The many aforementioned accomplishments Wright achieved on the track were certainly not a given, considering the injuries she had to overcome during her collegiate career.
As a freshman, a severely sprained ankle caused her to miss a couple of meets. Then the next year, she began to experience chronic foot pain which would require surgery to remove bone spurs in her right ankle in the fall of her junior year. She wore a boot for two weeks before returning to the sport she loved.
Her physical travails were not over, however. As a senior, Jami again felt pain in her right foot. She underwent another surgery to remove bone spurs in a different part of her ankle, and this time she had to wear a cast for three weeks followed by another two weeks in a boot. Miraculously, she did not miss any track meets.
Coach Thiel describes the Jekyll-and-Hyde persona Wright has on and off the track.
“She really hates to lose,” he said. “Every year she had nagging injuries but worked so hard and showed such grit. She willed herself to be great.”
Thiel just marvels at Wright’s competitiveness, both in her preparation and on-track performances.
“She’s really a beast in the weight room,” he said. “Everything she does is full throttle. She runs angry. She’s a linebacker. You don’t want to be ahead of her."
Wright admits she’s guilty as charged.
“Coach has called me a lot of things, because I do hate to lose,” she grins. “I was born with that one. That’s real.”
“Sometimes, you have to hold her back,” Thiel said. “She’s a team-first leader who wants to compete in as many events as she can to get points for her teammates. She’s a very special person.”
Yet, Wright displayed an entirely different personality outside of sports.
“She’s so kind and giving,” says her coach. “She’s encouraged so many people and truly cares about them.”
A seminal moment in Wright’s young life occurred in the first month of her freshman year when she joined other classmates in attending Coach Thiel’s weekly bible studies.
“Although I grew up going to church, I wasn’t that ‘Jesus kid’ when I came to SWU,” shared Wright. “Morgan Haney, a junior on the track team, told me the bible studies were awesome and that I should go.”
Wright was already sold on her coach, someone who himself had found Jesus after a self-confessed early life of partying and now was an unabashed Christian disciple.
“I loved coach Theil from the second I met him,” Jami added. “I trusted him and his bible studies lived up to their reputation. Everyone was so inviting”.
In one of her early bible studies, the discussion triggered something deep inside Wright.
“They were talking about joy, and what’s the difference between joy and happiness”
That’s when Coach Thiel asked her about her relationship with Jesus.
“I said, ‘Are you good?’ She said, ‘I’m good.’”
But later that day, Wright became very emotional about that encounter and decided to visit the coach’s office.
The All-America sprinter remembers it like it was yesterday.
“I kept telling myself that I was just stressed and overthinking, but the feeling would not go away,” she said. “I knew I had to go back. I was just crying and crying and crying. I don’t remember the whole exchange, but I do remember Coach Thiel telling me, ‘You’re ready for this. Jesus is calling.’”
Three weeks later, University Chaplain Ken Dill baptized Wright after her afternoon practice. As has become customary since Coach Thiel’s arrival on campus, she was submerged in water held by the steeplechase at the track.
Thiel said he could see a profound change in Wright, the person, following the baptism and the years that have followed.
“She has a quiet peace and confidence,” he said. “She was so fiery as a track competitor and it always defined who she was. Now that competitiveness is there to talk to people and share her faith. She knows the journey is far more important than the result. Jami sees a bigger picture. Life is so much more than this thing called track.”