Chatting with Albright Head Coach Eric Martin

Collegiate Flag Football recently sat down with Eric Martin, the head coach of the Albright women's flag football team. Albright announced the addition of flag football earlier in 2025, with Martin named the head coach in September. While Albright won't take the field until the 2026-27 academic year, the foundation is already being set during the current academic year. In this interview, a wide range of topics were discussed, including the program's progress to Coach Martin's journey to becoming a head coach, to some tips for recruits.

How did you become head coach at Albright?

EM: "I think this position started with me in high school. I was a graduate of Seminole High School in Sanford, Florida, where I was born and raised. In my senior year, I was actually committed to going to another school rather than the one I did attend, but that school brought in a junior college transfer at the last minute, right before I was supposed to sign.

I was really big on the right fit, not just going to a school. One school always stood out to me, and that was the University of West Florida (UWF). I was a part of that inaugural signing class [in 2016]. Starting a program at the collegiate level as a coach definitely started with me learning the skills, the right habits, and the right way to go about bringing in the right people.

That led me to a path where, after college, I knew that I still wanted to be around sports, but I never really considered coaching until it fell into my lap. It started as middle school track & field coaching, and that opportunity led to high school track & field coaching. The head track coach at that time at Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola was also the defensive coordinator for the football team. Just talking about my experience at West Florida and talking ball led to him offering me the defensive line position there, which started my coaching career football-wise.

As a football coach, I was asked by some young ladies who I had known their brothers mostly from either football or from mentoring through my fraternity within the Pensacola area. They really wanted to have their senior year playing flag football at Booker T. I was kind of hesitant at first, but they told me, “If you don’t coach us, no one will, and we won’t have a season.”

I talked to the athletic director and told them I’d do it. I started getting together how I was going to do this and run the program. From somebody who didn’t want to coach at all, now I’m a head coach of a blossoming and budding sport. I have to manage scheduling games, scheduling buses, getting young ladies in the program, keeping them eligible, and making sure they have their physicals in. I was like, “Wow, life turned around fast for real fast.”

But I loved it in the sense that the program had been winless for three years, and then one year we went 6-6 and had a second round playoff run. I don’t like taking credit for anything; I believe everything is by design, by god’s will. Just to know that motion started there was great because who knows if I wouldn’t have taken it, and no one else had taken it, if they would even have a program today.

I moved back to Sanford and took an opportunity to coach the boys' football team on the defensive line at Seminole High School, my alma mater. Flag football has been the talk of the town in Seminole County for a long time, and eventually, they brought it in my second year in the 2023-24 school year. The athletic director remembered my resume and me talking about it. She said, “I think you are the best guy for the job. You know the sport; you coached it before. You can help me learn it as the athletic director and know how we navigate through this.”

That allowed me to be in a blessed position to start a program from scratch at my alma mater, which I love dearly. That really propelled me here [to Albright]. Now I know I love this, I love coach, I love leading, I love instilling hope. In two years, back-to-back over .500 seasons, back-to-back district quarterfinals, and runner-ups. In our second year of existence, seven young ladies signed to play collegiate flag football at the next level. There have been over 100 offers total in the program between our sophomores through our graduating seniors.

I see that this is definitely something that I would like to do, and I've always had that itch since I started to coach collegiately. This is an opportunity for the young ladies, as the sport is still growing, to teach them the beautiful game of football, to teach them not just football, but life lessons through the game of football.  The same opportunities that boys have had for years on end, now, over 100 years, that our young ladies are now able to get.

I felt that was my calling, my blessing. There was some heartbreak there, a lot of interviews, getting the final rounds for some pretty notable programs, and some programs I could have shook some things up there. It just didn’t work out.

I applied for this job at Albright back in May or June, just looking and applying. In July, I get a call from our Athletics Director, Mr. Rick Ferry. "Hey, I'm Rick Ferry, the athletic director here at Albright College. I looked over your résumé, and I'm definitely impressed. You have all the experience all around, especially with recruitment." All of my previous experience culminated into what he saw as the perfect candidate, the perfect fit for his job.

Quickly after, I flew up to Reading, Pennsylvania, where I fell in love with the school as soon as I stepped on campus. For us being a [NCAA] Division 3 school, if I didn’t tell you that, you wouldn’t have known. Beautiful facilities, people are genuinely taking care of the campus, not too big and not too small. It’s the perfect fit; it was exactly what I was looking for. Even better was that I get to start this thing my way from scratch and bring in young ladies that mesh with the type of program and culture I’m looking to build. Overall, I felt that it was God's perfect opportunity."

What are some of the lessons you learned as a player in a new program that can help you now as a head coach?

EM: "Looking back on a lot of the things my former head coach, coach Pete Shinnick, who is now the head coach at Towson University in Maryland, really honing in on the things that he preached into us, the standard he held us to, the standard he held his coaches to, and he held himself to. That led to the immediate success of our program. Within two years of starting play, we were in a national championship game [in 2017], and within four years, we won a national championship [in 2019].

It doesn’t just happen with talent or overnight. It happens because you brought in the right kids, the right coaches, held the right standard, and you did not move from that. It pays off in the long run when you have the success that you do within your program.”

You were part of the inaugural football recruiting class at West Florida. That kind of learning experience from a player's perspective is going to be valuable as a coach.

EM: “It’s always easy to go into what’s built and renovate. What a lot of people don’t know how to do is build something from the foundation up. There are a lot more interior designers than there are builders these days.

It’s a challenge, but all the experiences help because I know what I’m looking for, I know what it should look like, and there’s also the thing of having to put your own flavor on it. Coach Shinnick is an amazing coach, and I love, especially now that I’m an adult, I can look at it from a different point of view rather than being a college student. I appreciate so many of the things that he did for us and stressed to us as morals in our program.

One of his big things was Arete, which he brought with him to even Towson. Arete is the Greek word for excellence and there’s excellence in everything that we do. My flavor of that in my program is a championship mindset. We want to strive to be champions at everything that we do. In the classroom, in the community, on the field, anywhere and anything that you set your mind to, think like a champion. Same moral, different flavor."

What advice can you give recruits to get noticed if they want to play college flag football?

EM: “Girls who just want a good fit collegiately. I think we’re in an era where people are looking at the names, the scholarships, the NIL. They’re looking at everything, but “Can I come to this school, love my experience, and get a degree from here that will mean something as I take on my professional life?”

What are you looking for when recruiting athletes to play flag football at Albright?

EM: “I think in this day and age, I’m looking for someone who wants to be a college student-athlete, first and foremost. I want to talk to you, get in your head, and see if you are the type of person who can handle the rigor of being a student first, then an athlete, and take care of yourself all in the midst of that. We’re going to have support systems here, and we’re going to make sure you are successful.

Personally, I run this program as holistic development. I want you to leave me better than I found you in the recruiting process. If you leave me after 4 or 5 years, I want you to be 10 times as great a person as you were when I found you. I want you to be ready to be an employee, a coworker, an employer, a Fortune 500 CEO, a wife, a mother. I want you to be the best version of yourself for real life because football is only so long of your life.

I want young ladies who want to be developed, who want to grow and be nurtured as a person, as well as an athlete and student. I have the 3A standard: the right Attitude, the right Academics, the right Athleticism."

Talk a bit more about the 3A standard.

EM: “The 3A Standard, in this order, is the right Attitude, the right Academics, and the right Athleticism:

Attitude: “Good personality, good head on their shoulders, and have some things set up in their mind that they want to accomplish throughout the next 5 to 10 years.”

Academics: “Obviously, you have to get into school and be successful in order to graduate.”

Athleticism: “Turn on the film. Who can play ball at this level or higher? Who can help us in our game plan and what we do?

Any young lady who has those three things at our level and the level I’m looking for at Albright, they can definitely have a conversation with me.”

What’s working well for you right now as you start the Albright program?

EM: “I think what is working best for me right now, especially with me having only been here three weeks, is the fact that I have the knowledge of helping kids get into school, giving them the things to think about, giving them basically the tools to see if this is the type of coach that they would want to play for.

Giving them questions to ask, giving them and their parents things to consider before making this their college choice. I coined what I call the “fit test” in my organization, where kids would ask, "Hey, coach, I think I want to commit here, but how should I know if I should commit?”

And I said, "Well, you know, let's call it the fit test. Does the school fit you academically first, financially second, athletically third, and aesthetically fourth?" If you can say yes to all those questions, then I think you have your choice. Don't let it be all about the external factors.

So I look for girls on this side of it using that same logic, but just reversed, because now I'm the college coach. I have presentations, I have conversations with families, and before they can even ask the questions. “How much does it cost to go here? Do you have security on campus? Can students park on campus? Can freshmen have cars? What are the residence halls like? What are the bathroom situations? How much is laundry on campus?"

All of the stuff that a parent, any real concerned parent should want to know, I already have the answer to. That makes parents feel a lot safer with the idea of leaving their child with you, no matter how close or far they are. Because at the end of the day, for four to five years, I'm going to be spending a lot more time around your kid than you are. So, first and foremost, my goal is always to make the kid and the family feel safe about the choice.

That’s working in measures because a lot of other coaches, just being frank, aren't. And as the high school coach just not even a whole year ago, who was talking to these exact same coaches that I'm now competing against for these young ladies, I knew their recruitment style, so I knew once I got this job, how to beat them out.

Highlight what is important about our school, and be knowledgeable about the school itself. Being able to answer any questions that weren't already answered. Being knowledgeable about your own institution and not having to double-check on everything. Keeping constant communication with kids, and letting them know that I'm not recruiting you just to offer you and put you on a roster. I'm recruiting you and building a relationship with you to let both of us know, are we a good fit for each other.

Because if there's something said or done that changes that dynamic, then I think that lets one of us or both of us know that maybe this isn't even the right fit. I tell kids all the time, especially after I offer them, “I’m not going to push you to Albright. I’m going to continue to build a relationship with you, answer any questions you may have, and highlight different things you have told me.”

At the end of the day, I’m just keeping it old school. I’m being very upfront and honest about information. I’m building genuine relationships that aren’t just built upon false ideals. We’re not talking about money, we’re not talking about all the other garbage. It’s building a genuine relationship of I want you here because I see you being successful here."

What other strengths do you have that help in the recruiting process?

EM: "I have a recruiting organization for five years called On My Way Recruiting, where I helped over 500+ student athletes and their families with learning the recruitment education process. Not just marketing or sending them to coaches, but also helping them with financial aid, applying to schools, helping them understand what their offer letters mean, and understand different terminology that coaches may throw at them. Maybe they're like myself, who is a first-generation college student, and your parents can’t help you with this process as much because they don’t even know. All of that was done at no cost and was my blessing to the world.

I do have a master’s degree in higher education administration from North Carolina Central University. That education and the background I learned from the curriculum definitely helps as well. Now that I have a degree that taught me the different functions and inner workings of a higher education institution and how it benefits and helps the students, such as student life, fraternities and sororities, financial aid, admissions processes, housing, and residents' life, etc. Those are now the things I automatically consider because I have an educational background, along with my practical background with my own business, being a high school coach, and going through a recruitment process myself."

What does the 2025-26 academic year look like for Albright as you build the program?

EM: “This year is purely recruiting. My athletic director, we had a conversation yesterday, and he said, “If anybody asks you your job, you should be able to answer: recruit, recruit, recruit. That’s your job.”

I’m doing a lot of DMing, a lot of phone calls, Zoom calls, and traveling. Even in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be in Kansas, Maryland, DC, Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut, and New York. When the spring comes, the states that play as a spring sport, I’m going to be at games while also being on the phone, evaluating film, talking to coaches, and visiting high schools. So everything I can do to recruit the best and the brightest from across the country is what I’ll be focusing on this [academic] year.

As well as the administrative tasks of what will a day in the life look like here, when will we practice, what time of the day, how do I incorporate that with lifts, class, study hall, and everything else that a student has to do. Will it be more beneficial to do study hall in the daytime and practice in the evening or vice versa? So just kind of playing Noah here, building it, and they will come."

You will be on your own for the 2025-26 academic year and hiring coaches next year, correct?

EM: “Yes. The summer of ’26 is when we start looking at bringing in another coach.”

What will the 2026-27 academic year look like on the field?

EM: “My vision, personally, is that we’re going to get out there and play any program that wants to play. I want to play a Division 1 team every year. Let’s go play and see who truly is the better program. You can’t treat D1 in flag like you treat D1 in tackle [football]. But realizing that this sport is still new that a lot of things have to be refined with time before those “divisions” start necessarily meaning anything.

I want to show the girls that we can play a Division 1 program, we can play a Division 2 program, we can play a Division 3 program in or out of conference, we can play an NAIA, a junior college program, even a Division 1 club program. If you're bought into the program and what we're doing here, in what I call the Albright way, then it doesn't matter who we line up against."

How has Albright helped support the newly founded flag football program?

EM: “One thing that was the leading factor in me taking this position is that the school does anything it can within regulations to help me. They made that very clear. “Your job is to recruit, our job is to help.” Whether it be allowing me access to a table on campus and just let current Albright students know that we have flag football here. Maybe you played in high school, but didn’t know we were bringing a program. Let’s meet the coach, see your film if you have it, and go from there.

They allow me the opportunity to get out there and recruit and provide the resources to help with that. I can say some of the schools out there don’t have those resources, don’t offer those resources, so it gets real hard.

I would also say our president being very big into athletics, her goal is to have our student body be 60% athletes by next year. Along with flag football, she added wrestling and STUNT to our offerings here. They bring in the experts in the sport, meaning the head coach. They do a lot of, "Tell us what you need and we’ll make sure it gets done." Anything they naturally can do, they’ve offered and do offer on a day-to-day basis.

Support is definitely the biggest thing I would say that Albright is doing to help in this venture. Getting it out to our alumni, pushing it out at different events, and fundraisers to talk a little bit more about the sport to those groups, it definitely helps with bringing the camaraderie of programs, the school, and the area all together."

What advice would you give to someone who wants to coach at the college level?

EM: “First thing I’d ask anyone, “Do you want to do it for yourself or do you want to do it for the kids? What do you want to do it for?” Because there are going to be a lot of days where you get in your office at 7 AM, 6 AM, 5 AM, and that same day you don’t leave your office until 12 AM. If you're married, do you have a partner that supports your passion in sport and understands truly what it takes to be a good ball coach? Not a mediocre or average, a good ball coach, meaning the late nights, the early mornings, the I’m on the road, the I didn’t get to come home for lunch today because I had something pop up, dealing with the administrative tasks, the faculty meetings, the staff meetings, the visits, coordinating all that stuff. "Hey, I don’t have this weekend free because I have six girls coming in."

Who else does this decision affect, and can they really handle the impact of this job? If you're married or if you’re engaged or have a long-term partner, can they handle that? Every program isn’t the same as far as pay. Financially, what type of opportunity are you looking for? Do you need a salaried, benefited position, or are you young, hungry, don’t have a lot of financial responsibilities, and you can afford a job that pays $5,000, housing, and meal plans on campus?

It definitely depends on your situation. Don’t compare your boat to someone else’s. Not even because of the experience or years, just because everybody’s opportunity is different and their needs are different. Maybe they have a family or a kid or other responsibilities that they need to take care of financially, so they can’t afford to live like a 22-year old getting paid $200 every other week.

Evaluate your situation, evaluate your true passion and love for what you do, and then evaluate who else it affects. Then, everything you do professionally should be working towards building a résumé that emulates a responsible college coach. I spent five years of nonprofit volunteer work helping kids get to the level that I’m now coaching. That’s a huge résumé builder because it shows a) my recruitment ability and b) my knowledge of NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA rules and regulations. It also shows the fact that I know how to foster a recruitment relationship in general. 

Coaching, of course, builds that résumé, keeping track of your accomplishments and what you’ve learned and gained from those different opportunities. If I don’t see anything on your résumé, whether it be tangibly or in general, I wouldn’t take it that you're serious about wanting to be a college coach because this is a job. It’s not just popping up on TV or whatever; this is a real job. You have things to do, you have meetings to be in, responsibilities to handle, deadlines to meet, and quotas to fill. You have to understand that you have to be a professional and you have to conduct yourself as such."

Thank you to head coach Eric Martin for taking the time to sit down with Collegiate Flag Football to interview him to learn more about his background and the Albright flag football program.