Beloved coach inspires students to give back
For more than two decades, Barbara Bush Middle School has been like home for Krista Weber.
The Girls Athletic Coordinator and P.E. Department Head has led the way since the school’s opening in 1998.
Coach Weber has taught her students the importance of giving back.
“I think especially with the Girls Athletics at this age, 7th and 8th grade, 12 and 13, it’s such an opportunity to really impress upon them the importance of community service and civic responsibility. About things being more than yourself,” she said.
Coach Weber has done just that. She has organizing service projects like the ‘Tackle for Hunger Drive,’ where students collected over 400 cans in one night.
“We were going to a game anyway. We had all of our kids on two busloads going and I said ‘let’s take a can or two cans each with us’ and what an impression that made. That turned into 400 cans right off the bat. When we do it all collectively together what an impact that can have,” Weber said.
Thirteen-year-old Morgan Leible said the efforts have not gone unnoticed.
“Coaches don’t just care about sports. They care about your grades, they care about you as a person, your emotions and everything. All that together, it’s like a big community- like a family,” she said.
It’s a family that Coach Weber said she will miss when she retires next school year, in 2021.
“First of all, I have a lot more wrinkles than I did 22 years ago! I can’t believe I started out in my twenties and I’m going to be leaving in my fifties. I’ve grown up here as well. I think the neatest thing I’ve taken away is the families that have come through. I’m maybe on the third or fourth child, you’ve kind of grown up with them. I’ve got young ladies that are also teaching and coaching in the District now and it’s kind of a neat thing to see as time has progressed,” she said.
Weber’s students said she is a light that will be missed around the court.
“Sometimes whenever we are in volleyball practice and it’s 6:30 a.m. in the morning and you are kind of tired, she just comes in and like makes you happy. You come in, they come in, and everyone just wakes up. There is a whole different energy. It’s like sunshine,” Leible said.
Weber said she hopes her students take away something positive from their time at Bush.
“We’re not all great athletes, but the take away that 90% are going to have is more about the family, the community, the service, the teamwork. Those are the bigger picture things that we hope that they take away.”
