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Doug Courtemarche synonymous with Model Coach

By Bob Padecky
Published: Thursday, February 26, 2009

Doug Courtemarche was a longshoreman in Long Beach, a submariner off the coast of Russia spying for the United States
during the Vietnam War, a revenue collector for the IRS for 22 years, a counselor for the Veterans Administration and
an anthropology major in college.

So I guess you could see why Courtemarche, as Santa Rosa’s cross country coach, recently received CIF’s highest coaching
honor, the Model Coach Award.

Or maybe not.

Courtemarche is the living, breathing example of how a life doesn’t have to be logical, just consequential. The stress
of having knocked on doors and asked for money, sometimes with uniformed gun-in-holster IRS officers as backup, has made
being a cross country and track coach a walk in the park.

People with money issues trump, every time, teenagers with teenage issues. And spying on the Soviets, well, Courtemarche
didn’t need caffeine to stay awake on that assignment.

All of which you would never know to meet Courtemarche. He doesn’t volunteer his ego; you have to bring it out of him.

So, why is he a role model?

“I’ve asked myself that question many times,” Courtemarche said.

“You were named a community hero in 1996, a honor that enabled you to carry the Olympic Torch,” I said. “How did you get
to be a hero?”

“I’ve also asked myself that question many times,” he replied.

Courtemarche is a CIF Model Coach because he knows how to balance running, which is work, with fun, which is not work.

The Tropical Relay in the spring is the perfect example, with the 4X100 banana relay the perfect representative model.

Courtemarche picks three teams from his track kids.

“The baton is the banana,” he said. “By the time the fourth person crosses the finish line, the banana has to be eaten.
But the banana peel has to be intact to win.”

The Tropical Relay is fun. Nothing more. A chance for the kids to let the steam out of the kettle. Track and cross country
are not glamour sports. Usually college scholarships are not in the offing. Nor screaming headlines or 10-deep screaming
crowds.

Courtemarche is a CIF Model Coach because of what happens the first day of every cross country or track season. He gathers
his athletes, boys and girls, in Room D203. He is in his 17th year at Santa Rosa and he gives the same speech every year.
Do not disrespect. Teammates. Coaches. Officials. Period. No attitude. No curse words. It’s 25 push-ups per curse word.

“I tell them either clean up your language or you will be the strongest person on the team,” said Courtemarche, 61.

“Sometimes a kid will ask what are the forbidden words,” Courtemarche said.

He won’t say them. Instead, he might refer them to George Carlin’s seven words that can’t be uttered on television. Or
he’ll say, as an example, “that brown word.”

“I’ve had kids who have won a relay race who when they crossed the finish they cussed in joy and then threw down the
baton,” Courtemarche said “That’s a double whammy. I’ve had them drop down, right there on the track, right after the
race, and give me 50 push-ups.”

Senior Chris Edwards, a current track member, was mentioned especially by Courtemarche. Edwards cursed the first day of
practice this year.

“I told the kids Chris had done something no other kid I’ve ever had at Santa Rosa: He cursed on the first day of practice
all four years,” said Courtemarche, who seven years ago also received The Model Coach Award from CIF as the school’s
track coach.

“The kids gave him a round of applause.”

Edwards still did his 25 push-ups, of course. You can’t bend the rules, even for a celebrity.

Courtemarche is a CIF Model Coach because he understands running is laborious and even if the kids are racing with banana
peels, tedium could set in. So he has his cross country kids train at Spring Lake, at Rural Cemetery, around campus or
the city of Santa Rosa itself.

Courtemarche is a CIF Model Coach because he knows “99 percent, maybe even a little more” of the kids won’t do any
running competitively after high school. So he pushes them, not with obsessive zeal but perspective.

That’s the best way for him to explain his van.

The eight-seater takes part of the team to away meets.

Courtemarche let his kids take coaches tape and scribble on it.

“I Have To Toot” and “Jimmy Fallon Rocks” and “Jesus Ran Cross Country” are just three messages on 63 pieces of tape that
are stuck to the inside roof of his van.

“I have parents come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for sending home a happy kid’” Courtemarche said. “A happy kid is a
happy household at night and parents like that a lot.”

Courtemarche has avoided — some say it’s miracle — the bane of every prep coach in the Empire. Courtemarche does his job
without nagging, griping, obsessive parents hounding his every decision, making him wish he was back on that submarine
spying on Russia.

For that and that alone Doug Courtemarche deserves more than the Model Coach Award from CIF. Any coach who can keep a
smile on his kids, their parents and himself, I dunno, he needs something special.

Like The Doug Courtemarche Award.

For more on North Bay high school sports go to Bob Padecky’s blog at padecky@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff
Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.

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