posted Feb 22nd, 2020 - Mark Kirkby's career in Formation Skydiving competition has continued after he won his last medal at a world championship with Arizona Airspeed with the 2nd place in Prostejov 2014.

He has not been in the active 4-way lineup ever since, and after winning more 4-way and 8-way gold medals than any other Formation Skydiving competitor in history. He has still joined Airspeed's 8-way, 10-way and 16-way teams randomly at USPA Nationals. He recently competed with Airspeed's 8-way team at the USPA Nationals 2019 and won a new bronze medal, then followed up with the 4th place at the FAI World Cup 2019.

However, his focus has been on coaching in the past years, and in the center of his 4-way coaching activities is the Arizona Alpha project, which is now going into it's 5th year. Mark Kirkby has been in Alpha's active lineup as a player-coach from the very beginning, and he still guided the 2019 lineup through last year's ten rounds in the Advanced Class of the USPA Nationals.

He had his strongest Alpha lineup in the first year of the team project, when Timothy King, William Monk and Andre van Heerden signed up for the 2016 lineup and finished in 6th place on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard, only two points behind Mass Defiance.

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USPA Nationals 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	7,C,H,P	J,21,20	O,3,11	B,2,K,E	8,Q,10	15,D,F,12	N,L,M,14	6,1,9	A,18,13	G,4,5	Total	Avg
1	Redline XP	19	17	16	21	14	16	21	17	17	17	175	17.5
2	Elsinore Elevate	23	14	14	22	15	17	19	14	14	16	168	16.8
3	SNE CenterCell XP	23	14	14	18	14	11	18	15	14	15	156	15.6
4	Air Force Shadow	20	15	13	21	10	13	18	15	15	13	153	15.3
5	Vega XP	21	14	14	21	14	13	15	16	11	12	151	15.1
6	AZ Crime	19	13	14	17	11	12	18	15	13	11	143	14.3
6	Air Force Boomers	20	14	12	15	13	10	16	15	14	14	143	14.3
8	Arizona Alpha	21	14	14	17	14	11	14	14	9	14	142	14.2
9	SDC Rhevolution XP	17	14	12	16	12	13	14	14	13	13	138	13.8
10	Space Force BTR	18	14	13	18	11	11	18	14	10	10	137	13.7
11	SNE Fly Girls	18	12	13	14	11	13	14	13	12	8	128	12.8
12	Chill: Bu	18	13	11	17	9	11	14	13	11	10	127	12.7
13	Perris Goldilocks and 4 Bears	16	11	10	15	10	10	12	10	12	10	116	11.6
14	TSC Cadence	14	9	12	14	10	11	12	12	12	9	115	11.5
15	Fast Break	15	10	10	12	10	12	14	8	10	11	112	11.2
16	Paragon	13	7	11	12	9	8	12	10	7	9	98	9.8
17	AZ Shift	9	9	9	13	9	9	10	11	8	8	95	9.5
18	Perris Section 4	15	8	9	11	8	6	10	10	9	8	94	9.4

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Four years later, only Mark Kirkby himself and his Alpha videographer David Wybenga have been back to train and compete with different lineups every year. Tracy Bohm, Laurence Garceau and Mathew Hunt signed up for the 2017 season. Tracy Bohm was back in last year's Alpha lineup and continues in 2020, as well.

Mathew Hunt moved on and was in the Redline XP lineup that won the USPA Advanced Class competition last year, this time with player-coach Kirk Verner, Mark Kirkby's Airspeed world champion team mate of the early years.

Helaine Rumaner, Alex Bucevicius and Drew Porter completed Alpha's 2018 lineup with Mark Kirkby and placed 4th in the Advanced Class of the USPA Nationals.

The 2019 lineup, with Tracy Bohm back in the team, and with Cristina Olson as a new Alpha member, changed shortly before the national championships. NSL News reporter Kurt Gaebel filled the open slot on a short call, and Alpha finished on the same scoring and performance level as in 2018.

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Arizona Alpha at the USPA Nationals 2019 - 2018 - 2017

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Mark Kirkby is back with almost exactly the same Alpha lineup as in 2019. Tracy Bohm and Cristina Olson continue this year, and Jolene Dressel is the new team member for the 2020 season.

She is bringing Mark Kirkby one step closer to his actual new goal. He plans to step back as a player-coach and turn Arizona Alpha into an all-female lineup for the 4-way Women category.

Jolene Dressel is an original 2015 member of Southern Mix, where she connected with Jeana Billings, who is now in the Airspeed XP8 lineup and competes for the U.S. delegation at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving. Jolene Dressel and Jeana Billings trained and competed together for three years between 2015 and 2017.

Mark Kirkby is still actively training with Arizona Alpha, while the team is looking for a 4th female member. He will step back into the external coaching position as soon as the 4-way Women lineup is complete.