![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
An Easy Choice
Teacher Picks Family Over Love of Coaching
State level competition eight times, top three finishes seven of those eight times in four different sports, two state championships back to back and one undefeated season last year. Spanish Teacher Rebecca Zabel-Brewer made many achievements during her time as a coach and felt she had made it far enough in her career to stop and focus on her family. “I chose to stop coaching because I have two sons who are athletes,” Brewer said. “I realized that coaching and following their athletic careers were opposing goals. There was no longer room in my life for both of those things, I was going to have to choose one or the other. It was an easy choice. I love my sons and I want the front row seat to bear witness to their athletic careers.”
February 14, 2023
The squeak of tennis shoes on the gym floor. The hand pulling up a fallen teammate. The smell of sweat dripping from the victor’s jersey. The radiant light of the final score. The beam of pride in a parent’s eye. The resigned shoulders of the underdog fighting a losing battle. The clinging of a championship medal adds to a growing pile. The pictures on the wall of good memories. Spanish teacher Rebecca Zabel-Brewer gave that all up for her family.
Working as an assistant coach for 15 years, Brewer has coached softball, volleyball, soccer, cross country, track and field, and basketball. At the start of the school year, she made the decision to retire from coaching for the sake of her family.
“I chose to stop coaching because I have two sons who are athletes,” Brewer said. “I realized that coaching and following their athletic careers were opposing goals. There was no longer room in my life for both of those things, I was going to have to choose one or the other. It was an easy choice. I love my sons and I want the front row seat to bear witness to their athletic careers.”
This is the second time Brewer has made this decision, but she later came back to the job after she felt she could balance being a good mom and act on her desire to coach.
“The first time I left coaching was because I was pregnant with my second son,” Brewer said. “I knew from experience with my first son that I was going to miss out on a lot, because of being away so much. And an opportunity came up for me to go back to coaching. My sons were at an age where I could indulge that yearn to coach, that desire to coach and be a good mom at the same time. It was a fun ride.”
It is important to an athlete to have someone in the stands watching them, Brewer says. She wants to be that person for her kids.
“My older son would sometimes say, ‘I don’t care if you go or not’,” Brewer said. “But I think it mattered to him because he would look for me when I got there and was always happy I was there. And the little one is very open about how he wants his parents at his games. I think it matters to them very much. I think it matters to all kids.”
When Brewer was a young athlete, as her children are now, she didn’t have someone watching her in the stands.
“My parents didn’t go to my sporting events,” Brewer said. “Neither one of my parents ever saw me do anything. And not because they couldn’t go, because they just didn’t go. I’m not my parents. I know what it feels like to know that you don’t have anyone in the stands watching you succeed or fail. I don’t want my kids to feel that.”
Brewer’s older son is an athlete on both Glenn high school’s cross country team and track and field team. Her youngest plays all sports but his primary sport is baseball.
“It is pure joy and pride,” Brewer said. “Watching my sons struggle with a skill and then obtain mastery over that skill, it’s the best feeling in the world. If they win, if they don’t win. Watching them go through the process of setting a goal for themselves and then reaching and working for that goal, I love it.”
According to Brewer, the best piece of advice she received regarding the decision to continue or stop coaching came from the former head volleyball coach at Plano East Senior High School, Marcy Crabtree.
“She told me to leave coaching while I still loved it,” Brewer said. “That way when you look back on it you’ll always feel gratitude and fulfillment and peace. If you leave it because you’re just fed up or too tired or for any negative reason, when you look back on it you’ll always have that bitter taste in your mouth and I don’t want that either.”
As a coach, Brewer made many achievements and felt she had made it far enough in her career to stop and focus on her family.
“Over my 15 years of coaching I’ve been to state level competition eight times,” Brewer said. “Top three finishes seven of those eight times in four different sports, two state championships back to back, one undefeated season and last year I was assistant coach of the year for 5A, so I feel, career wise, I checked every box and I left coaching because I felt fulfilled. Because I still loved it. And because I was not willing to sacrifice the [opportunity] to watch my sons compete in their sports.”
