Weyburn Teacher Named Male Coach Of The Year

Longtime Weyburn teacher and coach Bryan Fleck has just recently been recognized as the Male Coach of the Year by the South East District Athletic Association.

Fleck began teaching health and physical education in the fall of 2003 at the Weyburn Junior High School after completing his training at the University of Saskatchewan.

He later joined the Weyburn Comprehensive High School staff when the Weyburn Junior High and Comprehensive School both amalgamated in 2016.

Bryan began his coaching career at the Junior High coaching boys volleyball, boys basketball, and badminton. He started coaching the Girls “A” Volleyball team (gr.7-9) at the Junior High in 2006 and is still currently running the same program all these years later.

In that time, the program has been quite successful. They have won several District Championships at the Junior and Intermediate level over the last 15 years and have been fortunate to travel and compete in elite tournaments across
Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

"Being awarded for this is amazing and it's humbling for sure," expressed Fleck. "Anytime you put in a lot of hours and your passion and enthusiasm then to be recognized for it is really special that's for sure."

He said that he feels very fortunate to be able to run a program that introduces females to the game of volleyball and helps them grow a passion for the game. He has always loved working at the “developmental” level and enjoys seeing the growth in his players as they move up into the high school level.

"Anytime you can work with students outside of the classroom you get to see them on a different level," Fleck told. "They can see you differently as well. You're not just the classroom teacher. That relationship that you can get as a coach is always extra special. We spend hours on the road traveling in a van and laughing while listening to music. It's just fun being with students and teaching girls about competition and competing. It's not really that important whether they are winning or losing it's more of a process of getting better while being a good sport about it all. So all those lessons you can learn outside the classroom and they are very valuable. I find that sports are a terrific way to do that."

Fleck has had hundreds of young ladies come through his program over the last 15 years and he has also been involved with Weyburn Minor Hockey, Weyburn Minor Soccer, Weyburn Softball, and he also teaches tennis to kids and adults.

"The whole teaching career began because my dad was a teacher in the classroom for 30 plus years, and then he was a substitute teacher for almost 20, so he spent about 50 years in education," shared Fleck. "I remember playing hockey for the Red Wings and we'd get to go into classrooms. I was fortunate to go into my dad's class and as soon as I did that I fell in love with teaching and how my dad coached and taught. So I was really drawn towards that as a career. So right from being a teenager that's something I thought that I would want to do. My dad not only put lots of hours into the classroom he put tons of hours in the gym coaching basketball, and volleyball, and badminton. Same as all of the coaches they go early, they stay late, they miss suppers, they sacrifice some time with their families, but what you're giving those kids and the opportunities you are providing them are worth those sacrifices. My two girls and my wife have sacrificed a lot of time without having me around on weekends but they knew it was important for me as part of teaching and coaching. So they were okay that I'd be gone Friday after school and not home until late Saturday night or Sunday morning."

Fleck said that he is happy to be working with such an amazing staff at the Weyburn Comprehensive School and he had the following message to share that can be listened to in the audio file below.