Local running legend Ley returns as Gig Harbor High cross country coach

For its new cross country coach, Gig Harbor High reached back to its past, hiring Patty Ley, who starred for the Tides in the late 1980s and coached previously at the school from 1997-2009.

Ley, who was inducted in to the Pierce County Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010, spent the past seven years as the head women’s cross country coach at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Before that, she led the Gig Harbor girls cross country team to state titles in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

“I had some life things going on,” Ley said of her decision to step away from Gonzaga. “Not major health things, but enough that it made all the travel we had to do a little difficult. I had a hard time recovering from it. I wasn’t efficient. I felt like I wasn’t doing the job as well as I could or should. And then just some family things, helping out around here. It just all came together at the right time.”

She said the decision to leave Gonzaga was difficult, especially considering all the strides the program had made in her time there. In 2015, she led Gonzaga to its first West Coast Conference title since 1995 and to the school’s first appearance in the NCAA Championships. She was named WCC Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.

“It’s light years ahead of where it was seven years ago,” she said. “Having Gonzaga increase their support for the cross country program over time, it’s been cool to watch that happen.”

She’ll have a different — albeit familiar — challenge at Gig Harbor, working with kids who are often new to running and some of whom don’t harbor competitive running ambitions. She’ll coach both girls and boys teams for the Tides.

“In high school before, I’d talk to kids about an eight to 12 year plan,” Ley said. “In college, we’re here to compete, win meets or be at the higher end of those meets. At the same time, you still try to keep it kind of light. It’s about keeping that balance.”

In high school, it’s more about teaching the process.

“How to do things, where to get things, just the developmental process,” Ley said. “In college, they’re sometimes looking at the end result and undervalue the process. ... At this age, some of the kids have never done this before, they don’t understand what it means.”

That process—helping kids to love running and to improve athletically, is the rewarding part for Ley.

“Can we take every kid and make them better by the end of the season?” Ley said. “We’re just working on that constant improvement. ... Coaching here before, it was the kids who just got an opportunity to develop that was the rewarding part. From standards of success, maybe they never got to the state meet, but they grew and found their wings. That’s probably the most important thing.”

Ley has a long history of running and success in which to drawn from.

Overcoming injuries during her collegiate career, she lettered at the University of Oregon, Washington State University, and Pacific Lutheran University, graduating in 1993 from the latter, where she still holds school records in the 800m, 1500m and 3,000m.

Her 1500m record of 4:15.61 qualified her for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1992. In 1994, she ranked 19th in the U.S. in the 3,000m training with her former high school coach Joel Wingard working as an assistant coach at Gig Harbor High.