Tradition in high school sports is a powerful concept and being part of a traditionally successful program will have a lasting effect on those who are fortunate to experience such a thing.

The tradition of the Albert Lea wrestling program has had such an effect on assistant coach Neal Skaar for the past 45 years.

“I love the sport of wrestling and I love being part of the Albert Lea tradition,” Skaar said. “I’m very proud to be part of the Albert Lea tradition.”

Forty-five of his 63 years Skaar has been part of the wrestling program as either a wrestler or coach. He’s watched the program rise to prominence in the state and worked to keep the level of excellence established through its history.

He’s been a witness for the majority of significant Albert Lea wrestling achievements, but he doesn’t see any causal relationship between himself and the success of the program.

“I’ve definitely thought about that, but at the same time I have pretty much rejected the idea that there’s any cause and effect relationship there,” Skaar said. “It’s been my happiness to witness a lot of this, but there’s a Latin expression up there on the board, ’post hoc ergo propter hoc,’ just because I was around for all this, doesn’t mean I caused it.”

As head coach from 1977 to 1992 Skaar amassed a 222-49-5 record, nine conference titles and a state championship in 1981. He was also selected to the Dave Bartelma Hall of Fame as a coach in 1998.

The greatness of the program started before Skaar and he’s served as a torch bearer of the program’s philosophy. The wrestling homepage on the Albert Lea High School Web site presents the philosophy of the program and begins with a quote from Aristotle: “Excellence is not an event, it is habit.”

The philosophy is carried on by the entire wrestling staff, but it’s Skaar who placed the quote on the Web site, which he created and maintains. He has a tendency to sprinkle in Greek philosophy into the course of conversation.

Age: 63

Address: 80185 200th Street, Hayward

Livelihood: Albert Lea High School humanities and mathematics teacher, assistant wrestling coach

Family: wife, Jean, sons: Alex and Nate, daughters: Rebecca and Katherine

Interesting fact: He enjoys the opera.

Skaar, who grew up on the family farm in Hayward and continues to live there, teaches mathematics and humanities at Albert Lea in addition to his work with the wrestling team. He also helps maintain the school’s Web site and keeps a detailed history of the wrestling program on the Web site.

Teaching both mathematics and humanities is the perfect fit for Skaar, who majored in both subjects at Luther College. He finds the two subjects similar despite that the two subjects are believed to use different sides of the brain.

“I don’t see any contradiction there at all,” Skaar said. “They’re all about making connections. Mathematics is nothing more than patterns. It’s like wrestling, recognizing patterns, situations and analyzing them and that’s what you do in literature. You present characters that are in archetypical situations who we’re all familiar with and the author shows how they respond to those situations. Some of the greatest philosophers and theologians were mathematicians.”

Skaaar had his career plan and more calculated before leaving high school and there weren’t many changes along the way.

“By the time I was a senior in high school, I wanted to go to college, I wanted to wrestle, I wanted to be a wrestling coach and I wanted to teach either math or humanities. And I’m doing all of that,” Skaar said. “I pretty much knew what I wanted to do. I also wanted to marry the girl down the road, which I did, and I had that figured out when I was a sophomore. I’m just lucky I made good decisions. Not on any virtue on my part, I was just fortunate to have good options out there.”

The Hayward area has been synonymous with quality wrestlers for decades and Skaar was no different when he joined the Albert Lea team as a sophomore.

He went undefeated his senior season and went on to become a three-time All-American at Luther College, placing fifth as a sophomore, sixth as a junior and third as a senior.

Following his outstanding college career he returned to Albert Lea in 1968 and the wrestling program as an assistant coach. He originally intended to teach mathematics, but the only teaching position available at Albert Lea was one in the English department.

After Ehrhard left the program, Skaar came on as head coach. He never intended to become a head coach, but felt he could help continue the program on the track it was on.

“It was daunting at first, mostly because I didn’t really want to be head coach,” Skaar said. “I didn’t want all that responsibility. I wanted to be part of the program but I was perfectly happy being assistant coach. I took the job because I wanted to see Albert Lea wrestling continue to be good. I was pretty sure I could facilitate that.”

Skaar said he didn’t feel any pressure to continue the tradition, but instead believed if he did the things that needed to be done winning would take care of itself.

Having long serving coaches will also keep that tradition in place.