One Final Weekend For Coach 'Touks' At Western Branch

With 27 state titles in 14 years, coach Claude Toukene is moving on this summer to a new job

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By Brian Towey of DyeStat

Claude Toukene leaned gently into the railing at the The Armory during New Balance Nationals Indoor.

Donning an Arsenal backpack and baseball cap, he’d just watched his girls finish second and third in the shuttle hurdles relay championship final.

It was a bit of a disappointment, but also a learning experience. His ‘A’ squad lost to Bullis MD, which broke the national record – Western Branch’s national record.

Far more often, the results led to moments of celebration. Over 14 years at Western Branch High in Chesapeake, Va., Toukene built teams that routinely chased national titles and records in the shuttle hurdles, in addition to other sprints and relay events on the national stage.  

This weekend’s New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Greensboro, N.C. will bring Toukene’s run at Western Branch officially to a close.

In August, he’ll become the head men’s and women’s track and field coach at Bryant and Stratton College, a for-profit  junior college in Virginia Beach. There, he’ll have athletic scholarships to offer. He can hire his own coaching staff. And he will have the freedom to build a program from the ground up.

This spring has already seen a countdown of sorts at Western Branch. The last Penn Relays. The last Virginia state meet. Each step has been emotional, but it hasn’t slowed the team down. INTERVIEW

The Bruins sent “Coach Touks” off in style June 2 – with two more VHSL Class 6A team championships.  

“I started coaching here in 2005,” Toukene explained in March at The Armory. “I needed a job, so I took a job teaching special education at Western Branch. That’s when I started coaching. I fell in love with the kids, and realized that I could change lives.”

Toukene has been blunt about the reasons for his departure. He said he’s ready to make a change.  

“I was sick and tired of the politics at the (high) school,” Toukene said. 

Toukene’s teams won an astonishing 27 state championship team titles in indoor and outdoor track and he built the program into one of the most well-known in the country. But he did it despite being frequently at odds with his school’s administration over a lack of resources to improve subpar facilities, such as an asphalt track and second-hand hurdles and blocks.  

Toukene occasionally spent money from his own pocket to help fund travel to competitions.

After considering stepping down as the track coach but keeping his teaching job, Toukene said he was notified by Human Resources from the City of Chesapeake that he would have to leave his teaching position and transfer to another school 25 minutes away from his house. 

“They told me I would have too much influence on the track team,” Toukene said. “Why would you alter my career as a teacher for an extra-curricular activity?”  

Eventually, all of those considerations exacted a toll and he accepted the junior college coaching job in December. 

Toukene will be replaced by two coaches this fall. Ryan Carroll has served under Toukene for 12 of his 14 years at Western Branch as an assistant coach and will handle cross country and distance running duties; and Yolonda Golden, who has coached under Toukene for the past three years, will handle the sprinters and hurdlers.

“For some of these kids, he’s everything,” Carroll said. “I come from a different background than most of them. My grandparents went to college and my parents went to college. Some of our kids, they are the first one in their family to go to college.”

Among Toukene’s greatest achievements is coaching more than 120 athletes to receive college scholarships, including 75 that have gone to NCAA Division 1 schools.

Milan Parks, a hurdler and sprinter at South Carolina, echoes the sentiments of many Western Branch alums. 

“On a personal level, I love him like a second father,” she said. “I know he’s been debating about this (move) for a long time. I know he wouldn’t make this decision for no reason.”

That’s the piece that gives current and former Western Branch athletes some solace, that the move to junior college coaching will offer a better situation for Toukene and his family. 

“It makes me really sad, but it feels good to know he’s moving on to bigger things,” Parks said. “I appreciate everything about ‘Touks.’ He still does things for me. I’m so grateful for him as a person.”

Western Branch’s teams have broken 11 national high school records and won numerous championships, but those achievements don’t capture the scope of what Toukene has accomplished.  

“When he challenges (kids) to raise the bar, in whatever they’re doing, those kids will go to the ends of the Earth for him,” Carroll said. “As far as coaching, everything I know is (from) ‘Touks.’ One of the basic values isn’t Xs and Os, it’s about building trust with athletes.”

Toukene’s greatest skill might be communication, whether it be in his role as a special education teacher or as a coach. A native of Cameroon in West Africa, it is perhaps no surprise that he speaks five languages fluently.  

Within the Western Branch community, the language that resonates is love. 

“I’m a father figure for many of them,” Toukene said. “Many kids, especially African-Americans, grow up in single-parent homes. They don’t have someone to do homework with them. I have three kids of my own, and sometimes we finish homework pretty late.” 

Toukene has worked with hundreds of struggling students to help them stay on course off the track.  

“Many kids in special education are misplaced,” Toukene said. “They don’t have much self-esteem. A teacher sees that they are hyper or doesn’t want them in class, and gets rid of them. ... Many of our kids who’ve earned scholarships come from this program.”

Toukene’s program has produced many All-Americans. Byron Robinson made the 2016 U.S. Olympic team in the 400-meter hurdles.

Jeff Artis was an All-American long jumper at Virginia Tech before returning to coach hurdles at Western Branch. He got a job coaching at East Carolina last summer. Parks is one of many female athletes to go off to college and compete while earning a degree. 

But sometimes Toukene’s calling has been to serve less-fortunate students.

“There’s a boy (Darian Perkerson) who comes from a pretty tough background,” Toukene said, singling out one of his athletes in March.

“Sometimes he doesn’t have a place to live. Track has given him something to believe in.”

Perkerson is the Virginia state runner-up in the indoor 300 meters and a member of the state champion 4x200 relay. He has a sprig of braids and a friendly demeanor.

He has nine siblings. The track team gave him a place where he felt he belonged. 

“(Track) feels like home,” Perkerson said. “I feel comfortable. Whenever I’m nervous, (Toukene) helps me.” 

Perkerson recently was part of a 4x400 relay team that ran 3:15.36 for second place at the Virginia state meet. 

“I want to break records,” Perkerson said. “And send coach out with a bang.”

Toukene first arrived in the United States in 1993 to represent Cameroon in the 100 at the World University Games in Buffalo, N.Y.

After migrating from soccer to track and field at an early age, he enrolled at INSEP, the athletic training institute in Paris, and later represented Cameroon in the 100 in the 1996 Olympic Games and qualified for the 4x100 in 2000, but did not compete because of an injury.

Toukene attended West Georgia Technical College, which served as an entry point into U.S. track and field.

“I was recruited by Steve Riddick to run at Norfolk State,” Toukene said. “During college I met my wife as well.” 

When his wife wanted to attend graduate school to pursue a Pharmacy degree, Toukene took the special education position at Western Branch to help support her goal. 

“I didn't think I’d stay this long,” Toukene said. “She finished Pharmacy school in 2008. Now it’s 2018.”

At Western Branch, the coach sought out assistant coaches whose first interest was in serving kids. 

“I love people who care about kids,” Toukene said. 

Toukene’s Western Branch teams developed a specialty in the hurdles, in part, because the skill of running over barriers unlocked more opportunities. 

“It’s about making athletes more versatile so that they can be recruited,” Toukene said. “We usually teach all of our athletes the hurdles and triple jump.” 

Artis was one of those athletes. A member of Toukene’s first Western Branch team, he became a prep All-American in the 55-meter hurdles, the triple jump and the long jump.  

“To me, he’s definitely been my father,” Artis said. “I didn’t come from a great background. I was raised by a single parent. I didn’t have a father figure in middle school and high school. My father struggled with substance abuse. (Toukene) stepped in and filled that void.” 

Artis, like many at Western Branch, found solace in the sport. 

“Being at Western Branch, everyone had their story,” Artis said. “After practice, some people would go home and they wouldn’t have electricity in their home. You’d go home and there’d be things you can’t control. 

“When you went to practice, you could go out and forget about that. It’s a getaway for Western Branch.” 

In part, the great performances at Western Branch were, for the athletes, an expression of gratitude. 

“He cares so much,” Artis said. “Why not show that appreciation through winning a national championship? We’ve had so much trust in him. He isn’t there for the winning, the national championships, the accolades. It’s about changing kids’ lives.”