Malcolm Burks’ coaching resume is impressive.

He’s been coaching at Newburgh Free Academy for 24 years and coaches the Newburgh Elite Track Club. In both capacities, he’s coached New York State Public High School champions and national champions. He’s seen former athletes go on to the Olympics.

Now, he’s being recognized for those achievements as Burks received a letter from the Armory Foundation informing him he has been selected into the Armory’s high School Coaches Hall of Fame.

“That’s the highest I can go, as far as any award,” Burks said. “That’s a platinum one. There’s nothing higher than that.”

Burks received a letter on Oct. 31 from The Armory Foundation co-presidents Rita Finkel and Jonathan Schindel that called him a “tremendous influence on so many athletes and your impact on them continues to and will be passed along to so many others.”

He will be formally inducted during the Opening Ceremonies of the Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational on Dec. 17 at the Armory. He was invited to bring family, friends and athletes.

His greatest success stories on the track have been Samyr Laine, who finished 11th in the triple jump at the London 2012 summer Olympics as a representative of Haiti. He’s been to six World Championships. Off the track Laine graduated from law school and has passed the bar exam.

Most recently, James Onwuka, who earned a Division I scholarship to Penn State, represented Nigeria in Columbia and is ranked 593rd worldwide in the 400-meter dash. He also competed as part of Nigeria’s 4x400-meter relay at the U20 World championships in Santiago de Cali, Colombia in August.

“He’s a great coach,” Onwuka said. “He’s a great mentor and a leader just to everybody who comes into (the Newburgh) program. He taught us to be leaders, and he always says he’s teaching us to become young men, instead of just athletes. That’s why the program’s not just about running track. That’s just a side part.”

Elzie Coleman, who Burks coached when he was starting at Newburgh, still holds the state indoor record in the 400-meter dash of 45.92 seconds, which he set in 2004. The Goldbacks also hold an indoor state record in the 800-meter relay, set in 2015.

“A relay is made up of four individual guys that have to be good,” Burks said. “I can take that relay apart and just have four guys who are great in individual events. That’s what a relay is. It’s them coming together, but what makes it harder is that you have to have a certain chemistry.”

Even with all of the on-track success, Burks beams with more pride when discussing his athletes’ off-the-track accomplishments. He takes great pride that 90 percent of his athletes have gone on to college, whether they continued in the sport or not.

His philosophy of always finishing what you start came from his parents growing up in the south and was fine-tuned during his military career, spending 10 years following rules and regulations and another 10 years writing and enforcing them.
“It’s more about character building versus achievements on the track because the character build is going to take you through your life,” Burks said. “Track, especially in high school, only lasts two or three years if you’re lucky.”

Burks has never been the coach to stand on the side of the track to yell for one more lap, or telling them to be better, he’s teaching them how to be better and most importantly preparing them for life.

Those that have succeeded, some of them come back to mentor the kids that are currently in the program. They do that because they want to and want to give back to the program.

“It tells me that I did my job correctly because you can, as a coach, cheer for the best kid there and disregard everybody else, but because we’re such a family and everybody’s pushing at the same level. They understand the responsibility because they’ve all gone through it.”