Haliburton High says Goodbye to Principal Gary Brohman

After 17 years as Principal of the Haliburton Highlands Secondary School, Gary Brohman – the school’s beloved “Coach Bro” -- retires this month. Gary and his wife Dawn arrived in Haliburton in 1972 when Gary accepted his first job at the High School teaching Physical Education and English. And now, after 38 years of teaching, coaching, and administrating (and after 38 years of happy marriage as well), Brohman is handing over the reins to Dan Marsden, now Principal at Fenelon Falls High School, and an ex Haliburton High teacher first hired by Brohman himself. “I couldn’t be happier with the appointment,” says Brohman. “He’ll be a great Principal.” As Brohman looks back on his 38 years as an educator, and looks forward to his next great journey in life, he says, “As an educator, I’ve always believed that to be a great teacher, or leader of any kind in life, you have to be a lifelong learner. And to be a life-long learner, and I’ve used this advice my entire career, you have to ‘Read good books and hang around smart people.’ And you’ll always be learning. I could have retired eight years ago, with full pension, but it wasn’t even an option for me. Because I’ve always said, and the people of this great County know, that I have the best job in Haliburton. It’s really almost unheard of that in my job a Principal remains for 17 years in one school. So I’ve been really lucky.” Brohman first made his reputation at Hal High as an enthusiastic and successful Phys Ed teacher and football and hockey coach. But although he was at first primarily identified with sports, for obvious reasons, he always insisted his athletes work just as hard, or harder, at their academic subjects. “When I was at Wilfred Laurier my football coach Dave “Tuffy” Knight made it absolutely clear to all of us on the team that if our marks weren’t up to scratch, we weren’t on the team. And I make no apology for having used that approach to many of our athletes here at Hal High.” Years later Brohman had the great pleasure of recommending to the legendary “Tuffy” Knight, by then at the University of Waterloo, one of his greatest athletes, football star Mike Bradley. “I told Tuffy that he had to see this kid – he wasn’t tall, but he had great speed and great character. So Tuffy listened, gave Mike a tryout, and on he went to be a star at Waterloo, and eventually won three Grey Cup rings with Edmonton.” Brohman’s also overseen, along with chief hockey coach Ron Yake, the career of another Haliburton star athlete, Matt Duchene, who holds his ex-coach in the highest regard. In February Duchene came back to Haliburton on the Olympic break and helped coach his beloved Red Hawks in two games. “Matt gave 100 percent in every practice, every shift, and every game in his Red Hawk career.” Brohman taught Phys Ed for 11 years, became Vice Principal in 1983, and served under various Principals for another 10 years, all the while continuing to coach high school football and hockey. So he’s had 27 years as an administrator and leader, and inevitably he’s been in the middle, or has intervened in many disputes over the years: the change in name for the athletic teams from Redmen to Red Hawks; the battle over Coke machines; the compromise over kids wearing hats in school -- (“the compromise there was pretty simple. I knew that hats were part of Haliburton – so we said sure, wear them to school, but just as you don’t wear your hat at the supper table, or in church, just take them off in class. And that seemed to be acceptable – but it took five months to resolve”) – have all involved mediation, listening, and trust. “The Red Hawk family is made up of 650 people – and as in any family, some will make more errors than others, and some will be more successful than others. And over the years the biggest change I’ve seen in these teenagers is that they lose their innocence earlier now, what with the Internet, Facebook, and so on. The Internet is a wonderful tool, but it can also be very dangerous. Still, the kids at his school are just as wonderful in 2010 as they were in 1972. Working in a high school with teenagers, the first thing you must understand is that every parent in this great County sends us their best kid – they don’t keep the good ones at home – they give us their very best child, and it’s our job as teachers to work with their very best. And I think this staff does an outstanding job, from an academic point of view and from an extracurricular point of view and from a social point of view of how we treat each other every day in the school. But I think we do really really well, given the level of hormones in the building every day!” Brohman was encouraged to pursue his dream of becoming Principal at a time when they might have been some bias in the educational establishment against “Jocks”, or Phys Ed teachers, advancing beyond the Vice Principal plateau. “I was helped greatly by our Director of Education, J. Douglas Hodgson, in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he encouraged me to apply to take as many Principal training courses as I could. That meant a great deal to me. And I remember him telling me that if I were to be successful and become a Principal in Haliburton, it would be my job to ensure that every kid had the same opportunities for a quality education as they might have anywhere in this province, and that every child, no matter what his or her background or abilities, would have the benefit of our very best efforts.” So when Brohman was finally appointed Principal in 1992, he was determined that his legacy would focus as much or more on the arts, science, and so on as on the “jock” side. “I took on the challenge of building the arts program, and I’m so proud of what my staff and this community has done to advance arts education in particular during my tenure here. Just listen to our musicians, under the great leadership of Tom Regina, or watch our actors in our great theatre, and our writers, our visual artists: we’re sending the highest quality of student out in the world. And you do this by leadership, certainly, but also by paying attention to each student’s needs and abilities. “You see, our job as teachers in this building is to bring kids along at their time and pace. There’s no way every grade nine kid will proceed at level this or that in the same way. Now, having said that, we must not let them be procrastinators – so our job too is to challenge them, but recognizing that we’re all different. If I had had to make a living doing math, I’d be a bum. But the unbridled enthusiasm of these students keeps me feeling so young, keeps my thought processes going at fifth gear, because first gear won’t work with these people. Their hunger for knowledge, their challenging the rules, is a great thing.” Some of the challenges haven’t been easy: “I remember the change over from the Redmen to the Red Hawks, which was actually one of the biggest challenges of my career. But you know, this morning I led my last assembly, and I said to the kids, ‘I need your courage now, you’ve got to give me some strength here,’ so I yelled out ‘Once a Hawk,’ and the roar came back, you should have heard the roar, ‘Always a Hawk’ and I thanked them for helping me get through this.” When he looks back on his 17-year tenure as Principal, Brohman says, “My job as a leader, my job as Principal, was to maintain and strengthen the legacy of sports that we’ve always had in this school, and which all my predecessors supported, but at the same time to create that whole curricular and extra-curricular arts programs that would be just as successful. And my definition of leadership is being able to delegate to the right people, and as Principal over the years, my staff has consistently made me look good.” It’s easy to see that retirement will in some ways might not be easy for Gary Brohman. He’s certainly not the kind of guy to sit around and catch the rays all day. He has a great family: his wife Dawn, two happily married sons, four grandchildren; but you can bet that by the fall he’ll be looking for new projects and undoubtedly new ways to be involved in his community. And certainly he’ll be around to make sure the Red Hawks, and all the rest of the Haliburton High School family, continue to make their community proud.