ESPN reporter and Grand Junction resident Steve Cyphers compares his current career story to that of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.
Cyphers, 53, stepped down from ESPN to spend the early part of this decade at Holy Family School as a teacher. After putting the teaching on a hold to return to ESPN in 2005, Cyphers will be back teaching this fall at Holy Family.
“First this guy goes to teach, then he goes back to ESPN, then he comes back to teaching,” Cyphers said jokingly. “I think people are getting tired of seeing it.”
In all seriousness, Cyphers is returning to the classroom for the right reasons. He wants to spend more time with his wife Carolyn and children, Sam, 11, and Laren, 14, as well as fulfill a love of teaching garnered from his first stint at Holy Family.
“It is exciting because middle school kids are a fascinating human,” said Cyphers, who will teach language arts and speech. “I love to see learning taking place.”
Cyphers added his son had some of the most important input because Cyphers would most likely get to teach his English classes.
“I want to be able to teach something I know I can teach kids, and if I couldn’t teach English, I wouldn’t be teaching,” Cyphers said.
But different from the first time around, Cyphers will still work for ESPN in a limited fashion. He will do stories during the summer as well as retain his most notable beat, covering the Triple Crown horse races. Cyphers said both ESPN and the administration at Holy Family are good about working together.
“In the contract it says the production team will try to make exceptions for my teaching job,” Cyphers said. “This is kind of a one year experiment to see how it goes.”
Cyphers said although he will have to miss a few days of school in May, it will provide a teaching point.
“How bad is it to say to the kids, ‘You are going to have a substitute on Friday and I am going to be earning money using what we talk about every day,’ ” Cyphers said. “But sometimes a kid will come back and say ‘Mr. Cyphers I saw that story on Outside the Lines. Why do you still have a job?’ ”
Kidding aside, another area that has allowed Cyphers to teach and work for ESPN at the same time is the fact he will be able to do most of his stories from home. At times, producers will be able to do interviews, then Cyphers will write the scripts for the pieces. He added the advancement in technology in the past six years is a big reason why he will be able to stay at home.
In Cyphers’ last go-round at Holy Family he was involved in coaching volleyball, boys and girls basketball and track. However, he said he isn’t sure if the athletic director, his brother Pete, would ask him back.
“My record last time wasn’t that stellar,” Cyphers said. “But depending on where coaches are needed, I will probably help out.”
