The Daily Dispatch

Lee Nagel walked into the teachers lounge at Wahpeton High School last week and sat down.

Nagel, 59, reflected on a life of teaching and coaching that will officially come to an end on June 13. Unofficially, Nagel will always be coaching and teaching students the games he loves.

In February, Nagel announced his retirement after 37 years. It's a career that has taken him from New Salem, N.D. to Dickinson, Langdon and finally Wahpeton.

Nagel was born and raised on a farm and ranch west of New Salem, and spent his formative years attending a one-room school house near the farm, riding the family horses to school in good weather. He attended New Salem High School and got involved in sports.

"I give credit to my parents," Nagel said. "They encouraged us kids to get involved in extra-curricular activities and they did a lot of extra work around the farm so that we could be involved."

Nagel is the second oldest in a family of seven kids — four brothers and two sisters. After high school, Nagel went to Dickinson State University, where he studied to be a teacher and was involved in sports. With his degree in hand, Nagel went to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and received his master's degree in teaching.

"My father gave me good advice. He asked me who I admired," Nagel said. "Well, I admired my coaches, so I always wanted to get into coaching. I went to school to be a teacher and a coach. Coaching is what drew me to college."

After college, Nagel spent his first four years as a teacher in Langdon, starting in 1972. For the final three years in Langdon, Nagel taught alongside a woman he had met in college. The woman became Mrs. Barb Nagel in June, 1973.

In 1976, a teaching position opened up in Wahpeton and while Lee taught in the public school system, Barb taught for one year at the Circle of Nations School.

Nagel taught health and physical education as well as serving as head coach for cross country and assisting with wrestling and track.

As assistant wrestling coach under then head coach Bud Schmitz, Nagel said he learned a lot.

"Bud was an unbelievable mentor. He said the main thing was to have fun and he felt it was really important to keep your family involved," Nagel said. "Bud also taught me to have respect, especially for the officials. You may not agree with their call, and they may not change their call, but you can question them in such a way that they'll realize you're upset."

When Schmitz retired from coaching wrestling in 1980, Nagel stepped in and started a 14-year run as the head coach. In 1986, Nagel was looking for an assistant coach, so he called Dickinson State to see if they knew someone who could fill the job. The name that was brought up was Kelly McNary.

"It was the right time, because I had just finished my student teaching at Williston Junior High School," McNary said. "I went to school with Lee's brothers Clay and Jeff. But they didn't have a teaching position open, so I taught in Gwinner."

Lee's brothers Clay and Jeff are both coaches. Jeff coaches in Montana, and Clay is head wrestling coach at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.

Nagel retired from coaching wrestling in 1994 and handed the program over to McNary to focus on coaching boys and girls tennis.

Nagel got the best news of his coaching life in 1990, when the tennis coaching positions opened.

"Tennis changed my life," Nagel said. "It came up in a gym class when I was 24 and I didn't know how to play it. Barb helped me because she knew more about the rules of the game than I did."

By age 25, Nagel took an activities class in tennis while at UND and he entered his first tournament at age 26.

"Like wrestling, tennis is an individual sport," Nagel said. "You may not have more talent than your opponent, but if you work hard, you can out-condition them and get them in the end."

Nagel, who has entered many amateur tournaments, has won 49 different titles in age-group tournaments, including nine gold medals at the Prairie Rose State Games. Nagel has also been named North Dakota tennis coach of the year five times. But, for all his accomplishments, Nagel would rather talk about his players and his family.

Wade, his oldest son, Amy and Will have all excelled in sports. However, Nagel missed a lot of their accomplishments because of his coaching duties.

"I feel kind of bad that I missed some of that stuff. My family sacrificed a lot to let me coach other kids," Nagel said. "Wade won three events at the KT Smith Track Meet, while I was coaching at a regional meet.”

Nagel was coaching at an EDC wrestling tournament in Devils Lake when Amy had won three medals in figure skating.

But Barb took lots of pictures and Nagel said he took time to go over all the events with his kids.

With Nagel's retirement, he said he'll miss the students and his fellow teachers.

But he's looking forward to doing the things he's been missing out on. He plans to go on an elk hunt in October with his brother in Montana. He also plans to go to New York for the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Of course, there will be more time to spend at the lake and with his granddaughter.

"I don't feel burned out. I just thought it was time to give the kids a younger coach," Nagel said. "I'm going to miss the relationships I've developed with the athletes. I didn't want to wait until I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't want to be 'dead weight.'"

For McNary, Nagel is a mentor.

"He's taught me so much, and the kids sure are going to miss him," McNary said. "He taught me to be patient with athletes and to not give up on them. He's very well-liked and well-respected by the students, the athletes and the staff."

Nagel just hopes that after 37 years as a teacher and a coach, his students had a positive experience.

"I hope all of my teams were thought of as being hard working, showed excellent sportsmanship and strive to be fair and play with enthusiasm."

And as Nagel gets up from the table to go home after another day at a job he loves, he said he felt humbled that people were giving him so much attention.

As for Nagel, he is much more comfortable talking about his family, his students and his friends.

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