An up-and-coming HBCU track coach is getting a big opportunity at the US Olympic Track and Field Team trials.
Edward Waters University assistant track & field/cross country coach Marla Lindsay has been selected to be a coach at the upcoming US Olympic Track & Field Team Trials. The trials will take place June 21-30 at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
Lindsay received this prestigious honor thanks to one of the 2024 National Championship Mentorship Grants from USA Track & Field. Lindsay will be a part of the coaching staff of the multi-events of decathlon, heptathlon, and pentathlon.
Before coming to the D2 HBCU, Lindsay spent two seasons as an assistant coach at NCAA Division III Hollins University in Roanoke VA. At Hollins, Lindsay help produce several school record performances, while also mentoring several Old Dominion Athletic Conference top performers.
A native of Beaufort, North Carolina, native, Lindsay starred at East Carteret High School and Western Carolina University as a sprinter and jumper. She earned East Carteret’s 1995 Athlete of the Year Award and represented the school at four NCHSAA championships. She is a 2020 inductee into East Carteret High School Hall of Fame. The 1993 team captured the 2-A state title. Her efforts earned an athletic scholarship to NCAA Division I Western Carolina where she was a part of three Southern Conference titles in for the Catamounts.
She graduated from Western Carolina in 2000 with a bachelor of fine arts in graphic design and has completed coursework towards a master’s in computer science from UNC Greensboro. Lindsay previously completed a stint as a mentor at the 2022 the USATF Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon.