In a world of eight billion, the ripple effect has become exponential. Many people will never know how dramatically they have changed the lives in their community. Throughout the early years of life, teachers and administrators are in a prime position to help shape the lives of students they come into contact with.

Certainly, hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers have done this throughout the nation. Conrad Crist is different. Even from a young age, Conrad didn’t know his future would lead him to education, let alone a position as Athletic Director.

Looking back at his childhood now, he identified the situation that probably started his love for teaching. During his time at Rocky Mountain High School, as a student, not an administrator, he was tasked to lead a vacation Bible school, directly focusing on helping the younger children. Although he enjoyed this new found freedom and responsibility, many years needed to pass before Mr. Crist could put up his own classroom board.

Education was never on Conrad’s radar throughout most of his undergraduate life. As a student athlete, he was always intrigued with the human body and movement in general. Movement and sports in particular were monumental to Conrad’s early years. He always found himself involved with athletics all throughout his life.

“After the first semester of college, I missed sport. I missed being active. We were playing intramural basketball and all sorts of things like that, but I missed being in a competitive sport.”

After that semester, Conrad made a decision that would set up the rest of his life. He met with the CSU track coach and was told that he could come join the team. Unfortunately, injuries are a part of athletics and Conrad was not fortunate enough to escape this looming danger.

His collegiate athletics career had ended almost as fast as it had begun. Crist now needed to shift his focus and direct his passion into other areas of the sporting world. That is when he found coaching. Coaching Football and Track gave Conrad the final push to pursue more schooling in Education Leadership. This change in trajectory allowed Crist to blend his passions together,

“I was always a math science guy so I [was] thinking, maybe the doctor route. I did that path through my junior year at CSU, but I think what my passion became was more about kids and how I could use movement to help motivate kids and help them accomplish things they never thought possible.”

Now, this passion has been shared with tens of thousands of students over Mr. Crist’s career as an educator. He started his teaching career as an elementary school P.E teacher at Grandview Elementary where he had the chance to explore different subjects and even became a part time librarian for a year. On top of everything, he was asked to assume the head coach position for the Windsor High School Track team.

Along with being the Track coach, Conrad implemented the heath curriculum that is now required for graduation. He was given the opportunity to change schools and start teaching and coaching at Fort Collins High School.

Administration was never the end goal for Conrad as he focused his energy into his passion for teaching. That was until he met with the assistant superintendent in 2019, and began thinking he was ready for an administrative position.

“I had met with him and said, how do I know when I’m ready to get into administration? He said ‘Well, if you’re thinking about it, you’re ready.’ I was like, oh, okay, well, here we go.”

However, the hiring process was not instant as Crist felt humbled throughout the process. Months later, Conrad began his first administration gig at Wellington Middle School. Here, he learned the importance of work life balance, including how to be a father and a role model for his two daughters. At this point, Rocky opened their doors to the alum and Mr. Crist started shaping the culture of Rocky as we know it. He will be forever grateful.

“This place is different. It’s special. I don’t think I realized as a student how special it was, but then when you get in education, you start understanding and feeling the different cultures of different spaces. Rocky is different.”

Conrad truly brings passion to his work. He is the type of role model people aspire to be because of his determination, leadership, and willingness to support others.

“It was never a gift; it was always, ‘How do we work hard to get there?’ So, whether that is teaching elementary school PE or third grade literacy, I was going to embrace it. I just think that there are things that are hard for everybody and sometimes it’s easy to give up, and sometimes you really want to!”

Mr. Crist continues to be a keystone piece to the Rocky Mountain High School administration team as his ripple continues to grow.

“I want to do everything I can so that your four years is the best it can be because you only get four. I can be in education for another 10 or 20 years, but students only get four years of high school.”

Crist’s next job is as Rocky’s principal, having been chosen in February to lead the school after Dr. Woodall’s retirement.