For longtime Mercer Island cross country and track coach Erica Hill, running is about so much more than where one places on a racetrack. It’s a pathway that leads to greater things, which is something she preaches to the student-athletes that she leads. After all, she met her husband through coaching cross country.

“What running has given me personally as an athlete and as a coach is immeasurable,” Hill said. “I would say it’s such a piece of the fabric of my being in every way. What’s cool is I hope it always will be.”

With the beginning of the spring postseason last week, the finish line is in sight for the 2016 campaign. And this year, the final stretch includes Hill’s tenure leading the cross country and track programs she has been a part of for nearly two decades. At season’s end, Hill will step down from her post as co-head coach of both sports.

Hill, who first joined Mercer Island’s track program as an assistant in 1996, recently went back to school to receive her administration credentials through Western Washington University. Next year, she will split her duties teaching English at Mercer Island High School with taking on an administrative internship at the high school.

Now, as the end approaches, Hill says what comes to mind most is the connections and relationships running has allowed her to make.

“I just feel so lucky that this sport has offered me the opportunity to really meet all my closest friends that I run with, train with, coached with,” she said. “It’s just such an amazing community.”

During Hill’s tenure, the girls cross country team won a state championship in 2008 and three KingCo league titles, while the boys won two KingCo titles, including the first in program history. The cross country team has been named academic state champions for the sport four times. The boys track team was named academic state champions six times since 2000.

Hill says what’s been most important to her is seeing how many of her athletes are still running and making the sport a part of their lives.

“There’s been some great success. Kids have won individual state titles and team state titles,” she said. “To me, that’s incredible, but also that kid who breaks 30 minutes the first time in the 5K. Just the coolest piece of running cross country or track is seeing that development and that improvement, those personal records that happen and seeing how rewarding that is and the self-growth that can happen … I think it really teaches us so much about ourselves as we set those goals and work to achieve them.”

Senior Cece Rosenman ran cross country and track under Hill throughout her high school career. She said she felt “very lucky” to have Hill as a coach and called running on Hill’s teams “really, really fun.”

“I think it can be easy as a coach to focus on the times, but she focuses on how people are doing and how they feel about their performances,” Rosenman said. “She teaches us a lot about how to be better people through running, so that’s really helped me. It’s easy to look at a race and say, ‘Wow, my time isn’t what I wanted it to be.’ But Erica teaches us to look at things with a really optimistic point of view, to think about helping out your teammates and all the ways you can contribute to the team, so there’s a lot more than just your time.”

Senior Emerson Schulz has competed in track as a sprinter throughout his high school career. He said he tries to work with Hill, who primarily works with the distance runners, as much as possible.

“She brings relentless positivity and the most compassion that I’ve ever seen,” Schulz said. “She is so good at picking people up whenever they’re down. I know I usually get down on myself after a bad race. She always preaches that better things are ahead. I’ve legitimately taken that to heart that if I have a bad race, my next one is going to be better.”

Hill says her coaching philosophy toward running is “more than anything, believing in yourself and knowing that you can set goals.”

“To be a distance runner, you’ve gotta be on that edge of pushing through those boundaries within yourself, of ‘Can I dig that deep?’ and ‘Can I push myself there?’ and realizing ‘Yes I can, I can do this,'” she said. “It’s really scary to get out of your comfort zone in that sense. One of our big mantras is ‘Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.’ I think that’s a great thing to think about in all areas of life. The only way we’re going to grow in whatever we’re doing is to sometimes get a little uncomfortable. I think if they can learn that through sport, if athletes can see it’s going to be OK, I can take this risk, I can get a little uncomfortable, then they go ‘OK, I can handle that and I can handle these other things.’ To me, that’s huge.”

Hill was a four-sport athlete as a high school student at Seattle Prep, participating in soccer, cross country, basketball and track. She went on to compete in cross country and track for two years at Seattle Pacific University.

She became a parapro shortly after coming to MIHS and went back to school to get her master’s in teaching. In 1998, she joined the cross country team as an assistant to head coach Nile Clarke. Hill took over the program after Clarke retired in 1999. It was also around that time that she met her husband, longtime Bellevue cross country and track coach John Hill, proving once again that love truly knows no bounds.

“We were the rival coaches,” said Hill, adding the rivalry runs pretty deep with her husband, who’s also a Bellevue alum. “But although we’re competitors, I think we’ve been able to really nurture the idea that we’re not so much competitors as you’re only going to make yourself that much stronger by going against good competition. We’re all out here doing great things, that can only help push you that much harder.”

Hill says she runs everyday, and she ran everyday when she was pregnant with both of her two daughters, Zia and Kalea. She calls it the best way to start the day, and something that has helped her as a teacher, sometimes leading to those “A-hah!” moments with her lesson planning.

“I always tell kids that the beautiful thing about running is it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you take your running shoes and you can go for a run,” she said. “You can be feeling one way, maybe it’s one of the toughest days of your life or maybe it’s one of the greatest days of your life. You put on those shoes and head out the door and it’s amazing just how a run can transform your state of mind and how you view life at that moment. To me, it’s also really a time to think and to just process.”

Since becomming a cross country and track coach, Hill has seen both programs grow, developing a Booster Club, an All-Island Track Club and holding Island events such as the All-Comers Track Meet.

She acknowledges her transition will be tough, but she’s excited for what’s ahead.

“The beautiful thing is the memories are all there,” Hill said. “It makes me really sad to think about not seeing a Stoops or a Benson or a Kayla Lee or Mary Rose or Chloe Michaels. All those kids, they’re amazing. At the same time, they’re going to do incredible things and I can be on the sidelines cheering them on and they always know they have an unconditional supporter. It all feels really good and right, but it’s bittersweet for sure.”