MENTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Marshall Edwards: Mentor Extraordinaire BY DON ENGLISH,

BOYS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

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HETHER COACHING middle school basketball (sixteen years) or boys golf (thirteen years), Marshall Edwards transcends the title of coach! When a local newspaper asked him about being a mentor for life, he stated that it is what gives him the most joy. “The thing I enjoy the most is helping teach kids what life is really all about. In many cases, a coach can be as influential as a student’s mom and dad. That is why I remain close to the kids I coach and try to lead them in the right direction.” Coach Edwards believes that coaching is much more than what happens on the scoreboard, although with few losses during his basketball career as well as eight golf state titles (more than any other TCA sport), he loves to win and believes that winning is important. For the record, he can quickly recite current details of where most of his former players are either attending school or which career path they have chosen. Justin Thompson, former TCA and current SMU star, gives credence to this: “Coach Edwards became and has remained a mentor for me since graduating from TCA. The values he displayed and passed on to us are values I still try to improve on in my own life every day. He has the amazing ability to develop young golfers by showing them how golf can be a path towards becoming a strong Christian leader. I can easily say playing golf for Coach Edwards was one of the greatest honors in my life.”

Sports—especially amateur sports—are an incredible means of impacting the lives of young people. Strong mentors can lead young men and women to tremendous success on and off the field of play, especially throughout life’s ups and downs! The saying “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime” is an excellent example of how outstanding mentors like Coach Edwards go the extra mile to teach and mentor young athletes how to live successfully on and off the field or court. Michael Heidelbaugh, TCA’s most recent state champion, now playing for Texas A&M University, says, “While Coach Edwards has been a big influence on my golf, he has been a bigger influence on my life. He taught me how to become a man of Christ and how to always do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. I am forever grateful for how he has invested in me, and I hope to become like him one day.” There is no greater compliment of modeling biblical values than that!

Marshall Edwards, an outstanding track athlete at Hillcrest High School and SMU, taught himself how to play golf and then began teaching his son, Alan, a member of TCA’s first-ever state championship team in 1992. (Another player on that team was Blake Priest, currently one of Marshall’s assistant coaches.) Coach Edwards not only teaches young men how to play golf but also exemplifies a leader who prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child. One way Marshall prepares the child is “DTRT” (Do the Right Thing), and it’s on every royal blue wristband the boy golfers wear. This practical reminder and his Tuesday morning meetings discussing biblical examples of character, integrity and living out one’s faith are some of the key ways Coach Edwards shares life with his golfers. Will Zalatoris ’14, second-place finisher at the Masters this year and arguably TCA’s most famous golfer, exudes his appreciation: “Coach Edwards’s coaching record in terms of winning state championships and producing players that have gone on to play golf at the collegiate level speaks for itself. That being said, he spends exponentially more time mentoring his players into godly men than he does working with them on their golf games. He is a father figure for so many of his players, past and present.” Amy Prideaux, TCA director of admission and more importantly, Marshall’s daughter, agrees: “I’ve always been so impressed by my dad’s golf handbook and the standards he sets up front! Bottom line, he is a life coach, not just a golf coach. He is often having lunch with or attending the wedding of one of his former players. It’s been a sweet experience working with my dad and seeing several families coming to TCA for the golf program as well as interviewing many alums who had my dad as their basketball coach.”

Having known Coach Edwards for nine years, I can say he clearly “gets it” when it comes to raising boys in the world of athletics. He understands that being an outstanding mentor requires one to be committed to perfecting one’s craft—the X’s and O’s—while simultaneously earning trust to build life-long, life-changing relationships. Sports can be a really poor god, but mentors with a proper perspective, a diligent work ethic and a strong desire to connect with

young people can help kids both seek the true God and find success on and off the field.

Kramer Hickok ’11, who placed second at the Travelers Championship in June after an eight-hole playoff, when asked how Marshall has influenced his life, states, “Coach Edwards has had a huge impact on my life, both on and off the golf course. Before he was ever my golf coach, he was actually my basketball coach. Coach was probably one of the most competitive people I have ever been around—possibly even more competitive than I am, and that is saying something. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor as a golf coach. I learned just as much about how to become a man as I learned how to become a better golfer. He taught me how to be disciplined, channel my competitiveness and work harder than I thought I could, and that greatness can be achieved by anyone as long as you believe in yourself. But most importantly, Coach Edwards taught me the importance of putting God first in my life. I truly don’t know if I would be where I am today without Coach Edwards.”

It has been my honor to know Marshall Edwards. For nearly two decades, he has been pouring into athletes here at TCA! This is a wonderful testimony of how God can use someone fully committed to a life of service. Marshall is a mentor whom I regard as an excellent model not only to younger, less experienced coaches but also to us older coaches as well! He substantiates the maxim “Say what you mean and mean what you say” by spending countless hours of his own time and expense to help lead young men toward Christ and true success in life. What else could we ask of a coach and mentor!

“Coach Edwards spends exponentially more time mentoring his players into godly men than he does working with them on their golf games.”

—Will Zalatoris ’14

TOP - Coach Edwards with the 2011 TAPPS State Golf Championship team: Tanner Harrington ’12, Will Harrington ’11, Will Zalatoris ’14, Kramer Hickok ’11, Jacob Springfield ’11, Tucker Wadkins ’11 and Preston Harrington ’13 LEFT - Coach Edwards advising RJ Rieman ’20 on a shot during the 2018 TAPPS district tournament