Colin Mark - making a difference through athletics

Emerline Gordon

Colin Mark became a certified athletics coach 14 years ago but has been coaching primary and secondary students for over 32 years, even though his early passion was cricket and he got into athletics on a challenge.

“From a youth growing up, my passion was really cricket. I played and competed in school cricket from primary school right unto secondary school. As a matter of fact, I happened to start participating in athletics by accident. One of my classmates at Signal Hill Secondary School encouraged me to enter this field by challenging me to run a race with him.

“We did run the race but during the race I skid and fell, because it had rained quite heavily that day causing the field to become wet and slippery. However, the next time we competed, I won, and this was the beginning of my running career. The rest is history,” Mark said in an interview.

An all-rounder, he played cricket, lawn tennis and participated in track and field events and coached other teams while he was an active athlete, Mark has earned as reputation as the most successful primary and secondary schools track coach in Tobago.

In July 2017, he started the athletics club, the Jubilee Stars Athletic Club, in Scarborough where he is President and Head Coach with Haydn Phillips as Vice President, Marlon Kennedy as Sprint Coach and Stephen Stanislaus as Assistant Coach.

Under his guidance, athletes have gone on to excel - Mark London, Darren Alfred, Abrelle Baynes and Antonio Blackman among others. Jubilee Stars’ athletes have dominated Sea to Sea 5K, 10K and ½ marathon and full marathon races both last year and this year.

Mark said he is humbled by the successes of club thus far.

“As a coach I feel proud yet humbled by what the youths of our club have been able to accomplish. As a club, we hope to continue along that winning path for a very long time. Everything I do I put 100 per cent of my time into it because I believe that hard work brings success,” he said.

“I love what I do, and I love my athletes. I can never stay at home and know that they are out there on the road, training and not be there to encourage, support and to ensure their safety. Parents believe in me and therefore I hold myself accountable to all the children who are under my watch,” he added.

Mark does not believe in settling for mediocrity.

“I coach to get the best results. Mediocrity would not work. I am a coach who believes that if you do your best and put in the work, success is guaranteed. I always tell my athletes, if you realise that you cannot come first, settle for second or third but if winning is the option then, win!” Mark said.

In addition to coaching at Jubilee Stars, Mark is also a certified national official at “lapse scoring” as well as “chief track judge” in walking races. He has also worked with Zenith Athletics club as a long-distance coach and with the Mason Hall police youth club.

Life has not been without challenges but he believes that challengs are part of life.

“I am a positive person who is not afraid to make mistakes. We can sometimes learn from our experiences and in so doing become better individuals. This also keeps me from becoming too complacent. For me giving up is never an option. My motto in life is “a quitter never wins, and a winner never quits,” he said.