By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

OVER the span of his 45-year career, Ronald Cartwright has coached athletes who went on to excel as medallists at the CARIFTA, Central American and Caribbean, Pan American, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympic Games.

On Friday as the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations opened its Senior National Track and Field Championships in the Grand Bahama Sports Complex, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Coaches (BAAC) honoured Cartwright for his accomplishments.

He was presented with an Omega watch, thanks to the contribution of the Bahamas Olympic Committee, Gurth Knowles of Dozer Heavy Equipment, Claude Bryan of On Track Management, the BAAA, world high jump champion Donald Thomas, Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, and Harrison Petty of the Colony Club and BAAC.

Accepting the gift, Cartwright said he feels special because some of his close friends and some of the athletes, including minted CARIFTA high jump gold medallist Shaun Miller Jr and Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, were there.

"It is something that I think they were talking about for a while. I was a bit surprised when they told me that they were going to be doing it here in Freeport at the Nationals," Cartwright said.

"I thought it was just something that they were trying to run by me. But as the time got closer, he started to talk to me on a daily basis about what he was going to do and that it was going to be done in Freeport."

Cartwright, who will turn 81 on November 25, thanked the BAAC and he hopes that the other coaches will get the recognition that they too deserve for their contribution to the sport over the years.

BAAC president Shaun Miller, making the presentation, said coach Cartwright has served the Bahamas for almost 50 years and what they did was just a drop in the bucket.

"We have tried to compile a list of athletes that trained under coach Cartwright over the years, but that proved to be tedious, as the list was endless," Miller said.

He did mention athletes such as national javelin record thrower Dale Davis, thrower Gurth Knowles, high jumpers Trevor Barry, Donald Thomas and Jamal Wilson, his son Sidney Cartwright, former national record holder in the decathlon, discus throwers Chafree Bain and Denise Taylor, along with high jumper Shaun Miller Jr and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, a versatile athlete.

The recognition comes before the International Amateur Athletic Federation will honour Cartwright for his long service and stellar career by presenting him with the Veterans Pin at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar in September.

During the old configuration of the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre, Cartwright remembered how he came from the adjacent Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium where he played to watch a track meet at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium.

He met the late Henry Crawford, who encouraged him to get into coaching. He started working with the sprinters under the supervision of Keith Parker.

But it was Parker who advised him to work with him with the throwers. "I continued working with him and learning. Then I started going to clinics and seminars and I gained a world of experience," said Cartwright, who started working primarily with the javelin throwers.

Today, a number of athletes, whom Cartwright helped to throw, have earned scholarships to go to school in the United States. He said they have returned and expressed their thanks to him. "I'm actually proud of what I did," Cartwright said. "The last 10 years, I started to work with the high jumpers. I've been successful with that too.

"I think one of the competitors to watch in the future is Shaniece Miller. She got a bronze at CARIFTA and brother Shaun got a gold. Their big sister, Shaunae, could also be good if she would put in the time to do the high jump."

Having spread his wings across the field, with the exception of venturing deep into the long and triple jump pit, Cartwright said he's not sure exactly how long he will continue.

"Many days I wanted to stop, but I continue. Every day around 2:30pm, I find myself saying I have to go to the track," he said.

"So I just keep going and going."

His tenure of national team appearances has been extensive from coaching at the CARIFTA Games, the top regional junior track and field meet, to the biggest global stage at the Olympic Games in London, England, in 2012.

As he worked the sidelines at those meets, Cartwright assisted Barry in obtaining the bronze in the high jump at the Daegu World Championships in 2011, Thomas in winning the gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2011 and Jamal Wilson to a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast.At an early stage in his career, Cartwright said he would have achieved the highlight of his career when his son Sidney Cartwright won the gold medal at the CAC Games in Nassau in the decathlon with a national record-breaking performance. The record has since been erased.

Although there have been many, Cartwright said if he could vividly remember a low in his career, it would have been at the Nationals on Saturday when Jamal Wilson could only muster a second place with a best of 2.15m.

"I was very disappointed because in our last practice on Wednesday, he was soaring," Cartwright said. "Then he came out here and said coach, 'I can't really explain what happened. I just didn't have it.'"

The recognition by the Coaches Association is one of the highlights of his career, but Cartwright said he can't wait to get to Doha for the recognition by the IAAF. "I want to thank the new president Drumeco Archer for making sure that I am getting this award," Cartwright pointed out. "I am very, very happy."

Cartwright is also elated that his son, Sidney, as well as some others he coached like Rufus Kemp and Denise Taylor are following in his footsteps in the coaching ranks. "One day I was at the track and my son came to me and he asked me, 'Daddy' what are you doing out here busting your hip with these children," Cartwright remembered. "I told him one day you will find out. "Today, he makes a living off coaching. He coached in Little Rock, Arkansas, Minnesota, Alabama, Miami and now he is on his own where he's making a living out of it. Now he understands why I did it."

Are there any regrets in switching from playing baseball, although he admitted that he wasn't that great, to coaching where he has excelled at the top?

"One day my wife told me, 'you know you're married to the track, not me,'" he quipped. "I got into it and I got into it very seriously. I don't know if I would have gone into coaching baseball after I stopped playing.

"But in track and field, when I started to see the kids getting successful and going off to school, I keep saying I have to get more to follow them. Every year, I have kids going off. I have Shaun (Miller) going this year (to Ohio). Next year, I don't know who will go. So I don't know when I will stop. I know I don't regret it. I enjoy every moment of it."

His fascination with the sport has even led to Cartwright forming his own club, RC Athletics. So he's not only making an impact with the athletes he coaches, but the landscape of the BAAA and its feeder system.