by Trevor Hass
Sports Reporter
Cathy Brant has never been one to worry about immediate results. She prefers to look at the bigger picture.
So when her students act out in class, she doesn’t fret. She knows they’ll eventually appreciate the role she played in their lives.
“Sometimes when the kids graduate here and you see them later on in life, you go, ‘Wow, I really did a nice job,’ or they compliment you, saying, ‘Brant, I didn’t realize what you were doing with us when we were in class. I’m sorry that I acted the way I did,’” Brant said.
“When I teach kids, it’s not what they’re going to do this year, but five years down the road, what are they going to look like?”
Brant has taught in the Elk River Area School District for 40 years, and she’s been at Zimmerman High School since 1999. She’s worked mostly as a physical education teacher, and she was also a special education teacher.
Brant has seen the school district change considerably over the years, and she’s watched the ebbs and flows of education first-hand for decades. Now, she’s decided, it’s time to retire and pursue some of her other interests.
“I don’t have the energy to do this job anymore,” Brant said. “It’s time right now for me to step aside and let the new energy come.”
Brant has always gravitated to sports. When she was in school, women could only play basketball and run track. Now, she’s amazed at what’s offered to women, from equestrian to soccer and everything in between. She’s loved being able to teach women how to play sports and grow as individuals, and she’s fostered relationships on an individual and group level with young women in her classes.
“That’s been a nice development,” Brant said. “Now that I’m going to be retiring, I hope that the women’s movement continues.”
Brant started as a substitute for 14 years out of college. Then, a principal at VandenBerge Middle School asked her if she wanted to teach special education, and she was eager for the opportunity. She took night classes and received her master’s degree, then she worked two years as a special education teacher.
When high schools opened in Rogers and Zimmerman, that created many job opportunities, and Brant was one of those who benefited from the change. She traveled between VandenBerge and Rogers, and then VandenBerge and Zimmerman, and eventually she got a full-time job at Zimmerman in 1999.
She’s seen many changes since then, and she said the building is starting to look more like a traditional high school. Students will soon no longer have to perform shows in the cafeteria, and the track was a key addition, she said.
“Those kind of changes, you never saw them coming,” Brant said. “I just happened to be the right person who was willing to go that extra mile or so to get hired.”
Brant said she plans on continuing to substitute teach, so she won’t miss being around the school as much as she otherwise would. One thing she has missed in recent years is the period of her life when she was a coach in the Zimmerman area, coaching everything from basketball to softball to volleyball.
Though she wishes she had been a more successful coach, she said she’s fortunate for those relationships she built as well. Brant said middle school is an ideal time to have a true effect on a kid’s life, but now, without the same middle school program, doing so is more difficult.
Now that she’s not teaching full time, Brant said she might take golf lessons, join a bowling league, garden, fish and travel. She plans to visit some friends in Alaska as well.
Though her day-to-day routine will change, she’ll still be around Zimmerman, and she’ll always have incredibly fond memories of her time at the school.
“If I could go back and do something different, I don’t think I’d change anything,” Brant said. “Not a thing.”