quarterback, and had to earn his way into the starting lineup after transferring in, but it didn’t take him long to do so.
"Midway through the second game, we inserted him in and he created a spark right away and never looked back after that," Sanchez said of Martell. "He’s just an extreme competitor and passionate kid, and just a ball of energy and a really intelligent kid with a rocket for an arm."
“Those guys came in and had a huge impact on that 2014 season.”– Tony Sanchez on Tate Martell and Haskell Garrett
Sanchez said Martell consistently worked hard to improve his game, which is what enabled him to also become a four-star recruit and one of the top quarterbacks in the country.
"He’s just one of those guys that won’t take no for an answer," Sanchez said of Martell. "He was a very, very, in my experience with him, he was a very coachable kid. He really wanted to please you. Sometimes, he’d get flamboyant, but I tell you what, when it came down to competing and caring about the game, he loved practice, he loved spinning the rock and he just, he had fun playing football. It was fun to be around him."
"There’s a lot of guys with God-given ability, and their work ethic really will determine their ceiling," Sanchez added. "There’s a lot of kids that come in and they get all caught up in the hype and this whole thing and they forget every day you got to go and you just got to go to work. And that’s the one thing he always did is he always worked his game, he was always throwing the ball, always learning about it, always watching it."
Garrett has once again been the first of the two to see the field in their first year at Ohio State, as he has seen playing time on the final defensive series of the Buckeyes’ two wins against Indiana and Army. Martell has yet to see playing time this season, and it’s uncertain whether he will, as the Buckeyes could opt to redshirt him. Like Sanchez, though, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer has been quickly impressed by Martell’s competitiveness and work ethic as the true freshman has spent most of his time running the scout-team offense.
"I'm really excited for his future," Meyer said Monday. "I saw a player in the spring, without getting too personal, that was worried about this, worried about that, was probably social media, whatever, and that happens in high school when you're at a very successful program and you're a very successful player. And I've seen a guy that has ripped his chest open. I hope it stays that way, and he's an 'I'll do anything to help this team win a game' (kind of guy). Those are the kind of guys whose careers that take off."
Tate Martell has yet to play in a game for Ohio State, but he's already made a good impression on Buckeye coach Urban Meyer.
For Martell and Garrett, playing against UNLV will mean not only playing against their former coach, but also against some of their former high school teammates. UNLV’s roster includes five Bishop Gorman alumni, including four who were teammates with Martell and Garrett: starting left guard Jaron Caldwell, backup strong safety Greg Francis, backup middle linebacker Farrell Hester II and backup right guard Julio Garcia.
Coaching against his former players from Bishop Gorman has been a repeated occurrence for Sanchez during his two-plus years at UNLV, so he says coaching against Martell and Garrett on Saturday won’t affect his preparation for the game itself. Sanchez is looking forward, though, to catching up with his former players once the game is over.
"The end of the game, no matter what happens, just go over and give them a big hug," Sanchez said. "That’s the greatest thing about this game is the relationships we build. We talk about it here, we talked about it at Gorman … everywhere I’ve been, it’s all about relationships. Just because you don’t really get to see much them anymore doesn’t mean you don’t love them any less. So it’s great at the end of the game to see those guys, embrace them, see how they’re doing really quick and just seeing that they’re doing great with just accomplishing great things."
