Eddie Wortman, 47, coached gymnastics at YMCA
November 2nd, 2009
Originally found at www.tampabay.com
Written By Andrew Meacham
His wife delivered the news.
Eddie Wortman had colon cancer. “He just looked at me and said, ‘What do we need to do?’ ” his wife, Tanya, said.
For Mr. Wortman, there was only one thing. He would continue to coach.
He had two homes. One in a South Tampa suburb. The other at the Interbay-Glover Family YMCA.
Mr. Wortman, a gymnastics coach for 20 years who set up the YMCA’s special-needs program, died Sunday. He was 47.
“It’s probably thousands, you think about the number of kids who come through over a period of time,” said district executive Joe Mangione. “Eddie was on the next generation. Some of the kids he taught over the late 1980s and early 1990s are having kids now.”
He pushed them through adversity, something he knew a lot about. At age 2, doctors diagnosed epilepsy. He had grand mal seizures.His parents, Phil and Gail Wortman, had met as instructors at a New Orleans YMCA. Phil later became CEO of that Y and others in Florida.Little Eddie was a Y baby.
Mr. Wortman grew up amid afternoon echoes in large indoor spaces. At 15, he was coaching gymnastics. In 1979, he was the all-around champion for his parish.He preferred to go to the Y and coach than to attend college. He worked 15-hour days. In 1985 he married Tanya, another YMCA coach. They moved to Tampa in 1989 and got jobs at Interbay.Several years ago, he started a program for kids with disabilities.
“He loved it,” said Phil Wortman, who is now retired. “He could relate to them because of the hardship they had gone through.”
Mr. Wortman worked with children with autism and Down syndrome, teaching them balance and agility. Soon area elementary schools were sending their special-needs students to him.
He also spoke to kids no one else could reach.”There were some teens I couldn’t get through to because they would get me mad,” said fellow staffer Julie Shade, 28. “Eddie would go sit down and talk to them and straighten them out. Nobody wanted to disappoint Eddie. It was like disappointing your father.”Shade is tiny and perky, and looks like she could launch into handsprings at any moment. But as she talks about Mr. Wortman her eyes mist.
Mr. Wortman never stopped coaching. Long after he could no longer drive, his parents dropped him off at the Y after chemo sessions, where he would work for four hours. Recent photos show him gaunt and leaning against an upright pole as girls wound their bodies around the uneven bars.
It was the only way he could stand.
He often would sleep in a motor home that his parents parked outside the Y for him to rest in.
“He’d come out of the RV and coach. Then he’d clock out and rest,” Mangione said. “I’d say, ‘Eddie, you have to rest a little more.’ “In recognition of his life’s work, the Amateur Athletic Union recently renamed its yearly gymnastics scholarship after Eddie Wortman.
There are no signs of outward grief once you get past the Interbay parking lot, where the flag stands at half-mast and the sign wishes Eddie godspeed. Taylor Robinette played cards Wednesday at a kid-sized table.
Mr. Wortman taught her how to back hip circle on the uneven bars.
“I was afraid I was going to fall,” said Taylor, 8. “Eddie said, ‘Just try your hardest, and if you practice enough you’ll get it right.’ ”
When asked how the other kids are taking the loss of Mr. Wortman, Taylor didn’t hesitate.
“They’re feeling pretty sad,” she said.
