‘Step forward … and don’t back out’

The influence of former teacher and coach Jerry Hartwell spanned generations

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

Jerry Hartwell was talking baseball with his grandson, Braxton Lahr.

But it could just as well have been about life in general.

“He told me to step forward and don’t back out,” Braxton said of the hitting advice he received from his grandfather.

“That helped me a lot.”

Whenever possible, Jerry would attend Braxton’s games to watch his continued progress. Unfortunately, when Braxton’s team — Comets Black — won the Farm division of the Charles City Youth Baseball League, Jerry wasn’t there … at least not physically.

On May 23, Jerry Hartwell died. He was 68 years old.

“We were just out for dinner the night before he went to the hospital,” Jerry’s wife of 46 years, Sue Hartwell said. “There were good days and there were bad days. But he always tried to stay active. He never gave up.”

Jerry was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“We don’t really know how long he had it,” Sue said. “Usually, several warning signs need to be revealed before it can be determined for sure.

“It wasn’t until this past year that he had to use a walker. But he still managed to make it downstairs a couple times a week to work out.”

In Jerry and Sue’s basement is a makeshift gym with free weights, bench press, heavy bag, cardio equipment … as well as video tapes and literature for optimum fitness.

As a physical education teacher and coach within the Charles City school system for 34 years, Jerry led by example.

“He always kept himself in great shape … some of the best athletes in this city would come over here to train and lift with Jerry,” Sue said. “It’s so ashamed that his body failed him after he took such great care of it.”

More than several of Jerry’s former players and students went on to become coaches themselves.

“I was one of his students,” said Charles City athletic/activities director Todd Forsyth, who formerly coached the Comets boys basketball team for more than 20 years.

“The kids really respected him and he was always there for them,” Forsyth said.

Jerry’s son, Kip Hartwell, discovered how respected his father was when the elder Hartwell suggested an impromptu visit to the Comets’ locker room before a Charles City homecoming football game.

“We can do that?” asked Kip, a pre-high school adolescent at the time who kept every program from every Comet event he attended, and idolized the Comet football players.

“My dad walked into the room and instantly a chorus of voices screamed out from everywhere ‘Coach H!’,” Kip said from a speech he wrote at his father’s funeral. “Players I idolized were running up to talk and shake hands with my dad. He was just like one of them; he could speak their language … ‘How much you benching these days?’ … ‘Let me see your form on the squat sometime’.

“I didn’t know what any of this meant, but I was hanging on every word.”

After graduating from Charles City High School in 1966, Jerry continued his education at Wartburg College where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education with a minor in History.

He later earned his Master’s in Administration at the University of Northern Iowa.

Jerry served as head coach for Charles City’s middle school football program for 29 years.

“He developed an excellent feeder program for the high school,” said Bruce Eldridge, who also coached the middle school Comets. “He focused on the defense while I ran the offensive side.

“We coached so long together that it got to the point where we knew what the other was thinking. But every once in awhile he would come up to me and suggest, ‘Don’t you think it’s about time we run a reverse?’ “

Hartwell and Eldridge also coached Charles City’s middle school track team for nearly a quarter of a century. Eldridge later took over the high school program in 2001, and coached the Comet boys team to a state title in 2005.

“I asked Jerry if he wanted to come over with me to the high school, but he was thinking about taking a retirement option package at the time,” Eldridge said.

Jerry eventually retired in 2004 to spend more time with his granddaughter. Though the Charles City school where he taught the most, Jefferson Elementary, had since closed its doors, Jerry continued to work part-time as a substitute teacher in Charles City and the surrounding communities.

“He had a way of bringing out the best in people,” Eldridge said. “As a coach, sometimes he would have to call a player out. But for every one time that he had to yell at someone, he had already said 15 positive things to motivate him.”

It was hard for Eldridge to witness his friend — a force of nature well beyond the splendor of youth — being grounded by such a debilitating disease.

“But he fought it bravely,” Eldridge said.

In other words, he didn’t back out.