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Meet The Founder
Kevin M. Stephen
TFL founder & CEO
Kevin Stephen’s life in track and field began at the age of 14 in his native Trinidad and and Tobago. He first competed in the short sprints then added the throws and high hurdles, guided by his coaches the late Lawrence McDowell and the late Maurice Commisiong. His passion for the sport grew as he was able to see some of his older teammates at Queens Royal College earn spots on the national track and field team to represent Trinidad and Tobago. A couple years into his young athletic career, he met coach Heathcliffe Thorne who introduced him to the Decathlon and it was a match made in Heaven. The multi-events was where he belonged and would flourish. After finishing as runner up in his first ever decathlon, Stephen enjoyed a three year undefeated run culminating with a win at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Championship in Tegucigalpa Honduras. He also won multiple individual national championship titles in the throws and high hurdles.
A full scholarship at the University of Alabama brought Kevin Stephen to the United States as a collegiate student-athlete. Unfortunately, after redshirting his freshman year, he was diagnosed with a career ending illness. At the urging of his then coach, Jeff Sparks, Stephen began his coaching career as a student assistant coach at Alabama working with several All-American jumpers and Throwers.
After graduating with his masters in Human Resource Management, Stephen was offered his first full-time coaching job at the University of Southern Mississippi by then Head Coach Wayne Williams who was one of his coaches at Alabama. Stephen went on to earn an additional Masters in Business Administration. After eight years and the retirement of Williams, Stephen was promoted to the position of Head Coach. During his time at Southern Miss, Stephen coached three NCAA Champions and over 60 All Conference performers. He coached school record holders in every women’s field event indoor and outdoor as well as the women’s 100m and 200m. On the men’s side, he coached school record holders in every throwing event indoor and outdoor. He also coached athletes to every school record in the men’s and women’s multi- events. Stephen, with the help of his talented assistants, had a three year run where his women had the highest GPA in the NCAA and had three top 15 finishes at the NCAA Championship.
All during his coaching career, Stephen was involved in track meet management. From facility set up as a student coach he moved up to meet direction of such meets as the conference USA Cross Country Championship, the State Games of Mississippi and numerous home indoor, outdoor and cross country meets for Southern Miss. Since his departure from Southern Miss, and from coaching in 2014, Stephen has hosted the annual KMS Invitational and KMS Open Indoor track and field meets which feature student-athletes representing universities all over the country as well as professional athletes from different parts of the world.
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