Coaching Streak Ends
Roy Nystrom coached hockey for 51 years. “I have also coached football, baseball, golf and track too,” said Nystrom. Tiger Yearbook
Roy Nystrom and Joe Sczublewski have retired with a combined 89 years of coaching.
Sczublewski has been a head varsity baseball coach for 38 years, 27 in Albert Lea. He has mostly coached in central Minnesota. Sczublewski played baseball as a high schooler; his main positions were pitcher and outfielder.
“I’ve been involved with baseball throughout my whole life,” Sczublewski said. “There are so many situations that vary; there is so much strategy in the game.”
Sczublewski also played football and basketball in high school but he always had the passion for baseball. He says he enjoys it the most, so he went on to play college baseball as well. Seeing kids improve and seeing kids enjoy themselves was Sczublewski favorite part of being a coach.
Sczublewski plans for retirement include staying active.
“In the springtime instead of baseball, a little more golfing, fishing, kayaking, traveling, and watching baseball,” Sczublewski says.
Sczublewski hopes to be in the stands cheering on the Tigers as they continue their season.
Nystrom ended his last season in February as Tiger’s head coach for boys hockey. He loves the sport of hockey and coached for many years. “I have coached for 51 years,” Nystrom says. He has coached other sports besides hockey, including football, baseball, golf and track too.
Nystrom says his favorite part of being a coach was the relationship with the players.
“I played for University of Minnesota in 1961 through ‘65,” said Nystrom. “I also played football, baseball and hockey in high school.”
Just like Sczublewski , Nystrom spent his life surrounded by sports. He grew up playing hockey in Eveleth Minnesota He coached and taught in North Dakota and Grand Forks Central. In his whole career of coaching he has the second most wins for a coach in Minnesota. Albert Lea has 612 of those wins.
Nystrom hopes to play more golf and watch Tiger hockey in his time off; he also plans to watch his two grandsons play up in the Twin Cities.
The new baseball head coach is history teacher Sean Gaston. The boys hockey program has not picked a new head coach yet but will be continuing their search for a new one.
The boys baseball next home game is April 27, and a double header at home on Saturday the 29.