(with content provided by Horizon School Division)

 

Horizon School Division’s Wall of Fame just got a little more populated with the inclusion of Saskatchewan Roughriders’ CEO Craig Reynolds. Reynolds is a product of Foam Lake Composite School, and over the years, he’s retained a connection between himself and his home community. 

Reynolds has been at the helm of one of Canada’s most successful sports franchises, the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club, since 2015. Craig’s childhood memories of growing up in Foam Lake are highlighted by family trips to cheer on the Riders, and he remembers Dave Ridgeway’s kick in the 1989 Grey Cup like it was yesterday. With his small town upbringing and love of football, he knows the meaning of bleeding green.

Reynolds ventured to Arizona State University and the U of S for a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Master of Professional Accounting. 

He undertook a role with the Riders as the Chief Financial Officer. Under his stewardship in that role, and as president and CEO, the club has emerged as one of the most financially successful in the CFL and one of Canadian sports’ most recognized brands. 

With his trademark humility and humour, Reynolds addressed the audience at Horizon’s Celebration Day, commenting on the accolade.

“I’ve never been inducted into anything,” Reynolds chuckled. “So this is a great thrill and an honour for me. I can tell you with absolute certainty that after a Roughrider loss, there isn’t a single person in the province who wants to induct me into anything. In fact, they want to induct me straight out of the province.”

Reynold’s joked that the only possible exception was his induction into the “Math Wall of Fame” housed in the back of high school teacher Graham Farrell’s classroom. He recalled an instance where acclaimed receiver and former Rider Weston Dressler accompanied Reynolds to Foam Lake Comp for a student visit. Dressler found Reynold’s picture adorning the wall and mistook it as an award for Reynold’s football prowess. Reynold’s was distressed when his former math teacher blew his cover and professed it was indeed for Craig’s exceptional math skills. 

Reynolds reflected on the values ingrained in his hometown, and in many rural Saskatchewan communities, and how those values impacted him. 

“Some of those that immediately come to mind for me growing up in Foam Lake are hard work, commitment, and just how people treat others there. There’s a kindness, there’s a caring, there’s a neighbourly element to it, which nowadays is kind of a lost art.”

It’s led Reynolds to a kind of value-based leadership in his organization that harkens back to his upbringing. He also promotes the importance of education and talked about the parallels between the worlds of teaching and coaching with a couple well known examples. 

“Two of the best coaches I’ve had the opportunity to work with are Ken Miller and Craig Dickenson. To me, what makes them great is that they’re really effective teachers. They’re really good at getting complicated plays or messages across. Coach Dickenson comes by it naturally as both his parents were teachers in Montana.”

It’s the inspiration to improve that both great teachers and great coaches provide that makes all the difference, explained Reynolds. With Craig it was the effort of teachers like Graham Farrell to push him to excel in math that opened up the prospects Reynolds has enjoyed. 

“I had some really good teachers in Foam Lake that instilled a level of confidence in me that I could achieve things like live overseas or go to an American university at a really young age.”

There’s a sense of small town volunteerism that Craig has carried with him. He’s served on the board of directors for the Red Cross and Globe Theatre. He represents the Saskatchewan Roughriders on the Canadian Football League’s Board of Governors as an alternate governor. 

Craig Reynolds joins the Horizon School Division Wall of Fame as a testament to commitment to education, excellence and values-based leadership.