Richard Gaard
Decorah High School
Impact Statement
“If you can gain respect, even though you’re an authority figure, they’ll follow you. It goes two ways, you need to respect (athletes’) desires and show concern.” -R. Gaard
Biography
Gaard has coached golf and basketball at Decorah for 36 seasons. His golf teams have won nine Northeast Iowa Conference championships, 13 district titles and nine regional crowns, and his career record is 333-123-11. A co-founder and the Northeast Iowa representative to the Iowa High School Golf Coaches Association, he was selected as its Coach of the Year in 2007, and he has been named conference Coach of the Year 10 times.
The National Federation of State High School Associations named him Coach of the Year this year. Gaard also was the school’s head boys’ basketball coach from 1995-2000 and coached both its boys’ and girls’ teams. He coached the Class 3A Iowa Dr. Pepper All-Star Team in 1998, served five years on the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association Board of Directors and was a volunteer assistant coach for the Luther College women’s basketball team in 2004-05.
A retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, he was attached to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, Washington D.C. In 2004, Col. Gaard was one of seven American officers to take part in the multi-national peacemaking exercise at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany.
Since being honored, Gaard is still in control of the Decorah’s boys’ golf team. In 2012 his team won another 3A Iowa State Championship. In 2016 the boys’ won the coveted Washington Individual title.
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