Scholar Stories: For Martens, All Roads Lead to Home
10/9/2025 10:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each week MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories.
By Jonathan Franchi
Much of Zach Martens' childhood consisted of travel and making new homes. For many who are constantly on the move, they may not have a place they call home. Born in Portland, Ore., Martens' family moved to Dexter, Mich., when he was only 6 months old. Martens' father worked in academia and had landed a job at the University of Michigan, marking the beginning of Martens becoming a passionate U-M fan. After about 10 years in Michigan, Martens and his family moved to Gainesville, Fla., but that was only the first of many more moves in Martens' future.
Martens grew up playing every sport, but he knew at age 6 that soccer was his passion. Growing up in Gainesville, Martens quickly outperformed the competition and searched for other opportunities to prove himself on the pitch. Not being close to any major cities, the Martens family made the difficult decision to join a more premier soccer club, first in Orlando at age 12, and then another team in Jacksonville two years later. This resulted in long car rides each way, five days per week, for about six years for practices and games, a major commitment for any family. Eventually, Martens again stood out against the competition and needed a new challenge to reach the next level. With COVID-19 spreading, a new obstacle stood in his way. He knew that if he wanted to play in front of college coaches, he would have to make another move to a more professional environment. For his biggest move yet, Martens left his family household at age 16 to join the Orlando City Youth Academy team, moving in with a host family, a challenging decision for both himself and his parents.
"I can't say enough about my parents. It's a pretty big gamble to drive a 13-year-old kid three hours a night. They have always encouraged me to chase my dreams, and they told me they would support me in whatever I wanted to do," Martens said. "And, you know, there were times where I would question whether I wanted to keep doing it, and it was their support and, kind of, nudging me, saying, 'Hey, you know, this is your dream.' Having that support that I always needed when there were any troubling times is what helped me throughout the journey."
The move to the Orlando City Youth Academy team ultimately paid off for Martens. Playing there for two years, Martens won a national championship at the U17 level, and during this championship run, Michigan head coach Chaka Daley started recruiting Martens as a midfielder.
When making his college decision, it was a no-brainer for Martens.
"At the end of the day, I think Michigan's pretty much unrivaled with what it offers from the academic balance and the sport aspects, to go along with the career opportunities and the facilities," he said. "I could go on and on. It checks every single box."
Playing midfield, Martens loves the versatility of the position and being able to impact the games both on the attack and on defense. While it involves heavy running and conditioning, Martens welcomes the challenge and enjoys being a player his team can count on.
"I would describe myself as a workhorse. I'm kind of that guy that you'd like to have on your team because I'm going to do the running for you, and I feel like that's kind of become like a staple in my game," he said. "Falling back on those things like perseverance, work ethic, leadership, and the ability to kind of organize the team, I think that's the stuff that has really made me successful, and it's also probably what I enjoy most."
Being a workhorse on the pitch has followed Martens to the classroom. As a student in the nationally recognized Ross School of Business, Martens has achieved Academic All-Big Ten honors twice in his three years and has been exposed to the many career paths found through Ross. The Dexter, Mich., native has always been intrigued by data analytics, which stemmed from his childhood, when his mom used to say he could recite every statistic on ESPN. Following his love for numbers and analytics, Martens has pursued opportunities in finance and equity research. Through the Ross School of Business, he has had multiple experiences that have better prepared him for a career after graduation. In his Sustainability and Business course, Martens and a group of students worked with the WDI Publishing Institute to write a case, applying all the sustainability knowledge they had gained in the course into a business context. After writing the case and a teaching note, Martens' group was selected as part of one of the three groups that would continue the process and work with WDI to get their paper published.
"It's been about a year-long process, but it's been awesome. Getting to work with another group of undergraduates and having the ability to be a part of something that is tangible for us was honestly super, like, empowering," Martens said. "I think it was just a good exercise in team building and collaboration, and it was just like a great opportunity through a really cool class that I took."
Opportunities like that are just one example of the many benefits that Ross has to offer. More recently, Martens was able to combine both his love for sports and financial data into an experience that may have piqued his interest in a new career option. Over the summer, Martens worked in the University of Virginia athletic department as a finance intern, assisting them with budgeting and cost analysis for all teams and departments. He took part in a project where he helped create a contract database that identified more than 50 contracts that were expired or discrepant from other contracts in the system. Additionally, Martens helped consolidate the cost reporting for the entire athletic department, helping create a more efficient process.
"It was a great hands-on experience for me, but to actually see the behind the scenes of college athletics and how much work goes into it and what the entire process is for, all of that allocation, it was really eye opening for me," Martens said. "I've always said that I would love to work in sports. It's been a part of who I am for my entire life. I think blending my soccer experience and my athletic experience with data analysis and those areas that I've always been interested in would be a pretty awesome job."
On the soccer field, Martens is now a senior midfielder and one of the veteran leaders of the team. Seeing action in his previous three years, including eight starts, Martens has bought into the team-first culture that has been established for the program. When asked about any personal goals for his senior campaign, Martens said his only goal is for the team to get a ring, reflecting his selfless mentality.
"One of the defining quotes that we have up in our locker rooms says, 'Program, Team, Self.' So, it's ultimately about representing the program as a whole, and then it's about doing your part to succeed for the team, and then you, as an individual, come last at the end of the day," Martens said. "I think one of the big things that I've seen throughout my time here is that guys have been increasingly buying into that culture. And in doing that, building cohesion, not just on the field, but, developing relationships off the field. And kind of just extending beyond the face value of being a player and really understanding who these guys are as people, not just as players, has been massive for us in creating a culture where you're fighting for your brother; you're not just playing with a teammate."
As a senior leader, Martens has done his part to help mentor the younger players on the team and help them get acclimated. He has really seen himself grow off the field and has used his wisdom and insight to help the underclassmen. He understands the good days and bad days that come with being a college athlete and is helping his teammates recognize the importance of knowing their role within the team.
From multiple moves, to long car rides, to leaving his home at age 16, Martens showed a lot of desire and persistence in order to achieve his dream. Having a lot of family still living close to Ann Arbor and being able to play for the school he grew up cheering for has been a surreal experience for Martens.
"The stars aligned," he said.
With an uncertainty about how things would play out, Martens stayed the course, and eventually, his hard work led him back to his true home, the University of Michigan.
