Holstrom to retire to Arizona after 14 years in West Linn

Elise Brown
April 17, 2013

Finishing up a career that has encompassed teaching, administration and coaching sports from basketball to football to golf to tennis, Rob Holstrom, assistant principal of athletics and activities, is retiring at the end of this year. In an e-mail sent to faculty members on April 9, Holstrom announced his plans to move to Arizona to be closer to his daughter Ashley and son Ryne. Ryne was recently hired as the Boulder Creek High School boys basketball coach and biology teacher, and Holstrom will join him as an assistant on the coaching staff.

“After 33 years in education and the last 21 spent as an Athletic Director, I will be looking forward to returning to the coaching ranks as an assistant without all the pressure,” Holstrom said.

Holstrom was originally planning to work for one more year until his retirement, but shortly after Ryne offered him the assistant coach position, he met with his financial adviser to determine how to make it work. Holstrom and his wife, a teacher at Boones Ferry Primary School, will be living separately for a year as she needs to work for a total of 30 years to receive unreduced benefits from the Public Employees Retirement System.

“I’m only 54,” Holstrom said, “so I’m still fairly young to retire.”

This move is one of many Holstrom has made in his career. He has said that he doesn’t enjoy sitting in one position for very long. His career has taken him from teaching math and business at Mapleton, a small high school on the Oregon Coast, to coaching basketball and directing athletics at St. Helens High School — another “home of the Lions” — to administration at West Linn. He has also been a member of the Oregon Athletic Directors Association, serving as its president in 2006.

All the while, Holstrom has enjoyed many fond memories, such as when Mapleton qualified for two boys basketball state championships in 1984 and 1985. That feeling of the school community coming together to support their athletes came back when West Linn won the 2013 state championships. He finds that the relationships he forms with students and athletes are the most memorable aspect of his educational career.

“There are all kinds of special moments,” Holstrom said. “There’s no definite moment; there’s more of a feeling when students and student athletes get it. They know what they’re getting out of the other, non-academic half of their day, the other half of the educational piece when you apply what you learn. That’s when you start learning about life.”

The relationships he has formed with fellow faculty members have also been memorable.

“Rob has a gentle heart and a great sense of humor,” Michelle Olson, counselor, said, “which makes it easy to work with him.”

He’s excited to be closer to his son, “supporting him from the cheap seats,” as well as to his daughter, the CEO of a high-profile Las Vegas cake decorating company, and any children Ashley or Ryne may have in the future.

The process of choosing a new athletic director will begin this summer.

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About the Contributor

Elise Brown, Co Editor-in-Chief

Elise Brown, senior, has always felt comfortable standing up and giving her opinion in front of everyone and for the most part, she enjoys it very much. That is one of the many reasons why she heads the debate team, and also why in June she earned a place in the National Speech and Debate Competition in Indianapolis.

Out of the 250 people entered in the competition, she finished 151st in the country. Before she earned her rightful place in Nationals, however, she needed to prove herself in Districts and State.

Her 10 minute long speech about socialism and its benefits took first and second in Districts and State, respectively.

“In the National competition the judges didn’t appreciate politics or controversy as much as they did in Districts and State,” Brown said. This was confirmed from one of the judges she conversed with in order to find out what she could do better.

Brown’s interest in current events started in the eighth grade. She then did the Amplifier, the high school newspaper to help communicate her ideas about the world with her fellow peers, she also did the debate team to better understand the problems throughout the world and learn how to solve them somewhat.

“Debate involves knowing what is going on in the world,” Brown said.

This year for upcoming competitions, she has a speech in the works that she feels will top her last one. This year’s speech is about interdependence inspired by the “you didn’t build that debate,” caused when President Barack Obama told business people that they did not create their businesses on their own.

Brown’s passion for debate has influenced what college she will go to, what she will study in college, and what she wants to do in her life. Brown’s goal is to graduate high school and then travel to Massachusetts and attend Wellesley College, a very well known and prestigious college, where Brown hopes to study political science.

To achieve this goal she has taken part in a number of rigorous courses and activities such as Speech and Debate, AP Government, AP Economics, Honors Law, AP English and journalism. Once Brown achieves her education goals, her next goal is to become a political commentator.

“I want to change people’s minds,” Brown said. Brown has chosen the path to become a political commentator because she believes political power lies with the media.

Brown has worked very hard throughout high school and continues to work hard through her senior year. She has taken many challenging courses to achieve her goal of going to Wellesley, and will need to continue down the very rigorous path to success to accomplish her goals.