Ortmeiers teach lessons on and off the court

For Mark and Jordan Ortmeier, basketball has always been less about the game and more about family.

Mark began teaching and coaching 32 years ago, and he led the way for his son, Jordan, to follow in his footsteps.

Now approaching the end of his 14th year at Centennial Public School in Utica, Mark helped lead the girls’ basketball team to an 18-7 season in 2018-19 as an assistant coach under head coach Jake Polk, the team’s second consecutive winning season in the last 11 years.

Mark was the Centennial girls’ head coach before taking a few years off and coming back in the assistant role.

“I needed a break,” he said. “I knew Jordan was going to be head coach at Giltner, and I knew there would be times I wouldn’t be able to go to his games—and that hurt—but it energized me.”

Mark teaches junior high science, but he hasn’t always. He spent three years at Johnson-Brock, six years in Humphrey and 10 years in Harvard before moving his family to Utica.

“I thought I was going to retire at Harvard,” he said.

Around that time, the former boys’ basketball coach at Harvard, Dave Hiebner, moved to Centennial, and then-Centennial football coach Doug Nielsen had Harvard connections.

“It just seemed like it was time to move,” Mark said.

Jordan was just starting junior high, and his sister, Michelle, was beginning her junior year.

During his 32 years as teacher, coach and mentor, Mark has taught science, English and social studies, physical education and reading, mostly at the elementary and middle school levels.

“In high school, my favorite subject was social studies,” he said, which led him to major in elementary education at Peru State College.

Like father, like son.

Jordan is now in his fourth year teaching social studies.

“I’ve always been kind of obsessed with history. Ever since I was a kid, I always found history very interesting,” Jordan said.

His first two years were at Lewiston Consolidated, where he was an assistant coach for boys’ basketball and track.

He’s now teaching seventh through 12th graders at Giltner while head coaching the boys’ team and helping with junior high basketball and track.

Teaching runs in both sides of the family.

“My mom taught elementary in a one-room school house,” Mark said.

His brother has taught and coached in Osmond for 32 years. His cousins and members of his wife Kathy’s family also teach. Their daughter Michelle taught high school English before becoming a paraprofessional.

“Teaching has always run in my family. It’s always been in my life,” Jordan said. “I’ve seen the way that my dad has had an impact on kids, and it’s something I wanted to pursue also.”

While Mark’s motivation was his high school basketball coach who also taught elementary school, Jordan knew what he wanted to do by the time he left kindergarten.

“That was the first time I was able to be a student manager for (my dad),” Jordan said. “At kindergarten graduation, we had to say what we wanted to be when we grew up. I said a teacher and a coach.”

Two decades later, he’s living that dream—curveball free, for now.

“It’s been great. I’ve been lucky to work with a great group of kids; a very respectful, mature group of kids,” Jordan said. “My staff I work with is phenomenal, if I ever need help with anything. It’s been a blast. It’s been a dream come true.”

Mark said watching Jordan go from a player at Centennial to coaching his own teams has been fun.

“Jordan was not the starter or all-conference player or anything. He learned a lot being a teammate and a role player. That has helped him in his coaching and how to get those things across to his kids,” Mark said. “At times I was excited for him. At times, I also know the trials and tribulations you go through as a coach and the stress you go through during the season.”

Jordan said playing on the boys’ team while his dad was coaching the girls’ team was a fun experience to draw from, but it was more about their relationship than the game.

“He never really had the opportunity to coach me, but I was always the student manager for him up until junior high. I would sit there and watch him coach, and then he’s sitting there watching me play,” Jordan said.

On the court and off, their relationship was always father and son, not coach and player.

“He didn’t act like a coach to me. He was still a dad. The minute we got home (from a game), it was back to father-son. He always supported me and never criticized something I did,” Jordan said. “I was very blessed to have a father like that.”

They both strive to teach their students more than science, social studies or basketball techniques.

“It’s about life lessons. You learn from successes. You learn from failures, and not always during games,” Mark said. “Some of the best times are hanging out with your team, those summer experiences.”

“When you’re teaching and coaching, you can just teach them about that, but you’ve gotta teach them about how to be responsible,” Jordan said. “I tell them to treat basketball as a job. If you show up late to practice, you’re going to get in trouble for that. If I show up late to work, I’m going to get in trouble for it.”

The Giltner boys finished the season 15-10 under Jordan’s leadership.

“We started off the year having lost eight seniors from the year before, so we returned an inexperienced group of kids,” he said. “They’ve come a long way.”

He said he plans to stay in Giltner for a while.

“I live in a great community. The people here are absolutely amazing, and the school is phenomenal,” Jordan said.

He tries to make the 45-minute drive to as many of his dad’s games as possible, and his dad does the same for him.

Mark said he doesn’t have any immediate plans to retire, though the kids keep him on his toes.

“You have to have a lot of energy because they have a lot of energy,” he said. “As long as I feel healthy and energized, I get up and I enjoy going to work. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

emily@sewardindependent.com