Dr. Marty Durden is a career coach and athletic director whose career has spanned decades. He was born in the small town of Attapulgus, Georgia. He has achieved a unique standing in the coaching profession by having teams to win multiple state championships in four different sports over a period of six decades. He espouses a higher standard than winning which emphasizes teamwork, sustained effort, and consistent improvement.
Marty is married to Diane, and they have two sons. Chip is a coach in Columbus, Georgia. Tyler is a back- end developer in Decatur, GA and married to Emily, a high school Algebra teacher. Liam Durden, his grandson was born this year.
The focus of Dr. Durden’s career is servant leadership, and he has performed extensive research for over a decade on the motivational aspects of servant-leadership coaching. He has written several academic articles on this subject and authored two books entitled More than Winning and A Higher Standard for Athletics. He is CEO of a non-profit, A Higher Standard for Athletics, which is purposed to train coaches, business leaders, and teachers about the topic of servant leadership. He taught Sunday School for over thirty years and believes that athletic coaches have tremendous transformational value in our society. He earned his B.S. in physical education from Bob Jones University, an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from Troy University, and his Ed.D. from the United States Sports Academy.
Marty also serves as an adjunct professor at Belhaven University, Concordia University and Houston Christian University. He continues to research the concept of servant leadership and consults with coaches and educators about faith-based leadership. He is an avid golfer and outdoorsman. He loves to work in his flower garden, especially crossbreeding day lilies. His favorite verse is Joshua 1:8.