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TWU Spartan aspires to help others succeed

Third-year human kinetics major Calum Innes is a long way from his home in Edinburgh, Scotland. But the Spartans track and field athlete wouldn’t have it any other way.

As high school student, Innes didn’t really care about his education, preferring to party rather than study. He managed to get into a local college and planned to study electrical engineering. “In the UK, the trades are where the money is,” he says. “I thought that was what I was supposed to do.”

But he didn’t enjoy it, and dropped out after one semester. Then the sprinter and hurdler met Laurier Primeau, who, at the time, was Head Coach of the Scottish National Track Team.

Primeau saw something in the young athlete that previous coaches hadn’t: potential. “Laurier was invested in me and my well-being beyond track and field,” says Innes. “He helped get me out of drinking and partying. My whole life changed in the eight months I trained with him.”

So when Primeau left the Scottish team and took on the role of Track and Field Head Coach at TWU, he recruited Innes for the newly-formed team and invited him to visit the TWU campus. “It was a bit daunting at first, turning up at a Christian campus,” Innes remembers. “But I just loved it. The sense of community was something I hadn’t experienced at the college in Scotland.”

Living on campus for his first two years gave Innes the opportunity to develop relationships and, eventually, to “ask the questions I wanted answered.” He found faith and hasn’t looked back since. “I’ve loved every part of my education so far,” he says.

Now the scholarship recipient has a plan for his future. “I want to do for others exactly what my coach has done for me,” says Innes. “As a coach, you have the power to change and influence someone’s life. That goes way beyond track and field.”