Brett Brewer: All Roads Lead To Soccer | Varsity Vibe

Despite a wake boarding accident at 10, Brett Brewer was a high level high school player at Mountain Home High School as a goalie, and then went to college to pursue Agriculture. But the game kept calling him back. 

He now is in his 3rd season as the Har-Ber head girls soccer coach, and continues to build the program in the right direction. 

He joins Alyssa Orange to brag on the way his team has played this season, and share his own soccer journey. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Welcome into 525. I'm your host, Alyssa Orton, as always. It is great to be with you. And thank you so much for joining us for another conversation as we get to know some of these coaches and players from around the state in high school athletics. We're going to head over to Harbor and talk to their head softball coach, Brett Brewer, and what a story he has. Taking over as the head coach in 2023 after being an assistant coach, he's from East Arkansas. And his story is one where it's very evident that soccer continues to come into his life for a reason and lead him to exactly where he needs to be. It is something, man, just a conversation you are definitely going to want to listen to. So check it out here. My conversation with head soccer coach Brett Brewer. What's it been like these last couple of years to take over this program and be able to run it and put your own stamp on it?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

I really think I came over here to be an assistant and like learned. I was at two small schools before this. I was like, you know, I was like, my dream was always get to Northwest Arkansas. Like this is the soccer mecca. In my opinion, it's the SEC of soccer per se. Like, and I was like, you know, I'm gonna come in assistant, you know, young guy, like just learn as much as I can. And then the way it all transpired, like it's like, well, like kind of take a moment. And what's funny is I was actually driving the boys back and forth to steak tournament and like really trying to process it. But, you know, I'm actually a non-traditional teacher and coach. I did not go to school to become a teacher. I did not go to school to become a coach. Uh, my degree is actually in agriculture. I'm from Northeast Arkansas. Um, but it kind of like, you know, I was just kind of going through the motions in my career. What I would do is um I didn't have to be on the farm during planting season as much. So I go coach. I started helping my brother's junior eye team, and then their coach quit. And everybody looks at me like you're kind of the guy, and they're in last place, and that was my foot in the door volunteering. I mean, uh I coached for four years forever metadant. I, you know. So then my first high school job, uh, when you include the COVID year, they had not won a conference game in over a thousand days. Um, it didn't scare me. Like I've always had confidence in myself and that you know, God's not gonna give me nothing that I can't handle because of what's happened in my life. So once I kind of processed this opening, I kind of like was at peace with it. I'm like, okay. I mean, he brought me to Northwest Arkansas. He's not, you know, he didn't open this for me to not take it. And I was really at peace with it. And then you kind of start getting in the trenches, and it's like, okay, that's uh lot, you know, and I I don't have any family within four or five hours. I'm learning new people. You know, this like I said, this conference is insane. When you look at everybody that's coaches in this conference, it's like I'm coached against them, like me, like I that's a lot of respect for everybody in this conference. Sure. I think the first year I kind of had this style that I ran with JV as an assistant. I was like, I'm just gonna take that to Barstea and we're gonna roll with it. It's gonna and it didn't work out that straight.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

What would you describe that style as?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Well, uh, I played in Mount Home and Clay very defensive. Like, if you were gonna call me a football coach, I'd be the defensive coordinator. Okay. And what I learned is we did play really good defense, but we lost eight games by one. And a lot of them were one-nothing, two-one. And it was like, we kind of so I kind of took my style. I'm really, really fortunate. Um, Coach Wood, who's football coach here, assistant AD, him and Coach Fimple like funded me to go get uh my C license with U.S. Soccer. Had my D license already. So I went to Cleveland and spent, you know, it's a lot, it's like a Zoom call every week, and I spent a week in Cleveland. And I get up there and it's IMG coaches, college. I'm the only high school coach in this room. And that was kind of the process of when I got done with that first year. I said, I think I have a style that I can use parts of, but I also kind of have to reinvent my style to fit this conference. Everybody's so good. You've got to score, you've got to take risks, you've got to send numbers forward and look for those moments. So I really felt like that first year was kind of figuring it all about, yeah, trying to sort all this out, sort the roster, nice standards, you know, our strength conditioning, like just trying to figure that out on the fly. And I felt like that year we all we finished where we were the year before in the standings, we took a step forward. And that's my process of all these jobs I've taken, where I've typically inherited a team in the bottomless standings, is make it competitive first. That's step one. And I felt like we did that. It just still sucks when you lose one. One-nothing, you're like, we're so close, but you still lost. Yeah. So I think that offseason, you know, I kind of reinvented how I wanted us to play. We kind of feel good about everything, you know, everything's good. And it's like, we're gonna do this. And then it's like, then we get all those injuries in my second year, and then it's like figuring that out and all sorts of things. So it's been a lot of personal growth, and I'm not afraid to like, I've kind of got this hybrid style that I've got up when I was a player versus now when I'm a head coach on the 6A West. And I think now and going into the third year, it's like this is our program. They know our standards, they know our rules, they know what offseason is gonna look like. And now it's like it's you're starting to finally see it. And uh I kind of give a little bit of credit that to Coach Jenkins.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Uh he and her have lunch too. It's great. We're lunch duty buddies. And she used a phrase that I always took to heart that said, be aggressively patient.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

And I've that's kind of been like she said, be patient. This takes time. Because I talked about what she got to Harbor. And I was kind of fortunate at my previous job, we got to the state tournament for a first time in school issue in the first year. And we broke all these records in a year or two before I came to Harbor. So I was used to like an instant fix. And here I inherited a roster while trying to build a roster, and it's like, this is gonna take more time. And I was thankful to have people kind of tell me, and that's what her phrase is like, be patient. This takes time, but what are you also doing to build yourself up for success? Yeah, and I think that's probably the best way to put it be aggressively patient.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

Yeah, well, but but at the same time, it's unique because you are starting to learn your own style, learn what you want to do with the team while also learning the program in general and these girls and who you're going to be coaching. And it just felt like it seems a whole lot of learning in a very short amount of time.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

A lot. And I'm not afraid to admit that I had to learn a lot.

SPEAKER_05 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

You know, and like what I played in, I was really fortunate. I played for, in my opinion, one of the best starter coaches in the state, you know, Brian Maddox, he coached me. You know, we played in three state semifinals and a state championship. You know, we if we did not make state semifinals every year at minimum, that was a that was a failure to us. And so I have high standards. It's just like it just this conference is so tough every night. And it's like, so you're just learning, but I I mean, I I always bet on myself. Like, I mean, I I feel like this is my calling, and we're gonna figure it out.

SPEAKER_05 8:35

What's been the what was your biggest takeaway when you talk about that meeting at Cleveland? What was the biggest thing you learned being in that room?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Be uh be humbled. Um, the guy that was my mentor uh was one of the U.S. women's youth national team coaches that uh he named all the names that like he coached, and like it's funny you give this practice plan, and then you just be they basically rip it up in front of you and be told, like, this isn't good enough, figure it out. Or like the first video I submitted, he said, I'm gonna fail you if you submit another one of these. And it's like, okay, I'm gonna grow and I'm gonna be, and I think you also you know grow with these would you roster your team and the girls that are you know work hard and put in the work, you kind of just all grow together and figure it out.

SPEAKER_04 9:21

Yeah. I want to take you back to when you were a player. What got you into the game to begin with when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

So that's uh that's a really funny story. Okay. Um and kind of my story that a lot of people know about me. I played pretty much every sport till I was 10 years old. Loved every sport. Uh up here at Prairie Creek, up in Rogers, I used to waitboard. Uh stripped Mount Home and I was just like kidding. And I got in a waitboard accident when I was 10 years old. And the waitboard actually hit me in my school and shattered my whole right side of my school. Pieces of the bone went through my brain. I was not knocked out, I gained consciousness, but it looked like a shark attack. And I was rushed up here to uh I think Mercy was one of those. I take a CT scan and I instantly call children's and I'm air flighted to children's. I get special uh FAA clearance because my brain is swelling so much when they came into children's and luroff, they were eating with the capital building. And I get wheeled into brain surgery, and the brain surgeon looks at my parents and said, Your child is not gonna come out alive. If he does come out alive, he will not be able to function, he will not be able to do anything, somebody will have to be with him at all times. And I come out of that. I wake up at 3 56 the next morning, and I'm kind of coming off anesthesia and all this other stuff. And the mom looks at me and she's like, you know, kind of coming to is like, you know who I am? And I go, my mom, I'm done. And that's when I just like hey, he's gonna be all right. And I stayed in the hospital for a while, um, went through all that, made it through. I was in ICU for a week, stayed there for another week as well. And then when I go back to get my checkup, they said, We don't really have the explanation for you. You don't ever have to come back. You're good. They completely rebuilt my skull, so half my skull is titanium. But with that conversation, now you're telling a 10-year-old boy you can't play football. Basketball floor is really hard. We would prefer you not to play basketball. If you play baseball, you'll always have to wear a helmet. Whether you're in the outfield or whether you're in a dugout, you'll always have to. And I said, Well, I play soccer. And they said, Well, do you like what do you you know? I said, Well, I'm in the field and I'm the goalkeeper. I said, We don't want you in the field because we don't want you to head the ball. But we'll we'll settle on you being goalkeeper. At 10 years old, they're like, We don't want to take everything, so they gave me that. And that's what kind of you know, I believe in playing multiple sports. I think it's good for you as a kid, but like that's where soccer. Wow. So then now I'm the goalkeeper, and that's kind of where the coach comes out in me because as the goalkeeper, you're that spot in the back. Like you're kind of the other coach on the field. So that's how soccer became my sport. And I just I had opportunity to play college. I just I was kind of dead set on I'm gonna go to college and I'm gonna get my degree and I'm gonna start working, and I'm gonna get, and it's kind of funny how God brings me back. It's like no, soccer is your sport, it is your life.

unknown 12:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

So that's kind of out.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

I gave you soccer for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I gave you soccer for a reason, quit trying to run away, come back to wow, wow.

SPEAKER_05 12:38

And and I I would assume maybe like when you're a little kid and you're told you can only play soccer, like you were gonna give it your all because it was your only option.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Well, that's you know, I think some people will come out here, I see a crazy guy, it's really vocal. I mean, I lost my boys pretty much every game I played in as a goalkeeper just because I'm I'm in the game. But what a lot of people don't understand too is like when I will walk out there, one, blessed with great facilities, I love walking out here. Like I go watch film in the press box a lot of times, just just be reminded. Yeah. But I walk out of here every day, and I'm not perfect. Uh you know, I try to be the best I can be for our girls. Like I'm reminding every day, and and I go out to Prairie Creek every June of the year of the day it happened. I reminded like I'm not supposed to be here. God kept me here. God gave me, He let me keep soccer. So when you come watch one of our games, you see somebody that's like, one, just happy to be alive and be here. Now you put me in this spot for reason. How how can I best provide for our players? So that's how soccer and that that's just kind of what has made me me and having great mentors that got me here too.

SPEAKER_05 13:54

Yeah. When you look at the game uh when you were playing it, and then when you started coaching it, what was the biggest difference stepping into a coaching role that again sounds like you tried to avoid tried to avoid for a little bit? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I mean, if I knew I was gonna go down this path, there's probably some things I would have noticed more, but it's funny. I mean, there's so many times I'll reference uh, hey guys, when I was in your shoes, I blew this conversation off. But now that I'm on the other side of it, like all those times when I think of me getting really mad at my coach, I'm like, yeah, I see why he was saying that now. And I think that's what we want to preach, is like, you know, we've been there. This is why we're doing it. We want you to be set up for life after you leave here. So I think that's just the biggest adjustment is like you're the you're the coach. Go back to your, even if you weren't taking those experiences as hey, I'm gonna be a coach someday, take those life experiences and use it now as a coach.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

How do you think that that's helped the girls in your program over the last couple of years buy into what you're selling as a coach and as a program?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

I think the other thing too is like I tell them, you know, the other programs I've been involved in were in bottom of the stains when I took over, like this is a multiple-step process. Get competitive. Now can you go steal again? Now can you go, you know, just kind of slowly claw away. But the other thing too is you're playing everybody in the 6A list twice. That's a heck of a way to try to learn the process. But, you know, it's just like right here, it's a blue-collar soccer. You know, we have a very talented roster, so is everybody. But soccer is a beautiful game where it only takes what you want. Now, it really stresses me out sometimes because one moment changes so much. But like, you can always be scratched. You can by those skills will work in life. And I think if you approach it the correct way, when you go start beating those teams, you're not supposed to when you go tie that game where you're like, that's a really good program. You start kind of the belief starts. I'll be honest, Monday, we barely touched a soccer ball. We kind of worked more mental side of things because it's just like I have a mental block with some teams, and I really think we shattered that last night in our game. We tied Fayetteville one to one. That's the first time Arbor hasn't lost to Fayobell since 2018. Like that's a big and we felt like we should have won. And I think you just kind of got to be back to the aggressively patient, but give them reason to buy in. I say care over tactics, care over anything else. We have a staff of three that I know cares. And I think we're very motivated. I think we all relate to the girls. I think they see that. You see three coaches really caring and pushing you. I think they'll buy into that process.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

You talk about the Fayetteville game and mention how how impactful that was even just a few days ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:53

Uh, was there a game or a ball mat early on as you guys are implementing your your style and what you want to do that finally was just like that's it.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

I think last year you saw bits and pieces of it. I said, guys, just let's get into the tournament. Yeah. You know, the West has swept the central last couple years in the state tournament. I said, I don't care if we're the six seed, but let's go be the most dangerous succeed in the tournament. And that's what happened. It's kind of like we, but we were blessed we got a lot of people back for the state tournament too. And I kind of told them, I was blessed to make a lot of runs as a player in state tournament. My senior year, we went into overtime three days in a row and won in PK's. But I've told them, you're gonna be the underdog. You're gonna walk in the sixth seed. There's only won a few games, and you're gonna be probably overlooked. And I said, this is how this process is gonna go. And I think we laid it out really well. And then as we made it to halftime, 0-0 the state tournament last year. Hey, we're we're a good spot. We're right where we want to be. We make it to end of regulation 0-0, right where we want to be. Now we go in overtime, and that one magic moment where the ball bounces your way happened. And we win 1-0. Unfortunately, we lose in the quarterfinals 2-1. But it's like that's where it's like, hey, we are taking a step forward. This is this is going the direction um we want to. I told you it's a two-step process. Get out of the bottom of the stains, get in the state tournament. Now it's even harder to can you get in that conversation with the Benvils, the Rogers, the Fayevills, the West. Like that's it's a great conference, you know. So that's kind of where we are in this process. We're staying patient, but we're also being aggressive in what we're doing to get there.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

What what do you think is stands out about the group that you had this year? The biggest difference with this group.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

I think that they're playing, you know, obviously you're seeing like this is how once you're playing a little bit. Uh, they communicate really well. They're still working on my little bit, but you know, they're getting better. They're just creating more chances, they're more, you know, even when you do lose one-nothing or something, if you get really outshot or something, it's kind of like that's skewed a little bit, you know. Every game we've been in has been just so competitive. I mean, I think they played their best game they've played all year last night, you know, and it's just you see like how hard you see it like finally starting to click and and just kind of flow a little bit more and all those other things. And I think that's just you're starting to see the work. That's what a lot of people is like, hey, you've gotten some results this year. Correct. You watched 80 minutes. This is years in the worth. And I think also it's like I knew there was some really good players coming up as well. And we have good players here too. It's like it's kind of like been doing your homework preparing and preparing to get ready for this moment. I think that's where it's it's just finally starting to happen.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

How much have you enjoyed that work and that process?

SPEAKER_00 19:56

There's a lot of nights I sit in that office over there and go, Am I dumb? Am I doing the right thing? You know, my wife's a great supporter, she she was an athletic, she gets it. Um, I think that's big too in the coaching world. But it's hard. This profession is hard. But I think what these girls and life, I think life is hard in general, too. I think it's harder even when you get out of high school. So that's kind of like, you know, God's nervous and give us nothing we can't handle. And you know, you appreciate it more. You know, that and I know there's already been screen recordings of the huddle camera from when a goal goes in and here I am jumping up on the sidelines like a maniac or the scoring in sudden death overtime. Those make it worth it. I got really blessed to experience those state turn magical runs, and I tell the girls that's all I want for you. And getting to them a little taste of success, man, it makes all those nights in that office worth it when you go, Am I doing this right? Am I doing it just I like seeing them have success. I don't I don't care. I don't want anybody looking at me and go, Oh, he did that. No, the girls did that and their staff did that. And that that's what makes it worth it even on the hard disk.

SPEAKER_05 21:23

When you take it day by day like that and continue just to grow, how much do you then still though look at where harbor soccer can be in the next handful of years?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

So when I took the job, I walked over at the arena where all the trophies are. There's one sport in the school that don't have a conference or a state championship trophy. That's hard to grow soccer. And that's kind of like motivation. But I've also learned in this conference, I like watching other sports too. I love watching other coaches and all this. This conference is so competitive. You've got to work years to have. That magical run. You know, you you gotta catch breaks. You gotta have good matchups in state tournament. You gotta you gotta peek at the right time. I tell my girls, I I'll take a bad break in May. I mean, bad break in March, catch a good break in May. And I think we get better throughout the year. And I think that's uh credit due to our staff. Like we keep trying. You know, we'll we'll keep watching film, we'll keep trying to just improve this, improve this, and just keep doing it. Like we've got a over here on on the door written of like things that we prepared for last night. We're gonna write things on that again. Hey, we did this well. What can we work on? And the plan is to keep stacking those papers, keep stacking those days. Let's peak in May and have our run and have our best moment. Which is what I think we did last year. Just let's do it again. Keep climbing. You know, keep climbing.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Yeah. What's what's your favorite part about coaching?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

You know, even on the days you get frustrated. You go home and you go like, what else do I have to do? You know sometimes their jokes are funny, sometimes they're not. They're they're characters. Like there's there's characters on this team. But no matter what happens during the school day, no matter what happened, I feel like I can come over here and there's a family environment. You know, they're probably gonna ask for snacks. I always ask for snacks. I always try to make sure you got snacks in the office, got popsicles to go. But like this getting to see them, getting to go through this journey together with them. Like I said, I worked a different job. The job I worked before this, I worked purely as an individual, didn't have any communication harder than anybody. And it's like, man, it's like the camaraderie, the community that we get to have here, like that's what makes it worth it. When we have fun as a staff, our staff, like, we go out and do things outside of school, you know, and I mean that's just that's good to have that, yeah, in the community that we have.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Yeah. I think I know the answer, but what is this sport giving you?

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Everything. Everything. Because I mean, obviously when I was 10 and all that, all that kind of happens. Um just going through the motions when you get out of college, you're kind of going your career and and unfortunately kind of went through another just really bad mental spell, just trying to figure out what to do and all this, and it's like all of a sudden now I'm voluntary in soccer after work, and it's like that's what I look forward to every day. And then it's like I mean, it's just everything. Like, there's a lot of times, you know, I try to take a break, but it's hard not to like just scroll through. We had to break out the iPad the other day, film, and I'm just like scrolling through the photo album, like looking at this is like it's it's everything, you know, it's given me everything, and quite frankly, it probably saved my life by God giving me this opportunity. And there's a lot of people like you're crazy. Like, I quit a salary job, company truck, free gas, free, like, and move back in my parents at 24 to go back to school to become a teacher and coach, and it's like crazy. Yeah, I know. But like, it's it this is everything to hate. And I hope when people like, if you can watch a game, our communities are great supporting us lately. Like the environments we've had the last couple of games. I just hope you see somebody like this is this is everything in me. This is what I felt like, quite frankly, I was, you know, like left on this earth to do. And I hope that the girls know that they're cared for. We're not perfect at that. We make mistakes. I think that's why we spend so much time up here as a staff is because we care so much. We're sitting here like, we do this better. We're always, and a lot of people don't see that. I'm my biggest critic, you know, and I always want to be perfect because I want them to have everything that you know I was blessed to have as a player. And I I I feel like I'm here for a reason. Yeah, I feel like a harbor opened up for me for a reason. I don't think we're done yet. I think we can keep climbing to where that is. I don't I don't know yet. But I think we have a really good soccer program, one to be proud of. But we're always gonna shoot for more, we're always gonna shoot for perfection, and then just kind of see what happens from there. But this this sport's giving me everything. And it's funny how you try to run away from it. God pulls you back in. Yeah, though, this this is what you're doing.

SPEAKER_05 26:35

Thank you so much for joining us on this edition of Varsity Vibe. And again, if you've missed any of the conversations that we have had over the last couple of weeks and months, I encourage you to go back and listen to some of these coaches and player stories. It is so fun and interesting. And I take away something from listening to these people's stories, and I hope you do too. And that's what we're here to do, share these stories on and off the field. Also encourage you to follow us along on social media. That is Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook. You can find some great content over there as well. And sign up for our newsletter at varsityvibearkansal.com. That comes to your inbox twice a week, and you get those on Tuesdays and Fridays. Again, I'm your host, Alyssa Orns. Thank you so much for joining us, and I'll see you next time.