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AFTER a car accident ended her promising track and field career at 19, Antonia Burton is now on a mission to help other athletes reach their fullest potential by helping them earn scholarships and create a quality life for themselves.
Burton, 34, is a national track and field coach and a coach at Memphis Pioneers. She is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist who has worked with several athletes in many sporting disciplines in TT. And she's a USA Track and Field level one coach and an International Association of Athletics Federations level three coach.
Growing up in Carenage, Burton was involved in sports as a child, dabbling in netball, cricket and of course track and field, in which she wanted to take her talents overseas.
"That was the one I knew there was a chance to get a scholarship for, and that was the main goal," Burton said.
Burton, who ran 100m, 200m and occasionally 400m, attended St James Secondary, received a scholarship and attended the University of South Alabama. But her track and field dreams were dashed when she was involved in a car accident in Florida.
"When I was on scholarship I got in a car accident and that ended my running career...my whole right side was paralysed. I was in a wheelchair for a couple months."
Burton stayed in Florida to recover, before returning home to complete the last two years of her psychology degree at COSTAATT. A few years later she began her journey as a coach.
She's been doing it for nine years now, but Burton had her challenges as young coach.
"In the early part of it, because I was only 25, it was a bit challenging getting the athletes to separate someone that close to their age from friend to coach. It was just me having to draw a line, and it was not as easy as it sounds, because it is human nature just to gravitate towards people closer to your age.
[caption id="attachment_877016" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Memphis Pioneers coach Antonia Burton gathers female athletes for an exercise at the Hasely Crawford Stadium training grounds. -[/caption]
"The other coaches, both in Memphis and nationally, were always so much older than me. So sometimes what would happen, if I am coaching someone who is 19, 20 – of course they are closer to my age, so we would always have that rapport that I would not necessarily have had with them if I were 40-something like the other coaches."
Burton also had the challenge of earning respect from other national coaches, being so young.
Coaches as well as athletes get nervous before a race begins.
Comparing the two, Burton said, "As an athlete you do get nervous, but you also learn skills to channel that energy into something productive in terms of how your race going to pan out with the power of manifestation, being calm, etcetera.
"As a coach, the nervous energy that you have can't really be chanelled into something positive for the benefit of the athlete...the athlete's performance is not something you can control, where as an athlete you feel like you have some measure of control over how you perform."
More recently, of course, like all sports coaches, Burton has had to alter her methods during the pandemic.
"In the beginning it was a matter of just sending programmes for athletes to do at home on their own...we still not bringing numbers in abundance.
"In the gym (at the Hasely Crawford Stadium) we don't have more than four at one time. In terms of Memphis we have small groups."
[caption id="attachment_877015" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Memphis Pioneers coach Antonia Burton times sprinters during training at the Hasely Crawford Stadium grounds. -[/caption]
The club only allows 20 secondary-school athletes to train together to maintain physical distancing using venues such as the Hasely Crawford Stadium and Nelson Mandela Park.
The National Association of Athletics Administrations has recently held a few test events for athletes. At the events, local athletes get familiar with covid19 protocols while competing, including sanitising before races.
The club's primary school athletes are not training during the pandemic.
"They have been actually very good...the only time they are allowed to take off the mask is if the actual workout is very strenuous and requires that kind of aerobic capacity.
"I think the most frustrating thing for them is just the lack of track meets because it is only so much somebody wants to train without (competing)."
The most satisfying feeling as a coach is seeing athletes succeed.
"The biggest joy is just seeing the athletes fulfil their dreams or their goals."
Getting her athletes to pursue a tertiary education also drives Burton.
"Getting the kids to really perform in such a way where they have that opportunity to see outside of Trinidad and really explore that side of the world and just get their education is the biggest thing for me."
A couple years ago, Burton would have been proud when ten Memphis athletes earned scholarships abroad in one calendar year. Outside track and field, Burton is a strength and conditioning coach under the Sport Company of TT and also runs a company called MP High Performance Training. As a strength and conditioning coach she has worked with athletes in several sporting disciplines.
Witnessing TT cyclist Nicholas Paul break the world record in the men's flying 200m event at the 2019 Elite Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Bolivia was a memorable moment for her as a strength and conditioning coach, along with supporting other TT cyclists like Teniel Campbell and Kwesi Browne.
On Paul's world record, Burton said, "While it is my proudest moment (as a strength and conditioning coach) it is also collaborative, because without (former TT cycling coach) Erin Hartwell (it would have not been possible). That collaborative effort between coach and strength coach of course is vital.
"On the track and field side, again collaborative, because I work with Dr Ian Hypolite in Memphis...that one year we got ten people to leave (was special).
"It is just a matter of changing people's lives."
Track and field attracts children from humble beginnings and Burton is eager to see them improve the lives of their families.
"The academic part of it means so much to me because it really is breaking the cycle of poverty and just making a difference in young people's lives who previously did not see themselves even getting a degree – and now they have all these options in front of them."
On top of her accomplishments to date, Burton said her goal is to see one of her athletes become a world track and field champion or an Olympic champion.

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