Hallmark Track Club begin as a family pastime for Newton and Velma Braziel. They wanted their children to have something to do while out of school that would be enjoyable but would also have some sort of educational value. Thus begin the Hallmark Track Club in the summer of 1987.
The club begin with 30 kids, mostly family, from various areas and backgrounds. The team was centered locally and ran in low cost meets such as TAAF, Hershey, and Arco Jesse Owens Games. In that year alone Hallmark became very well known because of the dedication and work ethic of the coaches and athletes.
By the next year, Hallmark had doubled in participants and coaches due to their overwhelming success in the local meets. Due to growth the club elected a board of directors that is still in place today with very few changes. They also decided to join the Southwestern Association of USA Track and Field, which is the highest level of track and field competition. In order to compete with their image unchanged Hallmark recruited some of the best athletes in the city, with much success in doing so.
By 1998 Hallmark had almost tripled in size competing in all six age levels of boys and girls with 4 coaches dividing duties. The major spotlight of this year was our return to the national championship. After winning the 4x100m relay bantam division in 1992 in Walnut, California just seconds off the national record, the brother team of Jerrod and Jerome Braziel along with Milton and Demario Wesley teamed up again for a second attempt. The quartet was no stranger to success they were five time national champions and two time record holders in both Bantam and Midget divisions in Hershey's Track and Field. This year would be different, after a hiatus the quartet saw the opportunity to make history and they seized the day by destroying the national record running an impressive 39.69 in Houston, Texas and went on to place 3rd in the national meet in Seattle, Washington.
Today Hallmark has grown into one of the largest track clubs in the state of Texas and one of the largest in the nation. We expect a greater turn out than the 150 participants, 10 coaches, and numerous parents and volunteers of last year. In 2001, we traveled to Sacramento, California taking 20 qualifiers to the national championship, coming back with 1 silver medal and 9 bronze medal. In the 2002 summer season in Omaha, Nebraska, we qualified 18 athletes to compete in the nationals returning home with 4 silver and 14 bronze medals. In 2003 Junior Olympic National in Miami, Florida, we qualified 12 participants. We hope to have continued success in 2004 at Eugene, OR.
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