Buckeyes' McLaurin makes spring game memorable for Wauseon family

4/18/2018
BY NICHOLAS PIOTROWICZ
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
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    Tre Martinez, 5, of Wauseon, poses for a picture with Ohio State wide receiver Terry McLaurin.

    Raymond Martinez

    • COLUMBUS — As an established veteran, Ohio State wide receiver Terry McLaurin played only sparingly in the Buckeyes’ spring game Saturday.

    The senior-to-be still came away with a new biggest fan thanks to a sideline interaction with 5-year-old Tre Martinez of Wauseon.

    Tre Martinez shows off his new Ohio State gloves, which were given to him by Buckeyes wide receiver Terry McLaurin.
    Tre Martinez shows off his new Ohio State gloves, which were given to him by Buckeyes wide receiver Terry McLaurin.

    After McLaurin was finished for the afternoon, Tre called to McLaurin, who — to the family’s surprise — waved, then walked right over and gave his Ohio State-customized Nike gloves to Tre.

    “He turned around and waved at him, and sure enough, he came right over without asking or anything,” said his Tre’s father, Raymond. “He took his gloves off and talked to my little boy for a little bit, and he even came back right before the end of the fourth quarter and took a picture.

    “That was pretty surreal.”

    Despite a forecast of rain, the Martinez family went through its spring game routine of leaving Wauseon around 5 a.m., tailgating, visiting the trophy display at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, and grabbing their preferred seats on the 25-yard line.

    The location proved especially fortunate this season, as the Gray team — on which McLaurin played — was right in front of the family all afternoon.

    “We’ve lucked out three years in a row now,” Raymond Martinez said. “It just so happened this year that we got those seats again.”

    A former football player at Wauseon High School and Defiance College, Raymond Martinez said the family loves Ohio State.

    That’s now especially true for his eldest son, a Wauseon High School basketball manager who ran to the team’s banquet on Monday to show off his new favorite souvenir.

    “He had to take them and show all the players and all the coaches,” Raymond Martinez said. “He hasn’t taken them off. He actually slept in them the first night he had them.”

    McLaurin tweeted about Tre on Monday, saying “The look on his face made my day.”

    Contact Nicholas Piotrowicz at npiotrowicz@theblade.com, 419-724-6110 or on Twitter @NickPiotrowicz