Monroe High track team to honor one of Albany’s greats

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - In honor of Black History Month school leaders in Albany are honoring one of their own, Saturday. The Monroe High Track team is honoring one of the city’s former athletes, Alice Coachman.

She is the first African-American woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal.

Coachman won Gold in the high jump event in the 1948 London Games.

To honor her legacy, the Monroe Track team is hosting its first-ever Alice Coachman Invitational. Head Coach Tracy Drayton told me it’s important young athletes know about Coachman and what she was able to achieve.

Assistant coach Paul Jones said Coachman laid the framework and wants other athletes to be inspired by it.

”What we try to do instill in them is the foundation was set for them before they ever got here. With Alice Coachman, being from Albany, Georgia and an Olympic Medalist it also shows them that you can do anything you want to do,” said Jones.

The first annual Alice Coachman invitational starts at 9:00 am Saturday at Monroe Comprehensive High School.