With 26 years of coaching expertise and a drive to bring success to the Rock Ridge football team, Mark Teague enters Rock Ridge High School as the new head football coach and weightlifting instructor. Beyond the field, Teague aims to inspire the world through his published book and motivational talks, spreading his life’s story of resilience and grit through battling cancer and overcoming adversities. 

Teague’s passion for coaching football has stemmed from a young age, where his childhood aspirations of being a head football coach have carried over to Rock Ridge. “Even as a kid, I enjoyed playing the sport, but I was always fascinated with the guy that was on the sidelines calling the plays,” Teague said. “It fascinated me – to not only just see athletes perform at the highest level, but to see the guy that could call the play in and make it all work.”

Teague first saw Rock Ridge as the head coach of Manassas Park High School. After a scrimmage between the two teams, Teague was impressed with Rock Ridge’s campus and athletic facilities, so he decided to shift his coaching journey to Rock Ridge for a fresh start. 

With a diverse coaching background in schools ranging from Tennessee to Louisiana, Teague brings his dedication and hardcore discipline to the Phoenix. “ Being from the deep south with football is like king – it’s everything,” Teague said. “The kids here haven’t ever experienced that type of atmosphere, attitude, and mentality. And that’s what I want them to get from me. I want to take some of the things I’ve learned from being in the deep south and bring it up here to show kids how serious football is down there.”

To get the team ready for the season, Teague has been conditioning the team with military style training to get their bodies prepared for a long season. During the team’s practices, Teague pushes his players to run the “100 yard snake”, a series of intense sprints back and forth across each line of the field; flip large tires across 15 yards; and run up hills while holding 40 pound sand bags in their arms.  

Senior Ryan Abbondanza, an offensive lineman and fourth year football player, feels the effects of the vigorous training in his desire to be more driven as a player. “Even though all the adversity we have to go through in Coach Teague’s practice can be tough to deal with sometimes, his constant motivation by telling us that this is for the betterment of ourselves [has] pushed me to be more determined to make myself better as an athlete,” Abbondanza said. “I think he’s going to shape [our season] in a way that we’re going to win a lot more games and be a lot better.”

After a month of coaching, Teague has fallen in love with the open community of Rock Ridge and is excited to train his players towards their first winning record. “ I’m looking forward to watching our team know what it feels like to be successful,” Teague said. “I want to see our kids get that taste of what it’s like to win and allow it to become infectious to where it permeates throughout the entire football team – and not just football, but it permeates into other sports as well.” 

To build a lasting legacy for the Rock Ridge football team, Teague has goals of fostering connections with Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School and Stone Hill Middle School by increasing the presence of the team among the younger students. Ultimately, he wants to gain a natural influx of kids coming into Rock Ridge, to eventually build up the program to at least 100 players on the football team. 

Yet, Teague’s determination isn’t confined to the field. Joining Rock Ridge was just one step following a long journey of overcoming hardships and empowering others around the world.  

In 2022, Teague published his book “The Conquering Dreamer: Using Your Dreams to Conquer the Obstacles of Life With Passion and Purpose,” an autobiography capturing his life’s journey through childhood, coaching, and recent obstacles. 

The inspiration for his writing emerged from one of the most difficult chapters of his life. Teague was diagnosed with two forms of cancer in 2019: throat and prostate cancer, both stage four. At the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he battled and beat both cancers through extensive treatment, his idea for writing a book was sparked.  

During one of his treatment surgeries, his team had found something very unique and rare. He was one of the millions of people in the world who had an extra artery. If something were to go wrong, he had an artery that ran around his waist that could help in surgeries, potentially saving his life. 

After the discovery of his additional artery, he was asked to share his story in a recorded interview. His interview went viral in the medical community, collecting over 13 million views. Because of his interview’s success, his medical team encouraged him to write a book about his unique story after learning about his difficult past and perseverance through hardships.

“At one point, life just kind of turned off on me,” Teague said. “I was homeless at one point, and I didn’t have anywhere to go. [Also], when I was a kid, I had a bad speech impediment. I stuttered really badly and didn’t want to speak. So I was shy. I was very introverted. And now look at me – I’m a coach, and I’m just all over the place. So, [the cancer center] was telling me that my story of redemption was so unique that it needed to be in work, so that’s what really caught me to write.”

To Teague, who was an avid English student, writing the book came easy to him, finishing it in only one and a half months. “ I just sat in my bed, took out a laptop, and started writing on memory, thinking of things that I remembered,” Teague said. “When you start doing that, you realize how many repressed memories you have that you don’t realize were there [before].”  

Soon enough, Teague’s book grew in popularity, reaching a widespread audience and inspiring others through his story of conquering life’s challenges. According to Teague, the book has found its way to 13,000 publishers worldwide. Additionally, his book is featured every year on display at the famous Rose Bowl festival in Pasadena, California.

The influence of his story led him to do book signings and motivational speeches around the country, including the University of Arkansas and Washington D.C., which ultimately led him to move to Virginia. “ I’ve had so many people reach out to me, not just in the United States, but all across the [world],” Teague said. “[I’ve heard] some from Bali reaching out to [me] saying ‘Hey, I read your book, and my grandfather had cancer, and he beat it.’ And, people have had life turn on them, like it turned on me and didn’t think they had the wherewithal to overcome and said my story inspired them, and it’s just humbling – people from Portugal, people from Turkey, people from just everywhere.”

Although his book was originally meant to be an exercise in catharsis, the growing success of his publishing led Teague to meet and uplift many people, including famous sports players and coaches, who have asked to use his book for their own coaching purposes. “[It’s rewarding] being able to know that my simple, humble life coming from Alabama has helped other people,” Teague said. “My mom always raised me to be a giver, and just to know that the book has proven to be a giver to other people [is really special].”

Teague’s success in publishing has motivated him to write yet another book, continuing his journey as an author. For three years, Teague has been writing an intricate romance thriller novel, and he plans on finishing it next summer after settling down at Rock Ridge. 

Bringing his passion for writing and love for reading to coaching at Rock Ridge, Teague strives to instill mental confidence in his team. During every pre-game dinner following practice, Teague reads a chapter from the book “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great,” which follows a boy’s journey of achieving his lifelong goal of becoming a samurai warrior. After reading one chapter, Teague nominates a player on the team who resembles the qualities exemplified in the book, such as being relentless or unselfish. The nominated player will then read the next story and nominate another teammate, until the book is finished. 

Senior Xavier Smith, a running back who has been on the team for four years, feels that these team bonding activities create a positive atmosphere, giving the team more chemistry than before. “ I like Coach Teague because he’s also a great person outside of football,” Smith said. “He likes to spread the ball around, keeping everybody included. And he just creates a great atmosphere on the field and off the field.”

As Teague looks forward to his new chapter of coaching at Rock Ridge, his mind is geared towards success. “ [For] these seniors, [I want them to be] the first class to have a winning season,” Teague said. “I want to create a culture here where players want to play football at Rock Ridge [and] want to be a part of something special and just build for the future.”