CLAYTON, N.C. — Clayton High School Track Coach Kesrick Fraser is known for helping kids in North Carolina become champions. Champions might be an understatement though, as some of his pupils have become international stars.
Keni Harrison won a silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She was a Clayton graduate and was trained by Fraser.
One of Fraser's current stars is CJ Martin, who just graduated from Clayton and will be attending Indiana University to run in the Big Ten on a scholarship. He also plans on eventually running in the Olympics, representing the Philippines.
Fraser is willing to do whatever it takes to help these students from a small town in North Carolina run on the biggest stages in the world.
"Once the kid shows that they want to do the work and this is what they want, I always try to make sure I get out of them what I can, the best version of themself," Fraser said.
Fraser has been coaching in the community for more than a decade. He has coached more than seven different athletes in North Carolina to state championships. He knows the importance of starting training for athletes at a young age. Just like he did with CJ Martin, he's doing so with Manny Martin, his younger brother, who is going into his junior year at Clayton.
“I would never think I'd be running with CJ and being on the relays with him, so I'd always work harder so I could be able to be on that big stage with him," Manny Martin said. "I strive every day to try to be better. I learn from it and just try to be the best I can be."
Fraser said when athletes like Manny Martin buy into the process of training, it makes being a coach so much easier.
"We all put a 100% in it," Fraser said. "He put 100% in it, I put 100% in it and when we get a result like we've been getting, it makes me feel good."
It makes him feel so good, that it's almost like he's competing himself.
Before he became a coach, Fraser was a Jamaican Olympic alternate. He then moved to New York and then to North Carolina. He's been in North Carolina since 2003 and has been coaching other legends in the state like Sean McLean, who was the fastest high school kid in America in 2011 in the 200-meter race.
Over the years, Fraser never got the chance to compete for a medal in the Olympics but helping kids compete means just as much as winning to him.
"The thing that makes me wanna coach is to give kids an outlet, be an inspiration for kids to be great and to become a better version of themselves," Fraser said. "I was a fairly good kid that went to high school that do sports and never had that mentor, that person that really cares."
Training for a state championship or even for the Olympics can be grueling, but Fraser has been through it all and knows athletes like Harrison can be an inspiration even if his own words aren't enough.
"By seeing Keni come through here, running over the same hurdles, running on the track, it motivates me to know that I've helped somebody to come through," Fraser said. "So to go through high school and to perform at the level she has to perform and become a world-record holder. And this, this has inspired the kids to become great as well."
While CJ Martin hopes to run in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Manny Mrtin is looking for his own opportunity in the Olympics, whether it be 2028 or in 2032. Fraser says Manny Martin might even be better than CJ Martin. Manny Martin is looking to keep it that way with a little sibling rivalry and motivation, thanks to the teachings by Fraser.
"He knows this stuff. He he put many guys in colleges and just. He's guys, listen to what he says because he knows what he's doing," Manny Martin said.
Fraser spends about 15 hours a week coaching track. This is on top of the 45 hours on average he spends as a truck driver in his full-time job.
Correction: This story originally misspelled the last name of Clayton High School Track Coach Kesrick Fraser.