Bob Brhel stands outside his home in Saranac Lake on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

SARANAC LAKE — The annual Paul Smith’s College alumni rugby game takes place today, and this year’s reunion of Bobcats will be more emotional than ever as Bob Brhel will be honored at the festive event.

On graduation day, May 6, Brhel, who has run of the college’s draft horse management program, will perform his final duties as a member of the faculty before retiring from a 31-year teaching career at Paul Smith’s. He’s received a commitment from the college that the horses will remain a part of the curriculum, which means he can move to his new home downstate knowing that part of his legacy at the school will be in good hands.

Another mark Brhel has left at Paul Smith’s is the tradition of intercollegiate rugby. He established the sport at the school in 1998, and today, there’s no doubt the Bobcats’ first coach will be surrounded by former players and friends returning to campus to wish him a fond farewell.

As soon as the school year ends, Brhel and his wife Jan will depart for their new home and seven-acre farm in Cazenovia, near the area where they both are from. So in a way, the annual gathering of Bobcats ruggers will serve as a last hurrah for the legendary rugby player and beloved coach.

“All the alumni games are very special,” Brhel said. “Because of my move, this is probably my last one. I expect a lot of former players will be coming back this year to celebrate my retirement and celebrate each other.”

During his tenure, Brhel has impacted countless Paul Smith’s College students, both in the school’s academic and athletic realms. In addition to coaching men’s rugby for a dozen years, he also served as the school’s soccer coach from 1988 to 1995. When Brhel founded the rugby team, a move that was suggested to him by students, he told the school there would be no behavior issues associated with the program.

“When I first started coaching, I was very very strict,” Brhel recalled. “Years ago, rugby had a really bad rap as the type of sport associated with hooligans. I promised the school I would not tolerate that. There would be no drinking. There would be no problems. I think that all worked out pretty well.”

Current men’s rugby coach Mark Buckley, an former assistant to Brhel who took over the head job in 2010, says he strives to carry on the former coach’s positive leadership.

“I have had guys on the team who have never played with or for Bob, and they all know that there wouldn’t be a team if it wasn’t for his persistence in getting the sport established at the school,” Buckley said. “He’s an excellent coach. He held young men accountable for their actions, and I’ve tried to keep that up.

“The game Bob taught was very reflective of his personality,” Buckley added. “You play hard, and that all starts with tackling hard and possession.”

“One of the biggest impacts I’ve made is with students who have struggled academically,” Brhel said. “With rugby, they become part of a team, and I’ve had teams where all the guys ate together, studied together and partied together. A lot of my earlier teams were very inclusive groups, no cliques. Playing rugby at Paul Smith’s, being part of a team, has kept students in school. I’m proud of that.”

In span of just two seasons, Brhel helped mold a rugby force to be reckoned with, as the Bobcats quickly rose to the top of Division III in the New York State Rugby Conference.

“A couple of students approached me in 1998 about starting a team, and that year, we had some informal practices and a couple scrimmages,” he said. “Two years later, we were New York state champions.”

Brhel said that banner year provided him with one of his two most memorable moments leading the Bobcats.

“That first state championship was very, very special,” he said. “We went into the finals at Genesee Community College with hopes of winning one game, and we ended up in the championship game against Niagara Community. We had two Japanese players on the team, and Tamoya Yamata went in with the winning try at the end of the game. He led our backs and he was a natural.

Brhel’s other most significant memory stemmed from the 2004 campaign. He said it wasn’t such a fond one, and one that most likely cost the Paul Smith’s men a second state collegiate title when they were in the final again against Niagara.

“I made the worst coaching decision in my life,” Brhel recalled. “I was chopping wood (on campus about an hour before our bus was scheduled to leave. I tripped and fell backward, and it turned out that I cracked three ribs. I got on the bus, but I wasn’t in my right mind. During halftime of the final, I pulled the wrong guy out of the game. The player I should have taken out ended up being penalized for a late hit. They scored on the penalty kick and eventually we lost in the last five seconds of the game by one point. It will always haunt me that we lost the game.”

Today, however, will see Brhel filled with nothing but pride as he reunites with many of his past players.

“The first guys I coached, they’re in their 30s now and have families of their own. Jan and I have counted and we now have over a full side of rugby babies,” Brhel said with a smile. “Our refrigerator is full of their pictures.”

Today’s alumni game will be held on the college’s soccer field and is slated to start at 3 p.m. A year ago, the college squad soundly defeated the alumni, so the former players should be back looking for a little revenge. And those graduates may just have a little edge this time around as they honor the Bobcats first coach. And as a bonus, they should be bolstered by Bob Brhel’s presence on the pitch, albeit for only a short time.

“I’ll put the boots on,” Brhel said. “I’ll make a token appearance.”