Mark Sartain will enter his third season as head football coach at East Texas Baptist University in 2009 with a program that now has two years of growth and development on which to build.

Under Sartain, the Tigers have gone 5-5 in each of his first two seasons and have finished in the upper half of the American Southwest Conference both years. The 2008 season was both encouraging and frustrating in that the Tigers roared out of the gate with a 3-1 mark that included three straight wins to open the conference season. The only loss in that stretch was a 29-15 setback and national powerhouse St. John's in the season opener in a game that saw ETBU hold a 15-14 lead entering the fourth quarter.

ETBU once again fielded one of the youngest teams in the ASC as evidenced by the fact that just eight seniors were in the starting lineup. A major focus for Sartain and his staff since taking over the program in December of 2006 has been to increase the number of players in the program as well as keeping those players in the program throughout their college career.

Sartain's first recruiting class in 2007 produced up to nine freshmen starters that season. Of that class, 25 stuck around for their sophomore seasons. Entering this season, the Tigers 27 players who will be juniors, which has ETBU on pace to field the largest senior class in the history of the program in 2010.

Developing continuity and consistency within the program was a key goal for Sartain when he was named just the second head coachin the modern-day era of ETBU football on Dec. 13, 2006. Sartain arrived at ETBU with a long history of success in the East Texas coaching ranks, both at the high school and junior college levels as a head coach.

With a coaching career that spans over a quarter-century, Sartain has developed a wealth of contacts among the coaching community that has been a tremendous asset in ETBU's recruiting efforts. Under his direction the last two years the Tigers have implemented a series of spring coaching clinics, "Monday Night Football," in which area high school coaches meet and share ideas and philosophies on Monday nights in the spring.

The Tigers have also focused on off-the-field contributions to the surrounding community during Sartain's time as head coach. These activities included a summer mission trip to Croatia in the summer of 2008 in which a group of ETBU football players and coaches, including Sartain, visited war-torn Croatia and helped rebuild a church among other various mission activities. A summer mission trip to England has been planned for 2009 as well.

ETBU players have also participated in youth mentoring programs while also aiding local efforts by Habitat for Humanity. Sartain also began youth summer football camps at ETBU, with Tiger coaches and players working with area youth during a week-long camp at Ornelas Stadium.

Sartain has also put the Tigers on the national map in terms of the team's scheduling. ETBU scheduled traditional Division III powerhouse St. John's in Minnesota to open the 2008 season and later faced Azusa Pacific, located in Azusa, Calif., in the ninth game of the season.

In 2009, ETBU will play its first all-Division III schedule with non-conference games at home against Wisconsin-La Crosse to open the season followed by a road game back to the West Coast to face Redlands.

Prior to accepting the ETBU head coaching position, Sartain spent the previous four seasons as head coach at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas. He guided the Cardinals to the Southwest Junior College Football Conference (SWJCFC) championship in 2005.

It was Sartain's second stint on staff at Trinity Valley, having served as offensive coordinator with the program from 1991-94. The 1994 season culminated with TVCC going 12-0 and winning the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championship.

A native of Van Alstyne, Texas, Sartain has been a head coach at some level for 18 years, beginning with his first head coaching job at Cross Roads High School, in Athens, in 1986. In fact, of his 24 seasons as a football coach, Sartain has been either a head coach or coordinator in 23 of them. He has spent every year of his career coaching in East Texas, from Athens to Eustace to White Oak to Marshall.

But before coming to ETBU, Sartain had been a collegiate head coach just four years, and that was at the junior college level. But his success at Trinity Valley on the offensive side of the ball was very attractive for ETBU officials when the Tiger head coaching position opened up following a 3-7 mark in 2006. Sartain’s offenses at Trinity Valley were consistently among the best in the nation, especially when he was coordinator in the early 1990s. The Cardinals ranked in the top 10 nationally in total offense and also set a conference record in 1994, with 450 points in just 12 games. In his four years as offensive coordinator at TVCC, Sartain coached three Cardinal quarterbacks to All-America honors.

During his years as offensive coordinator at TVCC, the Cardinals were a combined 30-12-2 with an unbeaten national championship season in 1994. A dozen players off those teams have either played or continue to play in the NFL, including cornerback Al Harris of the Green Bay Packers and kicker Matt Bryant of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Sartain left his coordinator position at Trinity Valley in 1995 to take over as head coach at White Oak High School in White Oak, Texas. In his eight seasons there as athletic director/head coach with the Roughnecks, Sartain’s teams made the playoffs three times and won the school’s first district football championship in 18 years. As AD, Sartain implemented White Oak’s athletic booster club while also establishing the annual “Maroon Madness” midnight pep rally to generate community enthusiasm and usher in the new school year and fooball season. White Oak generated an increase in football program participation of more than 80 percent and an overall athletic program participation increase of 40 percent under Coach Sartain’s watch.
Sartain also implemented girls softball, girls powerlifting, cross country and track at White Oak, and the Roughnecks won 15 district championships in seven different sports in his time as athletic director.

He returned to Trinity Valley prior to the 2003 season to accept the Cardinals’ head coaching position. In his four seasons as head coach, TVCC went 17-23, which included a 9-3 mark in 2005 that saw the Cardinals win the conference championship and finish No. 7 in the national JUCO rankings. Overall in his eight seasons as either offensive coordinator or head coach at Trinity Valley, the Cardinals posted a 47-35-2 record with a national championship with Sartain on staff.

In his last two seasons at TVCC, the Cardinals had 16 players sign Division I scholarships with programs such as Arkansas, Tennesee, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Washington State, New Mexico, Memphis, Hawaii, Bowling Green and Tulsa. Of those 16, only two had been original Division I signees out of high school.

Sartain began his coaching career after his college playing days ended at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. As a player he was a starter on the Kangaroos’ 1981 NAIA Division II national championship team and finished as a two-time Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) all-conference nose tackle. A serious knee injury ended his playing career, but Sartain went on and received a B.A. in Physical Education and History in 1982. A year later he completed work on a masters in Secondary Education from Austin College.

He entered the coaching field in 1984 as defensive line coach at Athens High School, where he also served as junior varsity head coach. Sartain also was Athens’ powerlifting coach from 1983-86, leading a group that finished as regional champions three times and was state runnerup in 1985.

In just his second season on staff at Athens, Sartain was promoted to offensive coordinator. While on staff at Athens, Sartain saw the Hornets accomplish their first winning season in five years in 1984 with a 6-2-2 finish and second-place district finish in 1985.

He was named head coach at Cross Roads High School in 1986, just three years removed from college. Sartain led the program there to its first non-losing season (5-5) and first winning season (6-2-2) in the school’s history. In fact, in the six years prior to his arrival, Cross Roads won a total of five games at the Class A level before winning five in Sartain’s first season as coach in ‘86.

Cross Roads went 6-4 in 1988 and finished as district runnerup, but the team missed the playoffs after missing out on a district tiebreaker.

Sartain left Cross Roads in 1989 to become head coach at Eustace High School in 1989. After two seasons with the Bulldogs, he entered the collegiate coaching ranks with his first stint at Trinity Valley in 1991.

His life is in no means dedicated solely to football, despite his accomplishments. Coach Sartain is very active away from the field, enjoying building rustic furniture as well as hunting.

He also has a deep passion for music, as well as a passion for serving Christ. Sartain has spent a bi-vocational career as minister of music, spending eight years as worship leader at Calvary Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, while also coaching at White Oak. He has performed as lead singer in a praise and worship band while also continuing to fill in as worship leader for area congregations on an interim basis.

Mark and his wife, Gina, are members of Immanuel Baptist Church in Marshall and live in Harleton, Texas, just a few minutes drive away from the ETBU campus. They have two adult children, Marshall and Melody, both of whom are married.