A West Virginia teen put it all on the line this fall, when he hit the dance floor at homecoming with his boyfriend—and revealed to his classmates for the first time that he was gay.

Michael Martin, an 18-year-old senior at Musselman High School in Inwood, West Virginia (population just 2,954) told Outsports that dancing a slow dance with his boyfriend, Jem, was "something I thought I'd never do."

Jem was the date of girl at Musselman and her outside guest for the dance, while I went "alone." The girl knew Jem and I were together. I was on the homecoming court, which was a big honor and something I never thought would happen. Only some people knew about me before the homecoming, so it was a shocker for some seeing me dance with another guy.

Jem and I danced all night to the most popular pop songs. But it was the slow dance that I most remember that night at the school cafeteria—"Remember When" by Alan Jackson. It was the best night ever. Jem and I got asked a lot if we were together and we said yes. "That is so cute!" some girls said. It made us felt accepted.

Word quickly spread and the following week I sensed that some guys were looking at me differently. My friends even told me people were talking about me in a negative way in different classes. "He is a faggot now," I was told some people said. My friends courageously stood up for me and I am so proud to call them my friends.

Martin is an all-star soccer goalie for the Musselman Applemen (the school, and the team are named after Musselman Apple Sauce) and says he was gay when he was a freshman but was scared of being mocked by teammates.

"The team threw around the words 'gay' and 'faggot" a lot," he recalls. "I felt I would never be safe if I did come out."

While it's only about two hours from Washington, DC—and his school actually has an LGBT student group—"Inwood is a pretty conservative town," Martin says.

But eventually, the burden of hiding himself was too much to bear.

I came out to my soccer team one step at a time. Since I was dating Jem, I decided to become truthful with everyone. I never held a team meeting. Instead, I told some players and then they told others and these people asked me for confirmation. They couldn't believe that I was gay, because they said "I always acted so straight."

Teammates were curious and I got a lot of questions. I also got teased by my teammates closest to me making jokes or saying sexual things, but I know they were just kidding. Actually, their joking told me they were okay with things. I also knew that even if someone did say something negative that a lot of my teammates would have my back. Recently I was named captain for the Musselman swim team. They all know about my sexuality and gratefully are accepting.

Martin thanked the coach for his traveling soccer team, who "laid down the law" about not tolerating racism or homophobia on the team,  even though he didn't know Martin was gay. "He was determined to create a safe environment on the team," says the teen,

Not surprisingly, he counts L.A. Galaxy player Robbie Rogers as a role model: "I loved how he announced he was gay and did not quit playing soccer," Martin writes. "He gave me hope and confidence to be true to myself. Once he came out I started to contemplate doing the same myself and being proud of who I am."  Martin says Rogers "should be every soccer player's idol, gay or straight."

We think Michael Martin should be, too.