IRVINGTON, NJ — Marvin Hawkins has been a head coach of the Irvington High School cross-country and track and field program for almost three decades.
He has guided outstanding teams and athletes.
In 2011 and 2012, the girls teams achieved tremendous success, sweeping the indoor and outdoor sectional titles in each of those years.
Those teams are among the honorees of 2020 Irvington High School Athletic Hall of Fame induction class.
Before the girls had their amazing run, the IHS boys teams would get all the attention. Hawkins encouraged the girls to steal some of that spotlight.
“In the beginning of the season in 2011, I knew the girls had a lot of talent,” said Hawkins, “but I told them that they had never won a state title before, and I sat them down and told them, ‘You have to get tired of celebrating the boys championships. If you work together, it’s going to be your turn’ and they actually put it together.”
The strength of the teams lied in their balance.
“It was a balanced team,” Hawkins said. “We had sprinters, we had jumpers, and we had throwers as well. And for the first time, we had a girl (Sandra Rigby) place in the state meet in the pole vault, so it was a very well-balanced team.”
Dashana Ransome, without question, was the top athlete on those teams. In 2012, she achieved the biggest title as she won the 100-meter hurdles at the state outdoor Meet of Champions.
Hawkins was himself inducted into the IHS Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018, the first year that the hall of fame was resurrected. He was inducted as a coach. The IHS Hall of Fame had been dormant since 1992.
The 2020 induction ceremony will be held May 7.
Hawkins currently is the head coach for the boys and girls cross-country teams, the boys and girls indoor track and field teams and the boys outdoor track and field team at IHS. He also was an inductee of New Jersey State Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Barnes Reid is currently the girls outdoor track and field head coach. Reid was inducted into the IHS Hall of Fame this past May.
IHS Hall of Fame notes — Barris Grant, a 1997 IHS graduate and standout football player, and Jamar Cotton, a 2005 graduate and track and field star, are other 2020 inductees. Hawkins coached Grant on the track and field team. Grant specialized in the throwing events.
Grant currently is the head football coach at Hillside, leading the team to its third straight state sectional championship when Hillside defeated West Deptford, 14-10, in the South Jersey Group 4 sectional final on Friday night, Nov. 22.
Grant joins his brother, Darnell Grant, in the 2020 induction class. Darnell, a 1991 IHS graduate, was the IHS head football coach from 2002 to 2009, compiling a 64-21 record. Darnell led the Blue Knights to the 2006 North 2, Group 3 sectional final. After serving as head coach at Shabazz from 2010 to 2018 in which he led the team to two sectional titles in 2014 and 2017, Grant completed his first year at West Orange HS this season. WOHS advanced to the North 2, Group 5 sectional semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Union to finish with a 7-4 record.
Cotton took second place in the 100-meter dash in the 2005 state outdoor Meet of Champions and went on to play linebacker at New Mexico State University.
IHS girls track and field champions
2011 indoor season
Shuttle hurdles team, Essex County Relays
Nazmia Thomas-Cancel, 55-meters, sectionals
Dashana Ransome, 55-meter hurdles, sectionals
Briana Lovell, high jump, sectionals
2011 outdoor season
Sandra Rigby, pole vault, Super Essex Conference-American
Dashana Ransome, 100 hurdles, 400 intermediate hurdles, long jump, sectionals
Briana Lovell, high jump, sectionals
2012 indoor season
Denesha Ransome, Dashana’s sister, 55-meter dash, SEC-American
Dashana Ransome, 55 hurdles, SEC-American
Janaya Lewis, shot put, SEC and Group 4 state
4×200 relay, Essex County
Shot put relay (Janaya Lewis and Sarah Ojinnaka), state champions
Dashana Ransome, 55 hurdles, Essex County and sectionals
Nazmia Thomas-Cancel, 55 dash, sectionals
Khadesha James, high jump, sectionals
2012 outdoor season
Dashana Ransome, long jump, sectionals; 100 hurdles, Essex County, sectionals and state Meet of Champions
Khadesha James, high jump, sectionals
Irvington HS track and field coach Marvin Hawkins recalls great 2011 and 2012 girls teams added by Joe Ragozzino on
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