National Scholastic Athletics Foundation

By SteveU and Joy Kamani

'The main purpose is to change kids' lives."

It would certainly seem natural and unremarkable that the average high school track and field coach would hold some, if not great, value for the balance of education and athletics – and give some expression to that. 

But Claude Toukene of Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, Va., is not an average track coach … and as you learn who he is and where he came from, you see that he doesn’t just simply “understand” the importance of education and athletics to one another.  He lives and breathes it with a passion that emanates from his soul and envelopes any receptive soul he comes in contact with, as well.

Coach Toukene (“Coach Touks” to his athletes) – who was born in 1975 in Cameroon, a former French and British colony in central Africa – is not only the son of educators, but his grandfather and two brothers were/are teachers, as well.  In fact, his father was Cameroon’s Secretariat of Education for 13 years. 

When you ask about this, Coach starts by quoting Nelson Mandela.  “Education can uplift a community,” he tells you, “so that’s the first thing … I have a journey.  The journey is to change the kids’ lives at Western Branch.  The first thing is to change them from the inside-out.  You want to change the education, and make them value the education, and the rest will fall into place.”

For that, and a decade of amazing success with his Bruins track teams – they added three more national titles at last weekend’s New Balance Nationals Outdoor – Coach Claude Toukene is 2014’s NSAF Mike Byrnes Coach of the Year.  He was so honored in a ceremony last Sunday, MC’d by NSAF Board Member Larry Rawson, that preceded the last session of finals at Aggie Stadium in Greensboro (he was chosen earlier this spring).  At trackside with his wife, Dr. Joann Toukene and three children, Coach Touks raised his plaque to the hot, blue sky and acknowledged the cheers of the crowd – cheers that had greeted his student athletes as well, as they swept the boys and girls shuttle hurdle relays (the girls setting a national record) and the girls 4x800 relay contested earlier.

Along with all of his passion for education, Coach Touks was pretty successful in athletics, himself.  While in Cameroon, he was selected to the U-17 National Soccer Team.  He also went on to compete as a sprinter in several world level events, including representing Cameroon at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

But for most of his nearly 40 years in life, it’s been all about a rather amazing educational journey for Coach Touks.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in math and physics in Cameroon in 1994.  He then received an International Olympic Committee scholarship to attend the Institut National du Sport et de l'Education Physique (INSEP, National Institute of Sport and Physical Education), a teacher training institute and center for excellence in sports that trains elite athletes.  Again, that balance of education and athletics!

In America, Coach Touks has received a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, from Norfolk State University (2001) with a major in exercise science and a minor in math.  He also has earned a master’s degree in education from Cambridge College.  His diverse background and education have helped Coach become fluent in five languages.  He is certified as a special education teacher and as a French teacher and, not surprisingly, has also taught math.

So then you ask how all of his diverse educational experiences, and international life and travels, can contribute to what he can give to Western Branch’s students-athletes.  “My background and experience, and all of the travel that I have done, has shaped me and made me the man that I am today,” he says.  “It gave me a different perspective on life and that’s what I try to bring to the kids at Western Branch.

“Cameroon is a Third-World country … So at Western Branch, for instance, we don’t have a rubber track.  We don’t have a long jump pit; we don’t have the equipment.  But I tell the kids there’s no room for excuses … (in Cameroon) we don’t have the basics that they have.  I tell them they are fortunate to have a track (at all).  When I was in high school, we didn’t even have a track.  So we always find a way to be successful … I’m trying to coach life, rather than only focusing on track and field.”

Then you go back, wondering about Coach Touks being a special education teacher, with all of the patience, empathy and flexibility that this demands.  Has that experience and the perspective gained helped him as a coach?

“Tremendously,” he says.  “Tremendously … When I got into school system, I didn’t know what special ed was.”  He would learn, however, that every student he had was unique and there were instances were unexpected progress could be made.  Some of his state champions came from these groups of students.  “I fell in love with how directly I could make a difference in a kid’s life.”

In his coaching and teaching, Coach Touks stresses visualization.  “A wise man once told me… any invention, everything we have invented, that we have done as humans, somebody has to conceive it,” he explains.  “You have to visualize it.  For instance, the airplane, somebody visualize it and then created it.  In order for them to be successful, we have to train not only the body, but also have to train the mind.  They have to see themselves achieving those performances.”  He also stresses basic physics and exercise physiology.

Coach Touks takes great pride in seeing his students succeed beyond Western Branch ... and treasures when they return to visit or even to help with the program.  “There have been so many who never would have dreamed of going to college.  The perfect example is Jeff Artis (Class of 2009 at Western Branch).”

Coach notes some of Artis’s accomplishments at the NCAA and ACC level in the hurdles and long jump, including 5th in the latter in the 2013 outdoor nationals.  “This is a kid, who I would say 8 years ago, had no intention of going to college … (but) he went on to college, graduated from Virginia Tech and he’s out there changing kids’ lives, sharing the experience and telling them not to take it for granted.”  He talks about other returnees to the school, like assistant coach Cameron Cipcic. 

“It’s like a family,” Coach says, which will later lead him to talking about the contributions of the coaching staff.  “It’s not a one-man show, it’s a system.”

Coach Touks also talks about reaching today’s student-athlete in the age of social media and the bombardment of distractions they face.  “Every week we have a team meeting on Monday and give them a purpose … to tell them to have a purpose in life … We pressure them.  We try and make them better people.  And the thing is, I always tell the kids understand what’s important and what’s not important.  I tell them very simple stuff.  They should prioritize: Education, come to practice and if they’re religious … people come from different faiths, but I tell them to put that very high … I tell them to prioritize … The rest of the distraction is only a waste of time.  In order to be successful in life, you have to put the time in everything you want to accomplish.”

And Coach Touks has other things he still wants to accomplish, like going back to school to study physical therapy and also to get a law degree.  He agrees that education never ends and, if he is to have a successor in the relatively near future, he hopes it will come from one of his former athletes, “as soon as they are ready to take over” and continue what he has started.

Meanwhile, coming into the championship season, he has led the Bruins to 12 state team titles, including achieving seven U.S. #1 national rankings for indoor track and field over seven straight years (2008 – 2014).  His athletes have garnered 67 All-American titles, 11 national championships, 10 national runner-ups, 64 All-State titles, and 53 Virginia State championships (including relays).  And that was before NBNO this year, where there were three more national titles.

Coach Touks says he is like a father or second father to some of these kids, so it’s not surprising that he might be asked what he wanted for Father’s Day, which almost always falls on NBNO weekend.  So it was with Ebony White, who ran key legs on both the record-setting 4x100 SHR and winning 4x800.  “She’s like a daughter to me … I said, just give me a victory.”

He says it with a glint in his eyes, though, because everyone knows that winning is far from the only thing in this program.  “Titles are the icing on top of the cake,” he says, “the main purpose is to change kids’ lives.”

In both, he has been very successful, indeed!

Photos by Walter Pinion