During an Irvington football home game in October, Irvington cross-country/track-and-field coach Marvin Hawkins waves to the crowd after being presented with a championship belt by the Irvington athletic department to commemorate 300 individual championships on the conference, county, state and national levels. Hawkins attained the milestone in spring 2021.
IRVINGTON, NJ — Marvin Hawkins is simply marvelous.
As the Irvington High School cross-country and track-and-field coach, Hawkins has guided countless championship teams and individual athletes on the conference, county and state levels.
Hawkins, who announced his decision to step down from his IHS coaching positions at the end of the outdoor track-and-field season a few weeks ago, will certainly be missed.
In 28 ½ years as a head coach, Hawkins has compiled 473 dual-meet wins, which is the most wins in any sport in IHS history. He also has 25 team championships, including 14 state championships, 22 all-American, 305 individual championships on the conference, county and state levels and two Olympics. The Olympians were Paul Tucker and Malcolm Watts, both 1994 IHS graduates who represented Guyana in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Tucker also competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
Hawkins was named the 2005 outdoor boys track coach of the year by the Star-Ledger and named all-area coach of the year 13 times by Worrall Community Newspapers. He was also named Essex County coach of the year six times, in cross-country, indoor track-and-field and outdoor track-and-field.
In 2018, Hawkins was inducted into the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association/New Jersey State Coaches Association’s coaches hall of fame and the Irvington High School athletic hall of fame.
Hawkins is looking forward to his next chapter. He will be an assistant track coach at Caldwell University.
Hawkins arrived at IHS in 1991 as the cross-country coach. He took a leave in June 2001 and returned to IHS in September 2002.
Hawkins cherishes his time at Irvington High School. “I was definitely grateful for the opportunity, because I was virtually unknown. I was an unknown assistant at Essex Catholic, and getting the opportunity to become a head coach at the high school level was great for me. But I had a plan going in. My plan was: No. 1, help kids get into college; and, No. 2, establish Irvington High School as one of the top track programs in the state, which we did.”
Hawkins discussed some of the highlights of his time at Irvington.
“In 1995, that’s when (the boys team) won the Watchung Conference championship for the first time in school history; in 2006, winning the state title for the first time since 1919, and then (for) the girls, winning five state titles and a conference championship between 2011 and 2012.”
In an email to the Irvington Herald, IHS athletic director John Taylor said Hawkins was an inspiration to everyone at IHS. “What can I put into words what Coach Hawkins has meant to the IHS community? He has more state and sectional championships than he has fingers. There is a reason why he is in the NJSIAA hall of fame. He has given so much of his life to the children of Irvington. I don’t think you’ll ever find someone who has a bad thing to say about Coach Hawkins as a person, educator and coach. Our community is blessed to have him as the leader of our track program for three decades. This is absolutely a huge gain for Caldwell University.”
Photos Courtesy of Felicia Laguerre, IHS Athletics, Marvin Hawkins.
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