Down 13-0 at halftime of their first spring game last season, Shay Martindale’s team had a choice to make. Their coach had challenged them to go 1 and 0, and the opponent had just scored twice on the exact same play. “We could accept defeat or we could choose to fight,” Shay says. “We chose to fight.”
The second half belonged to them. Their running back took the opening drive in for a score, and the defense locked in. In the fourth quarter, with the other team at the one-yard line, a fumble gave the ball back to Shay’s offense, and they answered with a touchdown and the extra point to lead 14-13. Then came the moment Shay says he will never forget. A teammate made a big tackle that tipped the ball, and it landed right in Shay’s hands. He slid to the ground as the clock ran out. “Adversity is not the end of the story,” he says. “It is simply the moment that reveals what you are truly made of.”
Shay, a sixth grader at Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas, and a member of the class of 2033, has been playing football for six years. He started in flag football in kindergarten and moved to tackle by third grade. But the game was in his family long before that. His older brother, eight years ahead of him, played youth ball with Dragon Youth Football and went on to varsity at Carroll Senior High School. His dad played in high school. His grandfather played defensive tackle at the University of Texas in Austin and also competed in the shot put and discus at the Pan American Games. “It doesn’t just motivate me, it fuels me,” Shay says. “I feel like I’m carrying something bigger than myself every time I put on a helmet.”
What he loves most about quarterback is the chance to lead. He likes encouraging his teammates and coaches, and being someone they can count on on and off the field. He also loves the thinking side of the game: breaking down strategy, reading the field, and making smart decisions under pressure. He studies film every day because he wants to, not because he has to.
He has also shown he can make something out of nothing. In third grade, as a starting quarterback, a play was called for him to run right, but there was nowhere to go. He delivered a stiff arm, reset, and took off to the left for a 40-yard touchdown. Last season, as a utility player who lined up at backup quarterback, receiver, running back, and both lines, he stepped in when the starter went down. On just his second drive, he threw a screen pass to his slot receiver, who took it 66 yards for a score. “Preparation, versatility, and staying ready are what separate players when opportunity comes knocking,” he says.
Shay has worked to build his game outside of team practice, too. He has attended the You Are Athlete camp in Dallas in 2024 and 2025, the Riley Dodge Football Camp in Southlake from 2022 to 2025, and QB Impact’s Camp Impact in Melissa this year. He names Stone Earle and Steve Manella of QB Impact Academy and QB Impact Texas among the coaches who have helped him along the way. Over the next six months, he is working on his footwork and drop steps, his training, nutrition, and conditioning, and his daily film study. He also wants to get into more camps and showcases to test himself against the best. Over the next twelve months, he wants to earn more starting opportunities, get stronger and more explosive, and keep growing in his faith.
He says great quarterbacks are built on more than talent. Leadership comes first, because the quarterback sets the standard for everyone around him. Then come excellence in every rep, discipline and self-control under pressure, faith that keeps you steady when things go wrong, and daily routines that make consistency possible. On top of that, he says, a quarterback has to be a student of the game.
His role models fit that list. Of former quarterbacks, he points to Michael Vick, and what he admires most is not the athleticism but the refusal to quit, no matter how far behind his team was. Of current players, it’s Josh Allen. Shay respects how Allen was overlooked and doubted but never let anyone else’s opinion become his reality.
The person who has shaped him most is his dad, who has coached him since kindergarten as head coach, assistant, and sideline mentor. Shay says his dad sets goals for each player and wants them to grow as young men first. “He never lets a loss crush our spirit, and he never lets a win inflate our ego,” Shay says. “He is not just my coach; he is my foundation.”
Off the field, Shay is a devoted believer in Christ and says his faith shapes how he treats people and the standard he holds himself to. He was recently named Student of the Month for fifth grade. He is also a big brother who tries to lead his younger siblings the same way he leads his teammates. “Leadership is not a title, it is a lifestyle,” he says. Six seasons in, he says he is just getting started.