TEXAS — Marshall Edwards had coached the Trinity Christian golf team for over a decade.
“This is my 13th year. I retired from business 20 years ago. I never anticipated coaching golf and one of the dads wanted me to coach the golf teams,” Edwards explained. “I thought I’d do it for one year and now it’s 13 years later.”
His team is elite. He’s coached students like Will Zalatoris and Kramer Hickok, who have played professionally. His goal is to help his students succeed in both golf and life.
“It’s important to me because I’ve been doing this long enough to know that all of these young men aspire to be professional golfers, but we know the likelihood of that is not great,” Edwards continued, “I want them to choose their dream and to do what’s necessary to achieve that dream. I want them to learn how important it is to work hard and treat other people the right way, then they will likely achieve some success in whatever avenue they decide to go in.”
One way he achieves this is through his Tuesday morning “life lessons.”
“We meet every Tuesday morning from 7 to 8,” Edwards said. “Today’s lesson was how to have a genuine interest in others and not just yourself from the book of Philippians. We talked about how to treat people with respect the way you want to be treated.”
Teaching his students life lessons is his way of paying it forward. When he was their age, he had coaches that did the same for him.
“That’s why I wanted to coach,” Edwards explained. “The two men that were most influential in my life were two coaches of mine. They taught me about life. They taught me everything about hard work, dedication, determination and perseverance, how to compete in the right way. I learned everything from them. I was as close to them in the last 50 years of their lives that I was under their tutelage. I was close to them up until the time they passed away.”
Now, years later, Edwards impacts students the way he was impacted by his coaches.
Former students and current college golfers Michael Heidelbaugh and Justin Thompson reflect on how Edwards has affected their golf career.
“I’m super blessed and fortunate to have been coached by Marshall Edwards at TCA,” Heidelbaugh started. “I’m forever grateful for all he’s done for me in my golf career, but also as a man. I’m forever indebted to him as a man and for everything he’s given back to me.”
“I’m extremely grateful to play at TCA under Coach Edwards and lucky to play college level,” Thompson explained. “He was extremely tough, but was also one of the first people to pick you up or congratulate you when you’ve succeeded.”
For Edwards, he said to be able to do what he loves every day — which is coaching — is a full circle moment.
“I’ve heard the phrase before, and that’s what I want to do — pay it forward. And I was blessed to have the coaches that I had, and I want to be just like they were.”
