​Sep. 22—On Aug. 24, the Star Tribune published a report stating 75 high school activities directors either resigned or retired in the last calendar year. When Kristen McRae read the story, she knew she was going to add to the gaudy statistic.”Soon, it’s going to be 76.”McRae told the Pioneer on Tuesday morning that she is retiring from her position this winter. Her final day on the job is Dec. 18 after five years as the Bemidji High School activities director.”Woody (Leindecker) and I have talked about how when you’re a coach and you’re in it, you get to a point when you know it’s your time,” McRae said. “I feel like it was the same thing for me. Was ita hectic year?Yes, but every year is hectic in an activities office. Everything is constantly in motion for seven days a week.”There’s been a lot of thought to this whole thing. I love what I do, whether it’s in the classroom, in the activities office or on the pool deck. I love where I am, I love the kids, I love my colleagues and coaches and I love watching kids do what they love to do. But it’s time.”McRae has been with the school since 1992, working as an educator and coaching both the boys and girls swimming and diving programs for 18 combined seasons.On Dec. 1, 2022, she began her five-year stint as the BHS AD,taking over for Troy Hendricks, who hadbeen in the position since 2010.”I go back to the fall of 1992 when I started and I’m seeing all of the faculty around who were veterans of the job, people who have been there,” McRae said. “At some point, they graduate, too. They go on to the next stage of their lives. Meanwhile, I’m a perpetual senior in high school. It’s time for me to officially graduate.”For McRae, it comes down to finding more time in her personal life. She became a grandmother last spring.”This is my 35th year here in Bemidji,” McRae said. “I can’t say I’m old — my body says I am, even though my mind says I’m not. But my daughter had a baby at the end of March. When she asks, ‘Hey, Mom, when can you come out and visit us?’ Then I look at my schedule, and it’s really hard to make that work. You can’t get time back, and I don’t want to look back with regrets. You don’t get do-overs with stuff like that.”McRae discussed retirement plans with her husband, John McRae, in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Johndied in June 2022 at the age of 65.”In all honesty, when I was in the classroom teaching while John was alive, I would’ve been retired by now,” McRae said. “I would’ve been done when I was 58. My husband was a few years older than me, and he told me he didn’t want to retire and sit around all by himself while I went to work every day. In the back of my mind, it was planted in there that I’d be retired at 58. But the catalyst was looking at my phone and seeing pictures of my grandchild. It’s really hard to get to know your grandma in a funky little box you put in your pocket.”McRae oversaw Bemidji High School activities and athletics to several triumphs, including section ch