The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER spending just one year as an assistant coach at the University of Southern Mississippi, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie is moving on. The Bahamas’ most decorated female sprinter has accepted a new role as an assistant coach at the University of Houston.

“It feels like a fairy tale,” said Ferguson-McKenzie on the school’s website. “Like something you read in a book. But it’s real life. I’m looking forward to learning from the staff. I grew up watching Leroy and now I’m hired by him and he’s my boss and colleague. It’s a dream come true.”

She was welcomed to the Cougars track team by head coach Leroy Burrell as she replaces Seun Adigun, who stepped down from the position to pursue other opportunities, but will stay on as a volunteer coach.

“When Seun Adigun stepped down to pursue other career opportunities, I felt we needed a person with the calibre of Olympic experience that already exists on our staff as a role model for our women,” Burrell said. “Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie provides that and then some.”

Over the past 26 years, Ferguson-McKenzie has enjoyed a lofty career, having won 52 medals in international competition from the CARIFTA Games as a junior athlete to the Olympic Games as an elite athlete and she was celebrated as a 10-time Bahamas national champion in the 100- and 200-metre sprints.

In her new role in a new location, Ferguson-McKenzie hopes to carry the same type of work ethic that she endured during her tenure as an athlete and now extending as a coach.

“I want us to work hard, but also have fun,” Ferguson-McKenzie said. “Our goal as a team is to be number one. It won’t be easy, but we have to keep pushing.”

The 38-year-old, who originally aspired to be a paediatrician, had a successful career on the track in both the 100 and 200 metres where she represented the Bahamas in five Olympic Games, including Atlanta, Georgia in 1996, Sydney, Australia in 2000, Athens, Greece in 2004, Beijing, China in 2008 and London, England in 2012.

She won an individual bronze medal in the 200m in Athens and ran on the Golden Girls’ victorious gold medal 4 x 400m relay team in Sydney as well as on the silver medal team in the same relay in Atlanta.

Additionally, Ferguson-McKenzie picked up a gold medal in the 200m at the IAAF World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, in 2001 and a bronze in the same event in Berlin, Germany, in 2009. And as a member of the relay team, she helped the Bahamas secure the gold in the 4 x 1 in Seville, Spain, in 1999 after getting the silver in Berlin.

The St Andrew’s deputy head girl at the time of her graduation in 1994 went on to the University of Georgia where she earned numerous All-American honours after winning various NCAA titles indoor and outdoors in both the 100 and 200m during her four-year tenure that ended in 1999.

Like she did when she closed out her junior career by winning the Austin Sealy award as the most outstanding athlete at the CARIFTA Games in 1995, winning the gold in both the 100 and 200m and as a member of the Bahamas’ 4 x 100m relay team, Ferguson-McKenzie earned three gold medals in the same events at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. Her winning time of 22.20 seconds still stands as the games’ record.

In 2002, Ferguson-McKenzie was also appointed as an ambassador for the United Nations Foods and Agriculture Organisation and she has served as a member of the Athlete’s Commission of the IAAF, the governing body for track and field. With those credentials behind her name, Burrell said they are anxious to include Ferguson-McKenzie on their coaching staff.

“Debbie will be a tremendous asset to cougar track and field in her role not only as a coach and mentor to our female athletes but she brings a wealth of recruiting connections not only in the Caribbean, but throughout the world,” Burrell said. “We plan to thoroughly capitalise on those connections that she has fostered to build our programme to be among the elite programmes in collegiate track and field.”

Burrell said Ferguson-McKenzie will join a staff that has performed well at the highest level of the sport. Three other members, including Burrell, assistant coach Floyd Heard and volunteer coach Carl Lewis, have all won medals over their appearances in over eight Olympiads for the United States.