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Cuyler McKnight is back on the baseball field or in the classroom honing his academic skills. Or on another field leading a snappy marching drill with his fellow cadets.

He’s in the middle of things, expected to come up with a key hit on the baseball diamond or to lead his platoon in an awesome drill on another field. Sometimes, he’s the guy who covers for a fellow cadet to keep him out of trouble.

That was yesteryear, when McKnight’s field of dreams led to a military career and later successes in the jewelry business and as a community college administrator.

McKnight loved those challenges.

The Georgia boy was noted for coming through in the clutch as a player and as a leader who didn’t blink when decisions had to be made in the heat of his military career, in business or on the college campus.

Now 61, his close-cropped hair gray, his 6-2 , 197-pound frame still the same as in his prime days as a cadet and athlete, McKnight said he doesn’t fear the challenges facing him as the new president of Oak Ridge Military Academy. Never mind that just months ago the school was deep in debt and on the verge of closing down.

McKnight left his job as executive vice president of GTCC to return to the rudiments of his youth. Four years in a military high school, four years at a military college and 25 years in the Army, where he became a major, have prepared him for perhaps his toughest challenge yet.

McKnight smiles when asked why he would give up a cozy job for an insecure one. “This is what I have been preparing for; I couldn’t turn it down,” he said.

It’s education, military, the spirit of youth, business and athletics wrapped in a single bundle.

McKnight credits a new Oak Ridge Military Academy board of directors with keeping the doors open and helping the academy begin another academic year.

“We’ve got people who want to make this thing work,” he said. “It was hard to say 'no’ when I saw the trustees’ enthusiasm for the school.”

He said he’s pleased to see the possibilities of “how outstanding the school can become again.”

The school already is making progress in settling its financial difficulties, McKnight said. By Dec. 8, all former and present teachers and staff who weren’t paid all of their salaries for past work were paid in full, he said.

Already $650,000 has been raised to help retire major debts and meet expenses.

Oak Ridge has reduced its indebtedness for operating expenses to about $120,000. The school also has a $4.5 million mortgage for construction of a classroom building in 2001, he said.

“We are expecting other gifts of $200,000 fairly soon,” McKnight said.

“We expect to have the $120,000 paid by the end of March, and then we can start concentrating on paying more on that mortgage,” he said.

For the school to operate without depending on contributions, enrollment must grow steadily from the present 67 students, he said. “We expect at least another eight students in January, but we’re shooting to have a total of 90 students this month. We are hoping that some students who left when they thought the academy was going to close will come back. We have a goal of from 120 to 130 students enrolled by this fall,” he said.

“We want 250 students, and that probably is four years out,” McKnight said

The academic requirements are strong, and McKnight said he is “extremely impressed” by the quality of teachers and staff in the academy. “There has been created already an air of academic excellence. That was in place long before I came here,” he said.

“We want to see every student be more successful than the average high school graduate,” he added.

Athletics will continue to be an important part of the Oak Ridge tradition, he said.

He shares basketball coach Stan Kowalewski’s ambition to have top teams. “I can appreciate his desire to have a quality team and to develop students as students as well as basketball players.”

Kowalewski was on staff when McKnight arrived in early November.

Kowalewski’s Northern High team in Guilford County was stripped of its state championship last year after being accused of having players who didn’t live in the Northern attendance zone.

“He’s done an excellent job and has done everything I have expected of him,” McKnight said.

As in former years, Oak Ridge will have several teams on campus. “We already have a rifle team and a drill team as well as men’s and women’s basketball,” McKnight said. “Then we look forward to baseball. We also want volleyball, wrestling and golf,” he said. Football may be a few years away.

“We want to develop an intense intramural sports program, with everybody participating.”

He has a strong interest in athletics, having been named the outstanding athlete at North Georgia College and State University where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physical education. He also earned a master’s degree in counseling from Ball State University. His high school education was at the Academy of Richmond County, Augusta, Ga.

McKnight said that he wants to be open to the community about what is happening at the academy. “I want to be a part of the community, and the community to be a part of Oak Ridge,” he said.
“Over the years I’ve been able to accept challenges — as a student and as an athlete, in the military, in business, where I took stores that weren’t doing well and improved them, and at GTCC’s High Point campus, where my challenge as dean was to improve morale,” McKnight said.

Oak Ridge’s improvement “appears to be some of all of that,” he said. “I’m excited about what we can accomplish here.”

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com