Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
It’s been 20 years since Nate Tyler walked the gym floor at Sweet Home High School.
He’s back. Among a large percentage of new staff members who graduated from Sweet Home High School is Tyler, the school’s new assistant principal and athletic director.
In addition to sports, Tyler, 37, will share discipline duties with the Assistant Principal Chris Hiaasen and support career and technical education (CTE) programs at the high school.
“I’m proud of this hire,” said Supt. Tom Yahraes. “Nate is a Sweet Home-grown young man. He graduated from Sweet Home High School. He went off to college and had teaching experience and administrative experience elsewhere. He will be able to bring this experience to his home town.
Tyler is a 2000 graduate of Sweet Home High School who made his name on the basketball court for the Huskies, who placed second in state his junior year, 1998-99, and fourth his senior year, 1999-2000 – back when the main gym was located where the school library is today.
Tyler moved to Sweet Home with his family when he was in about the third grade, he said. After graduating high school, he attended Chemeketa Community College for two years and then George Fox University. He transferred to Western Oregon University after he finished playing college basketball.
Tyler married his high school sweetheart, Amy Shank, in 2003. The two began dating when they were freshmen.
He completed a bachelor’s degree in biology in 2005 and immediately began working on his master’s degree in education, which he earned at WOU in 2007.
While Tyler was working on his master’s degree, he taught at Fairview Christian School in Albany. He completed his student teaching at McNary High School in Keizer. Madras School District hired him as a high school science teacher in 2007-08.
“I loved Madras,” Tyler said. It shares some similarities with Sweet Home. The city is a little smaller, but the area it serves is large, and the high school is around the same size. The population is 70 percent Hispanic or native American. The district faces similar challenges with poverty, homelessness and special education.
He taught at all levels at Madras High School for five years, Tyler said, and he learned a lot quickly. He spent the next six years as vice principal, and last year, he was the building principal at Bridges High School, the alternative high school in Madras.
Moving back to Sweet Home “was never part of the plan,” he said. “Amy and I were happy being in Central Oregon.”
Having children changes priorities, and they decided they wanted to be in a town that shares their values around their family. They started talking about coming back to Sweet Home two or three years ago.
“There has to be an opening, and it has to be the right fit,” Tyler said.
That opening came this year when Sweet Home Junior High Vice Principal Terry Augustadt announced he was leaving to take a job in Marcola as an elementary principal and Mark Looney moved from the high school to the junior high to fill the position there vacated by Augustadt.
“I’m super excited,” Tyler said. “It feels pretty special. I went into education to coach and teach. I went into the administrative side earlier than I planned. At some point, I wanted to do athletics.
“I had a talk with my wife and said I want to reset here and go after the AD thing. I feel completely humbled and very, very fortunate to be able to be athletic director here at Sweet Home.”
Tyler said he went into education under the influence of men like Larry Johnson, Rob Younger and Mark Risen. Johnson was athletic director, and Younger and Risen were teachers and coaches.
“It’s interesting to hear the stories of these people from the adult side” after experiencing the student perspective, Tyler said.
“When (Larry Johnson) speaks, you listen,” Tyler said. “He had the respect of a lot of students.”
As a sophomore, Johnson repeated a quote to him, Tyler said. “I had no idea what it means.”
Then a couple weeks later during basketball practice, he was getting after a couple of guys, “and it became clear,” Tyler said. “He had a huge impact. I can only hope to fill the shoes.”
In Madras, Tyler supervised career and technical education for seven years, he said. It was handed to him, and he quickly warmed to it, started two and a half of the programs in Madras, represented it to the School Board and community and helped build relationships and pathways into the community.
“I love CTE,” Tyler said. “It’s kind of what we all want education to be. You learn these skills you apply to your career.”
Overseeing SHHS’s CTE, his job will focus on building relationships with industry in the community, he said.
While CTE has dedicated funding at the state and federal level, it’s not a lot of money. Schools struggled to keep up with industry. Finding resources for the programs is important to keep them up to date.
The programs develop advisory groups to ensure that what the high school is doing is up to speed with changes in the industries, Tyler said. It starts with finding people who aren’t afraid to chime in.
He will continue that kind of work here in Sweet Home.
“I’m very excited,” Tyler said. “I’m thrilled. I’m very happy to be back. I couldn’t have timed it any better. Sweet Home has some wonderful things going. To be back in town with family and friends is very special.”
Amy Tyler is a 2000 graduate of SHHS. She was a nurse at St. Charles hospital in Redmond for 12 years, 11 of them in the medical-surgical unit before transferring to same-day surgery.
She was a charge nurse for four to five years. This summer she went to work for Samaritan Health in Albany.
The Tylers have two sons, Gavin, 10, and Mason, 9.
“He has a vested interest, being from Sweet Home,” Yahraes said. “His kids are going to Sweet Home schools. He’s a great complement to our team. He has strong program experience, particularly in the area of CTE.
“He also brings to the team high school administrative, teaching and learning professional practices, which he’ll be able to share with our high school staff, and I just really enjoy Nate’s personality, his spirit and his enthusiasm.”