A fundraising table outside of a grocery story changed Mark Cyr’s life 36 years ago.

“Prior to coming to Maine, I was teaching at a private school down in Washington, D.C., and coaching lacrosse,” Cyr said. “I played lacrosse at Springfield College, and when I came to Farmington, one of the first days I was here, I went to Hannaford and there was a young gentleman out there shaking a can, looking for money donations to the Mt. Blue lacrosse club.”

Mark Cyr Submitted photo

Cyr started coaching the Mt. Blue High boys lacrosse team in 1988 as an assistant to Drew Beatty, and eventually became the head coach for 10 years. Then he switched to coaching golf, first as an assistant to Rick Hardy, and then as the head coach. Cyr also agreed to coach the school’s Alpine ski team.

Cyr went on to lead the Cougars to nine Alpine state championships. He was named Maine High School Coach of the Year for 2018-19, and two months ago he was inducted into the Maine Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.

This winter is the first in 20 years that Cyr isn’t leading the Mt. Blue skiers’ quest for more state championships after he stepped down as the Alpine and golf coach prior to the 2024-25 school year.

“It was just time. I’ve been doing it long enough,” Cyr said. “And I want to spend more time with my wife, and so being retired was easier to just stay at home, do some projects and hang out with her.”

Boys lacrosse coach Matt Reynolds has replaced Cyr as the Cougars’ Alpine coach, and Mt. Blue Middle School teacher JT Nutting stepped in as golf coach this fall.

Cyr said the biggest change during his years of coaching the golf and ski teams was roster sizes. There were seasons, he said, that Mt. Blue had 18-20 kids on the golf team, but other times there were as few as one.

“There was one year (in golf) I had a kid named Ryan Nelson,” Cyr said. “He was the only kid on the team, so we obviously couldn’t score, but we still went to matches.”

He laughed and said he remembers asking the athletic director at the time, Chad Brackett, if he could drive Nelson in his truck instead of renting and driving an entire school bus for just the two of them.

Participation varied from season to season in Alpine skiing, as well.

“We had one year where I only had one girl, and then a few years later, we had a full contingent of about eight or nine girls and won a state championship,” Cyr said. “It comes in waves.”

Cyr said he stayed in the coaching realm for over two decades because of the support from the Farmington community, parents, students and Mt. Blue administrators and faculty. Farmington’s proximity to ski mountains only added to the allure of coaching the Cougars. Titcomb Mountain is only 10 minutes from the Mt. Blue campus.

“I liked coaching the kids here at Mt. Blue, and I liked the community and how much they helped, especially at Titcomb,” Cyr said. “It’s a real community-centered facility, and always a lot of help. It was pretty easy to put on races and coach the kids when you’ve got so much support there.”

Former Mt. Blue High Alpine ski coach Mark Cyr watches his racers come down the giant slalom course at the KVAC championships at Black Mountain in Rumford in 2021. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Added Cyr: “The commitment that the skiers put in is just crazy. I mean, being out on the hill, cold and windy and sometimes wet; for them to do that and put the time in and be as successful as they were, it’s just it was great.”

The school’s administrators appreciated Cyr’s efforts.

“Mark was a dedicated Alpine coach who ignited a passion for the sport and fostered a spirit of perseverance,” said Mt. Blue athletic director Cyndi Pratt. “He took over an extremely successful Alpine ski team and seamlessly carried on the dominance for Mt. Blue on the slopes.”

What’s next

Cyr may be finished with high school skiing, but he’s not done coaching. He plans to rebuild the Buddy Werner program, a race-oriented program at Titcomb Mountain in which high school kids coach young skiers. It’s typically 6- to 7-year-old skiers, who work on drills and skills and start racing competitively. It blended with the Dartmouth Race, which is a club ski race at Titcomb, and while the Dartmouth race continued on, the Werner program started to fizzle.

Cyr also is hoping to coach the U-18 kids program at Saddleback Mountain on the weekends.

When reflecting on his two decades of coaching, Cyr said the titles and accolades aren’t what will stick with him most.

“It means more to me that these kids learn to love just skiing after they leave the Mt. Blue ski program,” Cyr said. “Conference and state championships, those are all well and good when you’re there, but, most importantly, I love to hear about the kids that continue skiing; even if they’re just free skiing, they still love skiing. That’s more important to me than anything.”