"Once you are a wrestler, it never really leaves you. It becomes part of your psyche and a part of who you are.”

For Greg Geer ’76, a wrestler since the seventh grade, wrestling and the lessons he learned throughout his involvement in athletics have helped shape his outlook on life and given him the tools for a successful career as a school superintendent in the Rochester, NY, area.

Geer came to Potsdam to wrestle. He majored in history with the intention of being a teacher and a wrestling coach. Fortunately for Potsdam, but unfortunately for Geer, he wrestled alongside All-American and NCAA National Champion Tony Peraza ’76. Peraza and Geer were in the same weight class and spent their practices wrestling each other. Peraza’s talent often put him over Geer in the lineup.

While most athletes would find this frustrating, Geer turned it into a positive. “Everyday I went to practice and wrestled with a National Champion. It really instilled in me the whole idea of perseverance and that sometimes things aren’t going to go your way,” he said.

“Greg could have transferred and been a top wrestler at another institution,” former Wrestling Coach Neil Johnson remembers. “But he stayed at Potsdam. Challenging Tony and getting into the lineup at any weight where his team needed him. Most young men would quit the program in such a situation.”

Geer's legacy at Potsdam: Received the 2007 St. Lawrence Academy Medal in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of professional education Joined the School of Education’s Alumni Board, meeting semi-annually with teaching faculty and other education practitioners to share their perspectives on the future of education Involved with the Neil and Marilyn Johnson Scholarship, honoring his coach and mentor

Geer’s goal in life was never to be a professional wrestler; it was to be a teacher and a coach. Over the course of his career as an educator, he has accomplished these goals and attributes much of his success to what he learned at his Potsdam wrestling practices.

“Not only did you learn from your coaches, but you learned from each other, and I learned a ton of wrestling at Potsdam. Later, I incorporated the lessons I learned into my coaching, and they have been passed down to kids who are learning from me,” he said.

As superintendent, Geer cannot currently coach, but he is an approved volunteer coach for the Byron-Bergen wrestling team. “I go down a couple times a week and work with the kids. I work a lot with the younger kids who are just starting to learn the fundamentals. Every once in a while I will dust off my wrestling shoes and have a little fun. It’s a different way for the kids to see me.”

Wrestling wasn’t the only athletic influence Potsdam had on Geer’s life. He was also one of the founding members of the Potsdam lacrosse team in 1973. Beginning as a club sport, lacrosse became a varsity team by Geer’s senior year in 1976.

“I am very proud of the legacy we left with lacrosse,” Greer noted. “I was the captain of the first varsity team, and I actually scored the first goal in Potsdam history.”

After 30 years of teaching and coaching at the elementary and high school level, Geer is retiring in July and is hoping to transition to higher education. There is no doubt that he will apply the lessons he has learned from his coaches and teammates at Potsdam to teaching his future students.