Coach, teacher, principal retires after 27 years in NR
READY TO ROLL — After 27 years as a teacher, coach and principal for New Richland-Hartland and NRHEG Schools, Paul Cyr is looking forward to retirement, though he’s not certain where it will lead him. (Star Eagle photo by Jim Lutgens)
By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
Paul Cyr took a rather long and circuitous route to his destination as an educator and coach.
Once he arrived, he never left — until now.
Cyr is retiring as a teacher, coach and principal at New Richland-Hartland and NRHEG Schools and, despite the success of his athletes on the mat, he leaves much more than a wrestling legacy after 27 years.
He positively affected so many people in so many ways. And that’s what he’ll miss the most.
“If it was just dealing with kids, I’d stay ‘til I’m 100,” said Cyr.
But it’s much more than that, and a grueling routine that seemed effortless when he was 40, even 50 years old, simply got a little old as he approached 60. Now, he wants to pursue some long-awaited personal endeavors, and he wants to do it while he’s still as energetic as ever.
For starters, he wants to hunt ducks from Saskatchewan to Louisiana with his 84-year-old father, Harold.
“Just one fall, I’d like to do that,” said Cyr. “That’s one retirement plan I’ve got. Another is to just recharge a little bit. Then maybe I’ll jump back in and get involved. Just for one year, I’d like to jump off the world and let it spin.”
Get Cyr on a roll and he can rattle off names so fast it will make your head spin. Tom Smith, Stan Lucas, Rich Lorenz, Ken Meyers, Tami Sens, Dan Stork, Karla Christopherson, Clyde Lundholm, and that’s just for starters. He’s a walking history book about the New Richland-Hartland and Ellendale-Geneva merger and all that’s happened since.
He recalls vividly the day he was hired, July 5, 1986.
“I got to the school, we talked for maybe 15 minutes, and Tom Smith took me for a walk around the old school,” said Cyr. “He offered me the job.”
He accepted, planning to stay one year.
“I thought I was going to find this green grass out there growing somewhere else,” he said.
But the first year changed his thinking. He liked the people he was working with, there was talk of renovating the New Richland school building and talk of consolidation, and prospects for the wrestling team were on the rise.
“I didn’t look so much after that,” said Cyr.
But he didn’t completely stop.
“Around 1990, when I started classes at Mankato to get my administrative license, I thought, ‘this is another chance to move up, become more mobile,’” he said.
He interviewed at a couple schools but was not hired. He called it a blessing in disguise.
In the fall of 1993, when Cyr took over as principal at Ellendale, he was still thinking “five more years.”
But by then the wrestling program had became much stronger and, in 1997, NRHEG crowned its first state champion, Dan Routh. Five more wrestlers went on to win six state titles and Cyr guided the Panthers to state as a team four times. They finished second in the state tournament in 1999, fourth in 2004 and won the consolation title in 2005. It was clear Cyr was home.
“I just kept coaching and doing this,” he said.
He could not, however, contain his yearn to return to teaching, and taught eighth-grade algebra from 2004 to 2009.
“I never really got over leaving the classroom,” he said. “I loved the classroom. I enjoyed that so, so much.”
Apparently he was good at it too. One former student said Cyr was the best math teacher she had at NRHEG, taking time before school to help solve problems in his office.
Another student said that while Cyr was “way too strict” as a principal, he’ll miss him and is sad he’s retiring.
Cyr said he particularly enjoyed the last four years as high school principal in New Richland, even if it meant leaving the classroom.
Cyr grew up in Oklee, Minn., about a block away from the school he would graduate from in 1972. His father worked until his sophomore year when the family took over his grandmother’s hardware store, where Cyr also worked.
“The best teacher I ever had was Mrs. Lindquist, for math,” said Cyr. “She was also our next door neighbor. At school, she was Mrs. Lindquist. At home, she was Ruth. I was not a model student by any means, but when I crossed the threshold of Mrs. Lindquist’s room, I was a choirboy. I knew if I did something wrong in there, I’d hear about it at home.”
As a youth Cyr loved athletics, especially baseball, but he also played football and competed in track. He started wrestling as a junior in high school when he threw the basketball to the coach and jumped on the stage to join hall of fame wrestling coach Charlie Bishop.
Hunting and shooting have always been big for Cyr, an accomplished and award-winning marksman.
“We even shot a .22 in the basement,” he said.
His interest in motorcycles also started early. He owned one at age 14 and rides one today.
Cyr’s post-secondary education included five colleges spanning 23 years. He even served a nine-month stint as editor of the Oklee Herald and spent two-plus years at St. John’s University Seminary, which he called “the school of hard knocks.”
Cyr is proud to say he’s only the second wrestling coach in New Richland in the last 52 years, following Lundholm’s 25-year run.
Including four years at Fertile-Beltrami, where his teams were 48-38-1, Cyr compiled a career record of 445 wins, 305 losses and 11 ties. Here, his teams were 397-267-11.
His teams won 11 Gopher Conference championships, including the last four, and he coached 80 individuals to 38 state tournament medals.
There have been many accolades, one of the most impressive the 2013 Wrestling USA Magazine Minnesota Person of the Year Award. Stork, NRHEG’s Athletic Director, nominated Cyr for the award.
Part of the article reads: “Those of us that truly know Coach Cyr know that he is driven by his faith in God, love for his family and total commitment to everything he is faced with. His integrity and values that guide him through life are what make him such a special person and friend. You will not meet someone that works harder and is more passionate in the sport of wrestling. He has truly left an enormously positive impact on countless student athletes and the sport of wrestling.”
“It’s nice to be recognized by your peers,” said Cyr.
He hasn’t always been as popular with everyone else, including parents, because of his tell-it-like-it-is philosophy, detailed in a recent article by Star Eagle columnist and NRHEG English teacher Mark Domeier.
“He wrote some very accurate stuff,” said Cyr.
Most recently, Cyr was named Grand Marshal of the 2013 Ellendale Days parade, which he considers an honor.
Cyr is excited about the prospects for his successor as principal, area native David Bunn, and he plans to stay out of the hiring process for the new wrestling coach. He regrets leaving the wrestling program with so many promising youngsters but knows it would be the case most any year.
Everything else will be determined in time.
“People ask, ‘Are you going to move? Are you going to sell your house?’ I don’t know myself,” said Cyr. “That remains to be seen, I guess. I won’t really know I’m retired until August.”
One thing Cyr does know is that September 2 — the day before school starts — things will be different this year.
“Day one is always so tough, wanting to put your best foot forward,” he said. “I would probably say, come Labor Day night, I probably will sleep better than I ever have.”
And NRHEG Schools will never be quite the same.