From the Gridiron to Climbing Trees at Algonquin College

Posted on Monday, November 13th, 2023

Football is a tough sport and some would argue the ultimate team sport. The X’s and O’s that make up the play sheet for a game is heavily reliant on everyone doing their job, but there’s one position that is critical to the success of the team-the quarterback role.

Ryan Pyear has held that position and 18 years after he steered Wilfrid Laurier university to a Vanier Cup title, he has called an audible and is trying to re-set his career at Algonquin College’s Pembroke Waterfront Campus. The former football star who was named the most valuable player when his Golden Hawks defeated the Saskatchewan Huskies in the 2005 national championship game is far removed from the grid iron, having turned in his football jersey for climbing boots, ropes and a hard hat. These days he spends most of his time climbing trees and learning from his professors as a student in the Urban Forestry-Arboriculture program.

Now in his early 40’s, Pyear has made a bold move to switch careers. Like football, he has found a new passion, one that is far removed from his more traditional roles that have involved office work and ironically recruiting students to post secondary education. After graduating with a Kinesiology degree from Laurier, he returned to the sidelines as a coach for the school’s football program for the next seven years. He then joined the student recruitment office, eventually moving across town to the University of Waterloo where he continued to work as a recruiter, but the years of office work and travel started to wear on him and he looked elsewhere for new career pathways. That’s what brought him to the Pembroke campus.

“I was at a point where I was unhappy working inside most of the time. I’ve always loved trees and nature and wanted to spend more time outside so I decided to make a change before it was too late. I looked around and the Urban Forestry-Arboriculture program had everything I was looking for so I decided to choose happiness over money and take a leap,” says Pyear.

It literally was a leap. In his football days, Pyear would look down a field and try to identify what the defence was going to do once the ball was snapped. These days, he finds himself high above the ground with a unique perspective of nature’s beauty as he learns the art of climbing trees. It’s technical work where safety is paramount, but Pyear has found there is a correlation to his five years of playing university football.

“As a QB I learned to simplify things and just focus on the task at hand. That’s helped me when I’m in the tree, especially when doing climbing exams 50 or more feet above the ground. I also learned to identify what I need to improve at, which has transferred nicely into the program. There’s also the competitive nature of it and wanting to be better than I was yesterday. There’s no shortage of skills to learn and improve on,” says Pyear.

When you speak to Pyear about his football legacy, his face lightens up. It was a special time in his life, and now years later with more life experience to draw on, he has set himself up for a new challenge. Like football, climbing trees is physically demanding, but he is enjoying the experience.

“The program is both challenging and extremely interesting. We have ideal instructors and although I’m a fair bit older than my classmates, I find them more relatable than what I experienced in my old profession. I love the city too. I’m always down by the waterfront or exploring somewhere, and I’ve met some amazing people just out and about that I end up speaking with for sometimes close to an hour,” says Pyear.

Pyear is a long way from the former Ivor Wynne stadium in Hamilton where he became a hero at Wildrid Laurier university on an early December night almost two decades ago by engineering a game winning drive that gave him and his teammates a chance to lift the Vanier Cup above their heads. With the clock winding down, Pyear got his team into field goal range, leading to a climactic 24-23 win over the Huskies.

The performance not only resulted in Pyear being named the most valuable player of the national championship game, it also made him an All Canadian quarterback for the second time in his playing career and earned him a first ballot introduction to the Legends of Laurier Football Ring of Honour.

But that was then. Pyear will still pick up a football occasionally and throw it around with friends, but the grid iron is far removed from his thoughts. He has a new game plan now, one that is focused on being an arborist, a career that has replaced cheering fans with the stillness of nature. It’s a contrast that Pyear has embraced. He’s turned the page and is writing a new chapter in his life story.

(Posted by Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs)

 


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