There are days when Dr. Eric Wortmann finishes work and heads for Island School to coach runners.
But that can take a while.
His job as director of emergency medicine at the Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility is on the Navajo reservation in Arizona — about 3,000 miles away.
He first drives five or six hours to the Phoenix airport, and then catches a flight to Kauai, another six hours or so.
It’s a trek he makes often during track and cross country seasons. He’ll stay for a week or two at his Kauai home while he coaches, then return to work.
Sounds like a lot of ground and water to cover just to lead a running program on a small island in the Pacific Ocean.
Wortmann loves it.
For him, this is about more than running. This is about more than winning.
It’s about the young men and women he’s coaching.
“Being part of these kids’ lives is very important to me,” he says. “They give me something I don’t get at the hospital. It’s just all positive.”
And under his watch since 2010, it’s been very good.
The Island School boys cross country team has won 16 straight meets over the past three years. They are the favorites to claim their third straight title at the Kauai Interscholastic Federation meet today at Island School. The girls team will be in the mix, too.
“The way the numbers work out we would have to have a terrible meet not to win,” he says of the boys team.
While Wortmann likes to win, it’s not the focus. There are, simply put, more important things in life.
Like giving it their very best.
Developing lifelong relationships.
And running for the sheer joy of it.
“We’ve had a lot of success and we’ve had a lot of fun, and the kids have grown up,” Wortmann says as runners warm up on the grass field at Island School on a Thursday afternoon. “That’s the thing I like the most.”
Minutes earlier, Wortmann met briefly with his team. He outlined the day’s workout and went over expectations for the KIF championship meet.
He believes as many as 10 boys and several girls could qualify for states on Nov. 2 on Maui.
“For the boys, I want you to approach this meet not as a meet just to win, but to perform the best you have all season, because we’re going to need that when we go to states,” he says.
Wortmann turns to the seven girls on the team.
“Are you having positive thoughts today? I hope so,” he says. “You should be having positive thoughts.”
Wortmann is big on positivity and preparation. That’s why he’s so often smiling, speaking with a light tone, laughing and chatting with his assistant coaches as they watch over practice.
As the runners jog back and forth, bounding, turning and twisting, many are smiling and talking. That’s good. That’s what Wortmann wants to see.
“You see how they’re loose and laughing? That’s what I try to do,” he says.
It’s working.
The boys are 4-0 this season. The seven-member girls team has finished second each meet.
Wortmann is confident about the boys’ chances on Saturday. Four usually claim the top spots and a fifth is not far behind. Nine or 10, he says, can score within the top 20.
“It would be pretty difficult for us not to win on Saturday because we have so many guys,” he says.
When Wortmann came on board as coach of the Island School cross country and track teams in 2010, he had just a handful of runners. Today, the Voyagers cross country program has about 30 boys and fewer than 10 girls, which accounts for nearly 25 percent of the student population.
Running, the doctor says, is a “thinking person’s sport. You have to think your way through a race. I like that.”
Wortmann, who played water polo and baseball in high school in California, has been a runner since a friend convinced him to register for the Los Angeles Marathon in 1986.
“I had never run in an organized race before. I was hooked,” he says.
He generally runs five or six days a week, depending on his schedule. Thursday, he ran 12 miles as part of his training for the Phoenix marathon in February.
Wortmann is a student of running. He studies, reads, watches, learns and has developed a philosophy of what it takes to do well.
The thing with running, he explains, is it doesn’t matter if you’re average or outstanding. What counts is you give it your best.
“You’re running against yourself,” he says.
Wortmann works hard, and he expects his runners to as well.
He carefully monitors their total miles. They incorporate hills and intervals into their workouts to learn how to control pace. During seasons, practices are five days a week after school, and weekend long runs are part of the program.
They learn about performance psychology.
“We go over that quite a bit, how to approach a race, how to deal with struggles during a race, how to excel,” he says.
He also talks with his runners about the pain they will feel as they gasp for breath and fight for position while each step carries them toward the finish line.
But when it comes down to it, motivation must come from within.
“How willing are you to hurt during the race?” Wortmann asks. “You’re going to feel some pain. You have to decide whether or not you’re going to put up with it.”
Island School’s runners seem to tolerate pain well. They choose to suffer. Because it’s then, Wortmann says, they have a chance to see what they can really do.
“What do you got?” he says. “Let’s see what you got. And we see kids break through. There’s nothing like it.”
Wortmann’s academic and medical careers are impressive.
w University of California at Los Angeles, bachelor of arts, psychology.
w Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Neb., Doctor of Medicine Magna Cum Laude, Alpha Omega Alpha.
w Oregon Health Sciences University Hospitals and Clinics, Portland, Ore., Internship and Residency Emergency Medicine.
w Duke University, Fuqua School of Business, Durham, North Carolina, master of business administration.
His medical career brought him to Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where he worked from 1994 to 2004. Since, he’s worked at hospitals and medical centers in Honolulu, Washington state, Texas, Kaunakakai, Molokai and, now, Arizona.
He likes the balance between being a doctor in Chinle and being a running coach on Kauai.
“It works really well, and I’ll tell you why,” he says.
“I practice in a pretty austere environment. It’s a very rough department on the Navajo reservation. I see a lot of very challenging things.”
He mentions violence, poverty, disease and abuse related to drugs and alcohol.
So he sees driving and flying more than 3,000 miles to coach at Island School not as a hassle but as a gift.
“I love these kids, I love this school,” he says. “I love the support we have. I love what we’ve produced.”
“These kids are phenomenal. These are great people,” Wortmann continues. “They make my life better. They uplift me. They help me. So that’s where the balance comes in for sure.”
Wortmann takes his role seriously. He wants to point youth in the right direction, in running and in life.
“The biggest thing for me is when I realize I’m taking very young people, I’m taking the long view with them. It’s not about this season or this year. I really want to develop them over four years or five.”
He enjoys being with them and watching them grow. He has seen them graduate. Some have gone off to college, where they continued running on scholarships. Others were bound for careers around the Hawaiian islands and the mainland. Some have pursued medical careers and have been student residents under him in hospitals.
Wortmann has had two sons and a daughter graduate from Island School.
“They’re kids when they start. They’re young adults when they leave,” he says. “Being mature, responsible, good citizens, being kind, taking care of each other. At the end of the day, I think that’s what really happens with our runners.”
Their connection doesn’t end when the high school races are over.
“Having a lifetime kind of relationship with these runners is very important to me,” he says.
Such relationships are, in the end, what really count.
“Any coach will tell you that,” he adds.
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Bill Buley, editor-in-chief, can be reached at 245-0457 or bbuley@thegardenisland.com.
