She finally got the call.

She made the team. Not as a player or an assistant, but as the head coach.

Rebecca Sawers moved into the role of head girls soccer coach this year after the previous coach stepped down after nine years. Under her coaching, the team placed fourth in districts with a district record of 8-5-1 and made it to the playoffs this year.

“Hebron has been a school that I have always admired from the outside,” Sawers said. “When the job [opened] I knew I had to apply for it.”

Sawers grew up playing soccer in high school and continued her athletic career in college at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. She studied education, math and science during her time there. After graduating, Sawers landed a teaching and assistant soccer coaching job in South Carolina and stayed for five years before moving to Texas.

“I was ready for something new,” Sawers said. “I knew that South Carolina was not going to be my forever home. I started looking in areas where I had family or friends [so] that if I moved, I would at least know somebody that was there.”

She found an open assistant coaching job at Coppell High School and coached there for five years before becoming an assistant coach at Wakeland High School for four years. After she applied for the head coach position at Hebron, she got the phone call she had been waiting for.

“When they told me that I got the job, I was giddy,” Sawers said. “I couldn’t wait to tell people, but it was also one of those things where you have to wait timing-wise. I just knew that [Hebron] was where I needed to be in the next phase.”

This year was Sawers’ first year in any head coach position. Unlike her previous assistant roles, she was now responsible for leading the entire program, practices and setting team expectations and culture.

“She had some good ideas, and we’ve worked off of each other well,” assistant coach Kallie Essary said. “Throughout the year [she’s been] coming up with different ways to bond for the girls and using some ways that she’s [been] taught. She’s brought in a lot of new, cool things for our program as a whole.”

Since it was her first year as head coach, Sawers not only had to learn the incoming freshmen’s personalities and playing styles, but also the junior varsity and varsity teams who already settled into their roles before her arrival. Junior and forward Emily Harris said that this year, the team feels closer than before.

“The biggest adjustment would probably be having to get used to someone’s new style,” Harris said. “Her way of coaching is a little bit different than [our old coach]. [I’ve had] to get used to what she likes [and] what she expects while also having fun.”

This year, the team dealt with injuries and players graduating early, leaving gaps in the lineup. Sawers said that the district the team competes in, District 5-6A, is the toughest district in the state.

“[I] have so many good players [so] making some of those playing time decisions can be tough,” Sawers said. “There’s a lot of different moving pieces. You’re not trying to hurt feelings, but you have to make decisions that are gonna help the program move forward.”

The team has made it to the playoffs every year except twice. Sawers said her favorite games this year were the home game against Little Elm, where the team won with a last minute goal 2-1, and their final district game against Flower Mound, where the team won 4-0 and made it to playoffs.

“Where we’re at right now is just going to continue to build,” Sawers said. “My biggest goal is continuing to build on the traditions that we already have and [to] compete at a high level. You never know what’s gonna happen, [and] you never know what player you’re gonna have coming in. I want the players to be proud of the way that they step out on the field every single night that we compete.”