Classroom or Coach: Humpal Brothers Shape Amery’s Youth

These fields were their start of competitive juices and sporting nature. Along with baseball, hockey was another sport the two enjoyed as kids. Matt shared, “We would get dropped off by the outdoor rinks (now the Amery Hospital and Clinic parking) by the water tower. During Christmas break, Ryan would’ve been eight and I would’ve been ten and we’d get dropped off with $5 for pizza lunch and there’d be kids from our age, all the way to the seniors and we’d play with those kids all day long… You think on it, and that’s what drove a lot of athletes in this town.”

After graduating from Amery High School in 1999 and 2001, Matt (‘01) and Ryan (’99), Ryan attended the University of Minnesota, Duluth in pursuit to become a pharmacist and Matt attended the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire to become a teacher. Aside from schoolwork, Matt and Ryan certainly began their coaching careers quickly. Matt began coaching and teaching in the Unity School District where he was there for eleven years and began teaching in Amery in 2017. However, he began coaching hockey at Amery in 2001 with 8^th graders and will enter this year as his 18^th year as an assistant for the high school hockey program. While in Unity, Matt coached baseball for twelve years, one year as the assistant and eleven years as the head baseball coach. Matt has also been an assistant coach for Amery baseball for six years. Similar to Matt, Ryan was a coach for the Luck School District prior to coming to Amery to teach. Ryan coached both football and baseball at Luck, and is an assistant for the Amery hockey team, as well as the head football coach for the Amery Warriors. The two have even coached against one another about fourteen times dating back to their time at Unity and Luck school districts. The two agree, Matt has the upper hand, but it seemed nearly every game was close and competitive.

With their coaching experience along, Matt and Ryan have had tremendous impacts on the lives of kids they have coached. As teachers, the two have had an even wider net to impact youth within the community. Ryan, a science teacher in Amery High School, didn’t quite take the conventional route, with prior aspirations of becoming a pharmacist, but he agrees that coaching and teaching is what he is called to do. Ryan stated coaching middle school hockey players and seeing their development as graduates of AHS is when he knew teaching and coaching was his calling. Matt on the other hand, recognized teaching was what he was meant to do during his senior year of high school. He said, “For me, I knew when I was a senior in high school. It seems like an odd thing, but Mr. Johnson was my calculus teacher, and he was also the tennis coach, so he was gone all the time during the season for sectional and state tennis (tournaments). I remember it, we were just starting to work on derivatives and there was no one to teach us how to do it, so I figured it out and essentially taught the class. From that day on, I knew I loved it.”

As they’ve rattled off years of coaching and teaching, both Humpal brothers agree, the connection between coaching and teaching is often quite similar. Ryan mentioned how being able to be in the classroom with students who are your athletes is an advantage. Being able to build the relationship is an advantage that translates to the field. While Matt agrees, he added stating he’s able to apply his teaching principles to the ice or field, while taking what he knows about coaching and applying it to his teaching style.

During my chat with Matt and Ryan, I couldn’t help but notice, when one brother was sharing his response, the other brother would be glancing out to the ice and watching the players skate, pass, and shoot. To say their all-in on Warrior students and athletics is an understatement. Their investment in the kids, athletic programs, and school district are second to none. Matt and Ryan Humpal were born here, helped make this community what it is today, and now are helping the next generation in the classroom and on the playing field. Their dedication and impact is visible and that visibility will continue to become more clear with each graduating class.