Fowler Athletic Park was the classroom for Charlie Green to teach life lessons.
The former educator installed the importance of perseverance, patience and practice to the athletes he instructed.
“Those three Ps are sort of the three key elements that keep you on your game, keep you fighting for what it is that you want and keeping you training,” said Hubert Green, Charles’ son, during Saturday’s dedication ceremony honouring the St. Albert track and field coach.
“As you got older and you sort of left the track there were lessons a lot of his athletes did take with them. I run into a lot of them and they say a lot of things I learned on the track I’ve applied to life.
“It’s something I’ve taken and tried to use in other areas in my life from track.”
Green was 73 when he died on March 11, 2012 after a struggle with dementia.
Green's memory is etched in stone beside the overspeed track bearing his name at the Fowler facility and home of the St. Albert Mustangs Track and Field Club.
The inscription reads: A coach, a mentor, a friend. In honour of the many contributions that Charlie brought to the sport of track and field and to the community as a whole. He is forever renowned for his dedication to coaching through innovation and his development of talent and youth.
“It was his goal. He always wanted to see the kids achieve in track or school or education or anything and he was there for that,” said Green’s wife, Johanna. “When he got very sick he said promise me you will always volunteer in track and I said yes, I promise as long as I live.”
The Green family, including the oldest son, Jomo, and daughter Sonja were joined by past and present members of the track community at the City of St. Albert naming announcement hosted by Mayor Nolan Crouse.
A number of Green’s former athletes were in attendance.
“It’s very emotional for me,” said Johanna, noting how one of the athletes “thanked me that Mr. Green took so much time away from me just for them so he could be there to teach them track.”
Hubert said his dad thrived on finding the best in individuals and assisted them in bringing out those skills.
“My dad was probably as much a teacher as much as he was a coach,” he added. “I guess in reflection he was sort of like the track father in a sense, like a godfather, just bringing us kids together and I guess teaching us the values and good principles and how to be better people in that sense.
“The principles he asked you to bring to track are kind of the principles he sort of asked you to bring back in life.”
Green was born in Jamaica and after college his devotion to sports and academic endeavours continued as a teacher before seeking greener pastures in Canada in 1965 to further his education and complete his masters degree.
Green taught in Calgary for seven years before accepting a position with the Department of Indian Affairs, as it was known then, and retired from the department in 2000.
Green moved to St. Albert in 1979 and would coach an average of 10 youths per year for 30 years. He was also an accomplished athlete in the sport into his senior years.
“His philosophy was that if someone wanted to learn he would take the time to teach,” said Crouse, an interested observer of Green’s workouts at Fowler track while doing laps running or race walking.
“I never trained with him because I couldn’t keep up but I admired him,” Crouse said. “He was very much to himself and doing his own thing very privately but I always admired what he was doing as he went about making sure he kept his muscle tone the way he wanted it.”
Green avoided the spotlight but behind the scenes was instrumental in the overspeed track concept and with the support from the St. Albert Track & Field Foundation it was unveiled in 2010. Johanna remembered how she provided a drawing of the overspeed track so her husband could present it to city council for funding requests.
“It’s a very, very nice gesture to see the city giving him this honour,” Hubert said of the Charlie Green Overspeed Track.
Green was also an advocate of the importance of good training facilities and encouraged several enhancements to Fowler track that are evident today.
“He wasn’t the sort of person that was really ever after anything, he just wanted to kind of provide us athletes the best for us and it’s good to see that he sort of pushed things,” said Hubert, a sprinter who graduated from Paul Kane High School. “When I grew up it was just an asphalt track and we were probably getting shin splits every day. We would’ve loved to have had something like this and it’s good to see that he had that foresight vision to bring it in.”
Jomo described his dad as a team player who worked with others who also had the best interests of the athletes at heart.
“There are a couple of families here today, the Coopers and Lipscombes, that really sort of built the organization from a very tiny track and field team to a very talented team. It was really a tight knit family and I think my dad would want that recognized. There was a lot of effort and energy. It was a great environment. It was quite fascinating to see such a small community develop such a strong organization,” Jomo said.
