COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Longtime Texas A&M track & field staffer and coach Ed Marcinkiewicz has passed away.
A 1985 graduate of Texas A&M, Marcinkiewicz returned to Aggieland in 1987 to begin a two-decade stint on the Aggie coaching staff where he earned a lofty reputation as one of the nation's most knowledgeable evaluators of talent. A dogged recruiter and excellent developer of an athlete’s talents, he played a pivotal role in A&M's rise to nationally elite status from the mid to late 1980s and into the 1990s. From 1998 to 2004, Marcinkiewicz built the Aggie women's team into a nationally competitive program through a leadership style dictated by a vision for long-term success for individual student-athletes.
A master of technique and teaching, he led many to an elite level of performance through an innate ability to see potential that they did not see in themselves. This was particularly evident in his uncanny ability to develop otherwise ordinary competitors into nationally elite athletes in the women's high jump and heptathlon.
He led 22 athletes to All-America status, including 1989 NCAA outdoor high jump champion Melinda Clark, and mentored 13 individual conference champions. He was named the Southwest Conference Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1991 by leading the Aggies to their highest SWC finish in 25 years. Ed was inducted into the Cross Country Coaches Association of Texas Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Bellville Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
After leaving coaching, Marcinkiewicz joined M-F Athletic and Perform Better where he sold track and field and strength training equipment. Leveraging his experience as a consumer and combined with his knowledge, he brought a unique abilityto help athletes and coaches. Combining that passion and intensity with a focus on customer service, he continued as a force in developing athletes and relationships across multiple sports.
Marcinkiewicz continued to apply his many talents to a variety of aspects of the sports world. As a writer, he frequently contributed to Texas Track and Field News magazine and was a regular play-by-play announcer on Bellville Sports. He also frequently served as an invited guest speaker at track and field seminars around the state and region.
“Coach Ed” passed from this life peacefully on Friday, July 16, 2021, at his home in Cat Spring, Texas, surrounded by his family and at peace with his destiny.
He was predeceased by his parents, Edmund and Alice Marcinkiewicz, grandparents Alfons and Cecilia Marcinkiewicz, Gustav and Eliza Brast, and numerous aunts and uncles.
Ed is survived by two brothers, John Marcinkiewicz and wife Mary, and Frankie Marcinkiewicz and wife Beckie (all of Cat Spring), and one sister, Emma Reichardt and husband Brian, nephews Marcus and Nicholas and niece Elizabeth of Sealy.
Visitation will be held at Knesek Family Funeral Chapel (842 East Main Street, Bellville, Texas 77418), on Tuesday, July 20, at 5 p.m. followed by a Rosary at 7 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 21, at 10 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (600 Fourth Street, Sealy, Texas, 77474). In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Coach Ed Scholarship Fund at Citizens State Bank of Sealy (222 Main Street, Sealy, Texas 77474).
