CURRITUCK COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) — In Currituck County, like every where else, teaching during the pandemic has made things challenging, especially if you’re a physical education teacher.

But in the case of Jarvisburg Elementary’s Corey Martin, he got creative.

“We first went virtual back in March of 2020,” Martin said. “There wasn’t a blueprint with how to do it.”

How about a YouTube channel to help keep his students active?

“I went to YouTube and started a YouTube channel in March of 2020,” Martin said. “I did little virtual lessons with paper balls, anything I could think of that kids have at home that they can use, shoe boxes for soccer goals, you name it.”

While students are back in school four days a week in Currituck County, Martin’s YouTube channel is still going strong.

“To this day, my kids if I don’t make a weekly YouTube video, they let me hear it even though we are back in school,” he said.

And his channel is getting a lot of eyeballs. The YouTube channel “about” page shows its amassed more than 4.4 million views as of early May.

“I get up to 50,000 to 60,000 views a day,” Martin said.

Before coming to Currituck County, Martin played college baseball and at Western Carolina University and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs.

He played three seasons of Minor League Baseball and made it to Triple A, but his baseball career ended there.

“Mike Trout was the last batter I faced in spring training, 2011 last day before teams broke, he hit one out on me. Coincidentally, the next day I was released, got a plane ticket home and been teaching ever since,” he said.

And there’s no place he’d rather be than at Jarvisburg Elementary in Currituck County.

“I love the area, so here I am still here 10 years later,” Martin said.

“One of my goals as a PE teacher is if I can teach you how to handle winning, if I can teach you how to handle losing, I feel like I’ve done my job. If they can experience failure and experience success in grade school, then it’s going to make things easier as they advance through life.”

Click here to check out Martin’s YouTube channel.