photo courtesy of www.labeez.com
Chris Faulknor was a member of the 1984 and 1988 Jamaican Olympic track and field team. Due to injury he was unale to compete in 1984 but in 1988 he and his team took just barely missed a medal in the Men’s 4 X 100 relay finishing 4th place in the final.
Today Chris Faulknor or “Coach Chris” as he is know to the over 105 athletes age 5-18 that he coaches is the head coach and founder of a Los Angeles-based club track program called the Southern California Running Cougars.
The program is very successful turning out Junior Olympic Champions and NCAA Division I Scholarship athletes regularly since its inception in 1999.
For more information about the team’s most recent performances click the link below
Southern California Running Cougars Official Site
Two of the most successful Cougars are Jeshua Anderson and Bryshon Nellum. Jeshua is still a Cougar on the Washington State University Cougars track and field team. He also plays football at WSU. Bryshon is attending the University of Southern California. His track career is currently on hold while he recovers from being shot in the legs three times at a restaurant near the campus. In high school Nellum was the 2007 Gatorade national boy’s track and field athlete of the year, and considered a potential Olympian. Depending on how his recovery goes, that is still a possibility.
Another success story is Khalfani Mohamed, the 2008 Southern California Association-Athlete of the Year, Youth Division. Khalfani won Junior Olympic Gold as a member of the 4 X 100 relay and 4 X 400 relay teams and placed highly in all the other events he entered as well.
The funny thing about how successful the team has been, is that is was founded by accident. Faulknor saw from a young age that his son was really fast and he had an interest in track. In 1999 he brought him to a Los Angeles-based club track team called LA Unity.The people who ran that club were unhappy with their current coach’s inability to interact with kids and saw something special in Faulknor and within a few weeks he was the head coach of that team. The next year Faulknor started his own program with only four kids and four parents. They were unbelievbly successful going undefeated the entire season and all the way to the Junior Olympics. The next year the program went from four kids to 35 and the Southern California Running Cougars were born
Faulknor says it was a combination of his being the captain of the Jamaican Olympic team and having kids at a young age that has shaped his success.
“When I was participating back then(on the Jamaican Olypic team) I was the one in charge of the team. I was in charge of the workout, the scheduling, the program,” he said. “When I moved here to this country I coached soccer for five years and it was a youth program of course with my son. And it’s not every professional athlete that becomes a coach. It how you interact with kids and I was young when I had kids so I can relate.”
Faulknor is more than just a coach to his athletes he also acts as a father-figure and mentor to them.
Parents of kids in the program say that Faulknor’s interactive coaching style and love of track are his greatest assets.
The kids also feel a connection that is more than just coach and athlete with “Coach Chris” but don’t take my word for it.
More Useful Links
Video highlights of Cougars at a meet
