For Jaime Guerpo, it has always been about solitary pursuits and it has always been a fight. ADVERTISING For Jaime Guerpo, it has always been about solitary pursuits and it has always been a fight. Literally, there was a time
For Jaime Guerpo, it has always been about solitary pursuits and it has always been a fight.
Literally, there was a time in the 1980s when you could say without fear of contradiction that all he wanted to do was get his hands taped, slip on some gloves and patrol the squared circle in a boxing ring, looking to beat somebody up.
The Rocky movies were exciting fans everywhere and Guerpo, a Big Island native who had older brothers who boxed, couldn’t get enough.
“The (Rocky) movies were great inspiration,” Guerpo said, his face breaking into a smile with the memories. “I think I saw them all several times, it would put me in the mood to get in the gym.”
The other aspect of boxing, the training part, the road work, was something he did at first to get ready for the ring but then it all changed as he neared the end of high school.
Guerpo grew up in Honokaa and gradually worked his way through Junior Olympics boxing, gaining more confidence after he listened to his brothers and began running on a daily basis.
“They told me, ‘You can’t be a boxer if you don’t get out and run, you need to strengthen those legs,’ and I listened to them,” he said. “Running helped me focus, made me feel stronger, like charging a battery.”
Life closed in and Guerpo realized at the end of high school that he would have to make a choice, he was either going to dedicate his life to boxing or he would have to go to college and get an education.
“Boxing takes all your time,” he said. “You are out running early, you follow a diet plan, you go to the gym, maybe you lift some weights, then go get in another run.
“I knew I had to go to college,” he said. “Even then, as exciting and motivating as boxing was, I could tell it wasn’t the right decision for me, long term.”
He went to Hawaii Pacific, later transferred to Azusa-Pacific, where he graduated and eventually became the cross-country coach. His father’s cancer brought him back home and after his father passed in January of 1999, Guerpo made the decision to return permanently.
“I wanted to be of help to the family, I just wanted to be here,” he said, and the timing was right. He heard there was cross-country coach opening at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, he applied, and he’s now in his 18th consecutive season coaching the Vulcans squad.
It has been anything but a smooth ride. Former athletics director Dexter Irvin killed men’s and women’s cross country in one fell swoop back in 2011 and Guerpo and all his athletes were on the street.
But going back to his singular pursuit of his goals, Guerpo simply decided he would find a way to fund the program on his own. Starting in May, he contacted every running club, every running event of any kind he could think of in the state. His days were long, there were plane flights he paid out of his own pocket to solicit potential sponsors and by August of that year, he got it done.
“I can’t say enough about The Great Aloha Run, they rescued us,” Guerpo said, “without them, we probably would not have cross country at all, they chipped in $25,000 and that got us going again.”
Along the way, the Ironman competition helped out and the sport was back in business, sort of. The money raised was only enough for one sport, so the decision was made to drop men’s cross country, but at least the program was alive.
“It wasn’t fun, it was tough,” he said, “but these last two years, I feel we made some progress. I’m encouraged by the new AD (Pat Guillen), he met me, we talked, he looked me in the eye and said, ‘I can tell how competitive you are, I’m the same way,’ so I took that as a good sign.”
Less welcome is the new environment for funding scholarships, which is practically nonexistent. There was a time, for his two cross-country teams, that Guerpo could fund “about 85 percent” of a recruit’s college scholarship. Today, for one team, he has the equivalent of about 1.2 scholarships.
“I can help some on books, but that’s about it,” he said.
This year’s squad got off to a decent start on Oahu two weeks ago when junior Anna Baker-Mikkelsen led the way in the opening meet with a sixth-place finish of 19:52 in the 5K race, a mark topped by only one other Pacific West Conference runner.
The Denmark native has been the strong point on the team and that isn’t expected to change. What Guerpo hopes will change is the realization to all the runners in the state, especially on the Big Island, that the program is somewhat undercover, but it’s alive and striving to collect more depth and enthusiasm.
“I think we can grow and be a kind of factor at this level,” Guerpo said. “We have a lot of people here who run for their sports and then they eventually find those other sports aren’t quite the right fit, but they can still run and achieve.”
If they doubt the suggestion, all they need to do is ask the Vulcans coach about his own story.
Sometimes the search for something new and different isn’t necessary, sometimes your best option is already there, like it was for Guerpo.
