courtesy of Max Bardowell

Tomahawk Creek Middle School Athletic Director Ryan Marable has wanted to be a coach since the third grade. A Chesterfield resident his entire life, Marable has been involved in athletics since elementary school, playing both basketball and soccer. His passion for basketball stayed with him through college, and he played basketball at Longwood University, where he studied history. However, he soon realized that a future in basketball would take him away from the court and onto the sidelines.

“I was realistic early on,” said Marable. “I knew that if I wanted to stay with basketball and sports that I would have to figure out the ongoings of being a coach. I’ve been observing coaches and learning from them, learning from the good ones and learning from the bad ones, my whole life. I always knew that I wanted to teach and coach at a middle school.”

Following in the footsteps of a coach he admired at Manchester Middle School, Marable became a social studies teacher, a position that allowed him the freedom to pursue his true passion. Fresh out of college, he began his coaching career at Caroline Middle School, leading their basketball team to a 16-0 season. The next year, he moved back to Midlothian, becoming the coach of the basketball and soccer teams at Manchester Middle. That year the basketball team had a 10-0 regular season record. However, they lost in the county tournament finals by one point to Swift Creek.

Marable was not discouraged. The next season, the team had a 13-0 record and that time they clinched the county tournament.

“When we lost in the first finals, I was really crushed,” said Marable. “The next year, coming back and winning it all, that was a proud moment. The kids dumped water on me.”

The next year, Marable left Manchester to become the Athletic Director at the newly constructed Tomahawk Creek Middle School. Marable tackled the challenge of building a new athletics program, and even before the school had assembled the glass cases to hold them, Marable’s teams brought back two county championship trophies, one for basketball and another for soccer.

Three different middle schools, three different teams, three victorious seasons. Marable attributes the successes of his teams to his coaching philosophy, which he has kept standard throughout his career, and the work ethic of his players. 

“I had great kids and talented kids,” said Marable. “We always start with the basics and the fundamentals, and I always tell them that we’re going to get so much better between now and the end of the year. I always try to make practices harder than games and to put them through those adverse situations so the games are easy when it comes time to play. So, we practice really hard and compete really hard.”

Building an entirely new middle school has not been easy. Two days before their season began, the Tomahawk boy’s basketball team had not received their uniforms, and only in the last week of February did all of Marable’s students get their own social studies books. However, Marable had moved to Tomahawk specifically because of the challenges associated with becoming a new school’s Athletic Director.

“It’s been fun,” said Marable. “It’s been a challenge, but Mr. Ellick is a great principal and he’s really into athletics, so he’s given us his full support and that’s been great. The kids have been so coachable and so great and the parents have been so great that it makes the basketball and the soccer part really easy. It’s the behind the scenes stuff that’s more stressful.”

Constructing the new school involved a large amount of redistricting, separating many students from teams and athletic programs where they had played for years. Marable believes that this has not had any debilitating effects on Tomahawk’s sports teams.

“I think because of Mr. Ellick and the teachers and the staff it didn’t take long to mesh everybody together,” said Marable. “We got a great group of kids to come in here, just luck of the draw. When we showed them the new uniforms, we instilled in them that you can have pride in this new school.”

Despite the increased responsibilities that accompany the Athletic Director’s position, Marable is reassured by the professionalism of Tomahawk’s coaches, who assist him with managing the program. Marable is optimistic about Tomahawk’s future.

“As long as the kids are having fun, then they’re going to compete for us,” said Marable. “There is so much talent in this area and just a willingness to learn, so I think that the sky’s the limit for the athletic program.”