The lo­cal track and field fra­ter­ni­ty has lost throws coach Wade “Ba­by” Franklyn, who passed away on Mon­day morn­ing. He was 63 years old.

​Franklyn, who along with his el­der broth­er Ger­ard were the co-founders of the Zenith Ath­let­ic Club in To­ba­go, was ail­ing with can­cer for sev­er­al years. He trav­elled to the US oc­ca­sion­al­ly for treat­ment be­fore his pass­ing at his Ma­son Hall home.

Their club pro­duced nu­mer­ous na­tion­al ath­letes. Head­ing the list are Ren­ny Quow (2006 World Ju­nior 400-me­tre cham­pi­on, 2009 World Se­nior Cham­pi­onships 400m bronze medal­list), Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste (bronze - 2003 World Youth 100m, 2011 World Se­nior 100m, 2005 World Se­nior 4x100m), Se­moy Hack­ett (bronze - 2015 World Se­nior 4x100m), Sher­ri­dan Kirk (na­tion­al record hold­er - men’s 800m), Tyriq Hors­ford (gold - 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Carif­ta boys’ javelin), Tal­e­na Mur­ray (gold - 2018 Carif­ta girls’ U-20 javelin), Veay­on Joseph (gold - 2018 Carif­ta boys’ U-18 javelin), Ker­ry Ed­wards (gold—1993, 1994 Carif­ta boys’ U-17 javelin), Rhon­da Hack­ett (gold - 1995 Carif­ta girls’ U-20 shot put/dis­cus) and Em­manuel Stew­art (gold - 2008 Carif­ta boys’ U-20 dis­cus).

​The To­ba­go Fal­cons and Kaizen Pan­thers ath­let­ic clubs were off­shoots of the Zenith ath­let­ic club. Sev­er­al ath­letes who ex­celled for the new clubs were al­so coached by Wade, in­clud­ing Josanne Lu­cas (bronze medal­list - 2009 World Cham­pi­onships 400m hur­dles), Akeem Stew­art (gold - 2016 Rio Par­a­lympic Games, sil­ver - 2024 Paris Par­a­lympic Games), Dwight  St Hillaire (gold - 2022 Com­mon­wealth Games men’s 4x400m), Akani His­lop (gold - 2015, 2016 Carif­ta boys’ 200m, sil­ver—2022 Com­mon­wealth Games men’s 4x400m), and Safiya John (gold - 2019 Carif­ta girls’ U-20 hep­tathlon).

Wade, who hailed from Ma­son Hall, worked as a coach in the Di­vi­sion of Ed­u­ca­tion, Youth Af­fairs and Sports (now the Di­vi­sion of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Youth De­vel­op­ment and Sport) in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly.

​He served as a coach on nu­mer­ous Carif­ta, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean, and Com­mon­wealth Games con­tin­gents. The for­mer Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary stu­dent was al­so part of the staff of the T&T Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee.

​One of the high­lights of his coach­ing ca­reer was at the 2018 Carif­ta Games, where three of his Zenith club ath­letes cap­tured javelin gold: Hors­ford (Boys’ U-20), Mur­ray (Girls’ U-20), and Joseph (Boys’ U-18). Ky­moi No­ray added a fourth medal, bronze, in the Girls’ U-20 javelin be­hind Mur­ray.

​Hors­ford cel­e­brat­ed Franklyn as “a pi­o­neer, fa­ther-fig­ure, men­tor, and friend” in a post on so­cial me­dia.

​“You have been all that and much more. You jour­neyed through this life with grace, love, kind­ness, and in­sur­mount­able self­less­ness. You gave di­rec­tion to the lost, hope to the for­lorn. You have im­pact­ed my life and many oth­ers in ways I can’t be­gin to ex­pound.”

​Hors­ford fur­ther shared: “...a con­stant in my life for more than a decade, in­still­ing dis­ci­pline, re­spect, re­silience, all the things that made the per­son I am to­day. Your lega­cy lives with­in me. My coach, my friend, my fam­i­ly.”

​Among those al­so pay­ing trib­utes were Quow, for­mer pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics Ad­min­is­tra­tion of T&T (NAAATT), George Comis­siong, sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) An­nette Knott, pres­i­dent of the T&T Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee, Sud­hir Rame­sar and mul­ti­ple Com­mon­wealth Games medal­list and 2015 Pan Amer­i­can Games cham­pi­on Cleopa­tra Borel.

​Quow said, “It is hurt­ful right now be­cause he is some­one I have known for a very long time. He had a huge part to play in my ca­reer. He will al­ways be a leg­end, he and his broth­er (Ger­ard).”

​Comis­siong said, “Wade was a good sol­dier. I had very hap­py mem­o­ries of time spent with him on na­tion­al du­ty and when he was a com­peti­tor at South­ern Games and Pa­lo Seco Games. May he rest in peace!”

​Knott said, “So sad. He was a true cham­pi­on for all the To­ba­go ath­letes.”

​Rame­sar said, “Wade was our longest-serv­ing coach. When Akeem (Stew­art) came to the fold in 2015, Wade came here and has al­ways been there.”

Borel de­scribed Wade “as a man whose pas­sion for de­vel­op­ing ath­letes changed count­less lives”.

She added, ​“He taught with pa­tience, led with heart, and in­spired ath­letes to be­lieve in them­selves. His in­flu­ence lives on in every ath­lete he guid­ed, every les­son he shared, and every dream he helped shape. May he rest in peace, know­ing his lega­cy will con­tin­ue through the peo­ple he lift­ed up.”

​Fel­low throws coach Ish­mael Lopez Mas­tra­pa told Guardian Me­dia Sport: “Oh no. Very sad news.”

​Among the or­gan­i­sa­tions send­ing out con­do­lences were the Di­vi­sion of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Youth De­vel­op­ment and Sports (DCDYDS) and the NAAATT.

​In a re­lease, the DCDYDS stat­ed: “His last­ing lega­cy of im­pact ex­tend­ed be­yond ath­let­ics. A men­tor, a guide, and a steady source of en­cour­age­ment who changed lives on and off the track.”

​The state­ment added: “His dri­ve, can­did de­meanour, and stead­fast­ness have made him a no­table fig­ure in the sport­ing land­scape, with ath­letes of all ages and com­pet­i­tive lev­els ben­e­fit­ting from his prowess. One of many tes­ta­ments to his suc­cess is ev­i­dent in his work with Par­a­lympic gold medal­list Akeem Stew­art.”

​NAAATT, in its re­lease, de­scribed Wade as “a re­spect­ed coach whose guid­ance shaped the ca­reers of many ath­letes, in­clud­ing world-class throw­er Akeem Stew­art”.

​“His ded­i­ca­tion, dis­ci­pline, and love for de­vel­op­ing young tal­ent made him a pil­lar of our ath­let­ics com­mu­ni­ty.”

​It fur­ther stat­ed, “We mourn the loss of a men­tor, leader, and true ser­vant of the sport. His lega­cy will con­tin­ue through the many ath­letes and coach­es he in­spired.”

​Wade, who com­pet­ed as a Mas­ters’ ath­lete, was re­mem­bered by mem­bers of the T&T As­so­ci­a­tion of Mas­ters Ath­letes (TTA­MA).

​Alexan­der Smith, for­mer pres­i­dent of the TTA­MA, said, “My deep­est con­do­lences to Wade’s fam­i­ly. He was in­deed a track & field sol­dier. He was al­most full-time in the sport for many years.”

​Rod­ney Liv­er­pool, 2013 World Mas­ters cham­pi­on, said, “I am in shock and my con­do­lences go out to his fam­i­ly. As a ju­nior ath­lete, I would have stepped up and com­pet­ed with him in the de­cathlon and then as a Mas­ter ath­lete, he would have made an NC­C­MA (North, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Mas­ters Ath­let­ics) team with me and now to hear this.”

​Zenith post­ed: “Coach Ba­by was more than a coach; he was a men­tor, a guide, and a steady source of en­cour­age­ment who changed lives on and off the track. He nur­tured hearts as much as he nur­tured tal­ent, leav­ing an un­for­get­table im­pact on every ath­lete and fam­i­ly he touched.”

​It con­tin­ued, “His lega­cy of dis­ci­pline, com­pas­sion, and un­wa­ver­ing be­lief in young peo­ple will live on in the spir­it of our club and in the count­less lives he helped shape. We mourn his loss deeply and ho­n­our the in­cred­i­ble jour­ney he shared with us.”