NewmanZone Maple: A North Country Staple

John Newman ‘94 is a life-long resident of the North Country as well as a longtime member of the Laurentien Community. He is involved both on and off campus, as a coach and as a local maple syrup business owner respectively. Eager to learn more of his story, we reached out to Newman with questions to learn more:  

For those that don’t know you, what are some things that people should know regarding your St. Lawrence and North Country experiences?  

I was born and raised in the NoCo, and I even went to Canton Central School. I attended St. Lawrence since I knew it was a great school having grown up in the area. It also had my intended major at the time, which was called Sport and Leisure Studies. This was effectively a physical education teacher certification program with a liberal arts focus. St. Lawrence checked all the boxes that I was looking for and it seemed there might even be an opportunity to continue running which I hadn’t really given much thought initially as a high school senior. The head coach, Mike Howard, ran by the high school during the spring track and field season and was talking to my high school coach and his wife, John and Linda Casserly. Mrs. Casserly called me over to get introduced and told Coach Howard that she thought I might be going to SLU, and that I might be a good fit in the Saints program. I think that was the critical moment for me staying involved with a sport that I grew to love in high school, even though I got into it relatively late as a sophomore with indoor track and field and I didn’t start cross country until my senior year in HS. That conversation basically set my career path and eventually even helped introduce me to my wife, Kelli. Anyway, I graduated with an intention of teaching and hopefully coaching cross country and track and field at the middle or high school level. I graduated from St. Lawrence in the spring of 1994 and my first job was teaching at the St. Mary’s Elementary School in Potsdam. At that time I was still involved at St. Lawrence as a volunteer assistant coach. I found that much more enjoyable than trying to teach elementary physical education for only half a day, twice a week. My wife is an elementary teacher and is really good at it, so I give her so much credit for that since I found that it really wasn’t my thing. Back at SLU, I slowly became more involved thanks to my coach and mentor, Mike Howard and support from Richard Metcalf our Department Chair at the time. Mike worked hard to help me along the way in a time before athletics even had graduate assistant coaches. I think Coach Howard had only one part-time assistant coach back then for all six teams. Dr. Metcalf was the intramural director at that time and groomed me to be his assistant, and eventually the intramural and sport club director. That along with gaining more and more responsibilities with coaching, I eventually worked into part-time coach and ultimately head coach for men’s cross country after about six years, then later indoor and outdoor track and field.  

What is the name of your maple syrup business?  

My business name is “NewmanZone Maple”  

Can you remember your first time trying maple syrup?  

I don’t specifically remember my first time trying maple syrup. However, we always had real maple syrup growing up. My grandparents insisted on having only real maple, never any store bought or imitation products.    

What first got you into the maple syrup business?  

My grandfather was a dairy farmer and he was also a sugarmaker back in the day. He stopped making syrup before I was old enough to experience the process first hand but it was often talked about in the family and the late nights boiling as well as the collecting of the sap. We (Kelli) and I actually built our own family home on part of the family’s property which included part of the original sugar bush. When our oldest daughter (Rorie) was in elementary school, she had to do a science project for the school’s science fair. She didn’t know what to do and we brainstormed some options for several days. Then it occurred to me that there were some sap buckets and spiles (spouts) still on the farm and I asked her if we should try to make some maple syrup. I of course thought, how hard could it be? Anyway, we tapped three threes in the back woods and hung our sap buckets. We use an old hand brace (I believe to be the one that my grandfather used to use) to drill the holes in the trees and set the taps. I can still remember Rorie and her little sister sticking out their tongues as the first sap dripped off of the spiles before we hung the buckets. Short story long, Rorie gave up on this science project since it took too long and moved on to plan B while I became hooked on the process and couldn’t learn enough about how to perfect the process of making maple syrup. That first experiment didn’t come out too well. In fact after several days of collecting sap and almost a whole day of boiling we made about a shot glass of very distasteful syrup. I had a lot to learn.  

How did you come up with the name NewmanZone?   

I came up with the name as a parallel to a great running performance. As an athlete I was obsessed with recreating what is referred to as the “Flow State” where in my case running seemed effortless, and yet you have what seems like an out of body peak experience. Anyway, it was kind of a joke that we were always striving to get in the flow. From the maple side, you make syrup if you have sap that flows through the tree and can be harvested by drilling and adding a spout. After getting into the maple process for a couple seasons, I just made the connection and started calling our syrup NewmanZone and it caught on. When you want to get in the zone, you grab a little shot of maple and the burst of energy from the 100% natural sugar kind of helps get you in the zone.  

How did you know St. Lawrence was going to be such a big part of your life both as a coach and alumni?  

I don’t think I had any idea how important St. Lawrence would be in my life. So many facets of my life are because of SLU and the people I’ve met along the way as a student-athlete and as a coach. I’m grateful for the opportunities and the life long connections that I have made along the way.  

How was attending St. Lawrence as a North Country local, and what is your fondest memory?  

Attending St. Lawrence as a NoCo local seemed fairly natural. Even though I grew up in and around SLU my whole life, it wasn’t until I attended as a student that I started to gain a greater appreciation of the experience that I had. The people are what make St. Lawrence special and those connections are my fondest memories.  

What is your favorite part about coaching Cross Country/Track and Field?  

This is easy and without a doubt, the student-athletes and colleagues that I’ve worked with. So many of my lifelong friends are because of St. Lawrence. If there was a second favorite part of coaching, it would probably be seeing the transformation and development of our student-athletes throughout their college careers and then seeing where their lives take them after graduation.  

What goes into making a good batch of maple syrup?   

High-quality sap and a quick, efficient boiling process. It’s a lot like coaching in athletics, you have to have patience and persistence and just follow the process. In its simplest terms, making maple syrup is just about removing the water from the maple sap.  

What are some non-traditional foods that you have found to go well with maple syrup? Really anything that you might want to sweeten, just use maple syrup. I substitute white or brown sugar in most all recipes with maple syrup. One of my specialties is apple pie or apple crisp and I usually substitute half the sugar with maple syrup. One of my new favorites is mixing butter and maple syrup and spreading it on sweet corn before placing the ears of corn directly on the barbecue grill.  

Where can current students go to get some of your syrup if they want to try it?  

I don’t deal with too many retail options. Sometimes they have some in stock at Nola’s in Canton. Most of my customers just order directly from me. Since we are fairly small scale operation, we often run short of product before the next season (generally March and early April). You need the freeze/thaw cycle of the spring season to get the sap to flow. Good thing is that every year the sap keeps flowing and we can make more, but only as much as Mother Nature gives us.  

Do you have any advice for students and alumni alike about anything St. Lawrence/North Country related?   

Just to get out and explore the region. We have so many great but often hidden gems to visit/experience in the NoCo.