Making His Mark

Getting to know Veteran Mark Cox by Kurman Dhaliwal

Today, we celebrate our veterans, including our very own friend Mark Cox. Mark joined the Air Force in 2009 and served for eight years. Even though he is not in the military anymore, Mark Cox still lives his life with a service-oriented attitude, making the world better in any way he can.

I first reached out to Mark via text, hoping to set up a phone interview to meet him and write this article. Just a few minutes into our first conversation, I picked up on Mark’s care for others. He started off the call by making sure that I was getting value out of my internship at Revolin Sports. Even though I was supposed to be interviewing him, Mark was the one asking most of the questions early on, just really getting to know me, my experiences, and what I had to say. I got the interview back on track and Mark proceeded to tell me about his professional career, patiently answering any questions that I had. The whole conversation was very relaxed, lasting an hour. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Mark told me how he first met Hugh while partying on a boat, having a good time. They instantly hit it off, exchanged contact information, and vowed to play pickleball together sometime. With their solid tennis background and love for pickleball, they ended up competing at the Wolverine Pickleball Tournament. Quite frankly, they didn’t do super great, but they still had fun. Somewhere along the line, Mark offered to help Hugh out with his startup.

With three very successful years in the packaging industry, a Bachelor’s in Finance/Marketing, and an MBA on the way in 2022, Mark is a valuable non-employee for Revolin Sports. He's helped us figure out our packaging needs, researched all the options, and closed the deal. He was instrumental in establishing Revolin’s initial retail presence by getting our product on the shelves at two massive sports facilities, MSA Fieldhouse and MSA Woodland. Finally, Mark volunteered at our most recent tournaments, which featured over 88 players from all over the USA. One entertaining anecdote speaks volumes about his character: while the rest of the volunteers used squeegees to dry the court, Mark hopped on a Onewheel and zipped around cleaning with an electric blower instead.

Mark is an avid surfer on the Great Lakes, plunging into freezing waters regularly. Beautiful views, intense exercise, creative beauty, and immense focus are all a part of the sport. When the Michigan DNR was considering a proposal to ban surfing during windy conditions, Mark was one of many people to lobby the DNR, arguing that wind is needed for surfing. Their efforts were successful, and an amendment to the proposal was made. Looking forward, Mark is hoping to join Third Coast Rising as a Veteran’s Coordinator. This organization provides free surfing and paddleboarding experiences to veterans to help them alleviate past trauma and find a sense of community in the civilian world.

There’s a lot more that I can say about Mark, but I think you get the picture. All across the country, there are approximately 19 million veterans, all with unique stories. Today we honor them. 

If you'd like to get involved with Third Coast Rising, you can learn more at www.thirdcoastrising.com.