Beloved East Side coach honored with naming of Harding track field
Updated: 17 hours ago
Getting athletes across the finish line in first place was never the only goal for Coach Henry Combs. It was making sure they succeeded in life and on the track.
The track became his classroom.
For more than three decades, Combs coached young people at Harding and Central High Schools. For him, every practice was an opportunity to teach something that would matter long after an athlete graduated.
“Our job as a coach is to lead the kids in the right direction and support them in their needs to be the best they can be,” said Combs.
Now, the place where he spent decades teaching those lessons will carry his name.
The Harding High School athletic director, Otto Kraus, announced during a ceremony Friday that the track will officially be named Coach Henry Combs Track & Field Complex. The ceremony brought together generations of his former athletes, fellow coaches, students and staff for an emotional celebration.
More than a dozen members of Combs’ family were also there to celebrate the moment, including his sisters, children and grandchildren.
For his daughter, the recognition was especially meaningful.
“My dad is a very humble man. His gratification comes from seeing his students succeed. This recognition shows that his contribution is appreciated,” said Ella Combs.
I spoke to several former athletes, all of whom shared a story of how Combs coached them through their hardest races and hardest moments in life. That kind of impact can be hard to measure. Coach Louie Francisco, a colleague of Coach Combs, said Combs never treated coaching like a job.
“He came every day early, a couple of hours before practice, a couple hours before a meet, to catch every single athlete that might need some assistance,” Francisco said.
Coach Combs understood that he wasn't simply coaching an athlete. He was helping shape a person.
And the lessons followed his athletes long after they left the track.
Anna-Marie Allen, a former Harding coach, became emotional while sharing what Combs meant to her, crying as she recalled a moment when he coached her through the day of her father's funeral.
“What he has given us goes far beyond athletics,” she said. “He taught us discipline, perseverance and character, and he believed in us when we didn't believe in ourselves.”
Born in Midnight, Mississippi, Combs moved to Minnesota when he was 12 years old. He was an athlete himself, playing football, basketball, track and field and rugby.
For Combs, having the field named after him is about more than recognition.
The hope is those lessons he taught will be carried on by the next generation and the track will be a place where young people learn to compete, persevere and keep moving forward ... a place where Coach Henry Combs spent more than three decades keeping kids on track.
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