YORKTON – A local school teacher was recently honoured by the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association with the 2024 SHSAA Service Award.

Sacred Heart High School’s Athletic Director Garrett Karcha was acknowledged by the organization for his dedication to high school sports at the local and provincial level.

“I was very honoured,” said Karcha in an interview with SaskToday.ca, “You start to reflect on some of these things and think about all the people that had influences on your life as a coach and teacher.”

Having worked at SHHS for the past 15 years, Karcha has been the Athletic Director for the past 12 and is currently their head football coach and coach of track and field, though Karcha said he’s coached pretty much everything during his time with the school. 

But even prior to that, Karcha said, he was already involved with coaching for SHHS basketball, having helped coach teams while he took classes at the Parkland College as far back as the year 2000.

“I’ve been kind of all over the place recently because I’ve also coached in the community,” said Karcha, adding that baseball and hockey are among the sports he’s involved with in the community outside of school.

“It’s taken changes depending on where I’m needed and what works throughout my schedule now because — having kids of my own — your schedules kind of change for what works for you and your family,” said Karcha.

Karcha said his influence in how he’s approached sport in school can be accredited to past teachers and coaches for their involvement when he was a youth, noting his seventh grade teacher Steve Kozicki was “a very strong influence.”

“He valued sport alongside of education. When we would finish our assignments early he would let us go to the gym or let us go outside and play a game or play badminton or something like that. It was pretty cool,” said Karcha.

When Karcha attended high school at SHHS in the late 90s and early 2000s, he said it was Mark Lang who helped him understand the importance of sports in schools.

“In high school Mark Lang was my phys-ed teacher and he was the Athletic Director when I was going to school here,” said Karcha, adding, “he developed a lot of strong relationships with his athletes and that’s still something I try and do today.”

As for the future, Karcha said he wants to continue “to put importance on physical activity and making the connection between extra-carricular programming and school.”

“I think a lot of us remember school but a lot of our relationships that we have with our teachers and our classmates and our friends were developed by being parts of teams. Whether it be sports, drama, yearbook or SRC — those kinds of things,” said Karcha.

“I think it just the continuing of putting an importance on our kids getting involved in our schools and being active and trying to develop those relationships through rapport with the teachers and the students and one another. That to me brings full well-rounded individuals into our society and we continue understanding the importance of being active,” said Karcha.

“What I do is my dream job. I couldn’t ask for a more rewarding thing to do in life. To watch kids grow and work alongside them later in life and just see how they develop with relationships with students and their families as well. I’m really happy with the opportunity to be a phys-ed teacher at my old high school and continue on providing that to other students.”