Balancing medical school and football: Ethan Martin pulls double duty at Western University

A local Western University student is balancing both medical school and varsity football. CTV’s Brent Lale checks in with Ethan Martin.

Ethan Martin has no problem spending close to 12 hours a day at Western University.

“I tell all my family and friends I’d rather be in school than work,” said Martin.

The Western University medical student has been splitting his daily time over the past few months between the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and Alumni Stadium.

He’s an aspiring doctor and varsity football athlete.

“We can expect to be at the school between five-to-eight hours a day, depending on what day it is during the week,” said Martin. “Then I’m at the stadium roughly six hours a night for practice and watching film but I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.”

CTV News first met Ethan when he was known in London as a star quarterback and track and field athlete at South Secondary School.

He told CTV News in 2017 he aspired to be an orthopedic surgeon.

He decided to leave the Forest City to pursue his undergraduate degree in life science at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. where he also played football.

He returned home two years ago to enroll at Western University.

“On an average week, the curriculum has around 24 hours of scheduled teaching time, which includes asynchronous and synchronous material,” said Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Dr. Peter Wang. “That’s not including studying time, preparation time and other things that medical students do, such as research and other leadership roles.”

Wang says the school does its best to accommodate student athletes by giving maximum allowable time off, as well as work with them very proactively to identify any conflicts.

He says the prototype of the athlete often allows them to manage their time due to discipline, dedication, resiliency, and organizational skills.

Martin isn’t the first football player to balance medical school and football, but it is rare because it takes a special individual to do both.

Former Mustang Nick Vanin won the Russ Jackson Award, which goes to the football player who best exemplifies the attributes of academic achievement, football skill, and citizenship.

The star linebacker was also a medical student.

“Nick is a huge mentor of mine who helped me get into medical school and helped me with a lot during my undergrad days,” said Martin who was coached by Vanin when Ethan was 16 years old.

“I actually called him right after I made the decision to play football this year, and I was like, ‘How did you do it?’ He had nothing but good things to say about the football team and the medical school which eased my nerves about how I was going to manage the next three-to-five months,” he explained.

Now into his second year at Western, Martin is still pursuing medicine but has developed new interests besides orthopedic surgery. He’s taken an interest in the heart, as well as anesthesia, anatomy and physiology.

“Getting into the area of volunteering, I really found that I loved helping people,” said Martin. “When you combine those two as a physician, people are coming to see you at the most vulnerable time in their lives, and you now have an opportunity to be a part of it and help them figure out what’s going on and have a really positive impact on their life.”

After playing varsity football for three years at Queen’s – Western’s biggest rival – Martin thought his playing days were behind him.

He was working out in the gym after a year away from the sport, when Mustangs defensive coordinator Paul Gleason bumped into him and asked him about playing linebacker.

“I was like, ‘I do miss it a lot,’” said Martin. “I wasn’t sure if I could pull the trigger and then messaged me a few days later and I was like, ‘Sure, let’s do it.’”

He started the year playing linebacker but eventually moved to boundary halfback, which is a defensive back position on the short side of the field.

Soft tissue injuries derailed his season, only allowing him to play in four games and missing the OUA semifinal against Guelph in which their season ended.

“Obviously that wasn’t the plan coming into the season, because I had hoped to play in all eight [games] but you know I can’t go back in time,” he said.

He does have one year of eligibility left, but it’s unclear whether he’ll attempt to take the field again next fall as he enters his third year of medical school.

“The demand next year is even higher than it is this year,” said Martin. “We would have to work around even more school than I am right now.”

With the Mustangs’ early exit from the post season, he’ll have much more time to focus on school, even though he’d prefer to be still pulling 12-hour days.