Morgan Brewer

Morgan Brewer is best described by her basketball coach at Academy of the Holy Names, Steven Gigliello. “She is quiet, yet leads by example with her work ethic,” he said. “She is one of the hardest workers I have ever seen.”

If anyone needs evidence of Brewer’s work ethic, the proof is there. She has made all-conference teams in both soccer and basketball and took two bronze medals in the Section 2 track meet. But even with these individual awards, Brewer says it was her teammates that made these moments memorable. “I made first-team Colonial Council my sophomore year – that team means so much to me,” she said. “We were all really close. We played for each other and had senior leaders really impacted me.”

Brewer built off the lessons those leaders taught her as she developed into an impactful leader herself. “Her sense of poise and toughness has shown me the good balance one needs as a leader,” Gigiello said. “Last season, Morgan scorched Broadalbin-Perth with 17 points and 12 rebounds leading Holy Names to a decisive victory in a playoff sectional game, leading AHN to the Class A sectional title game.”

The poise and toughness that Gigiello saw on the basketball court served Brewer well in other areas as well. She started three years as AHN’s center midfield on the soccer field, a position that coach Teagan Waddingham says “takes a significant amount of fitness, technical skill, and Soccer IQ.” Waddingham said she found all of that and more in Brewer, who she also coached in track. “Usually around the halfway mark of a track race, you see athletes slow down to compensate for the pain they are experiencing, but not Morgan,” she pointed out. “Morgan brings this intensity to competition that encourages everyone else to give everything they have and she works hard daily to maintain this standard of competition.”

It’s clear to everyone around her that Brewer is a hardworking, athletic leader. She says those traits run in her family. “My mom played division one soccer in North Carolina,” Brewer explained. “My dad was a marine – he was the one who introduced the service academies to me.”

Inspired by her father’s military career and encouragement, Brewer decided she wanted to apply to a service academy. She spent the summer before her senior year attending the West Point Summer Leaders Experience. “That experience made me fall in love with the whole idea of service academies,” Brewer said. “So I applied to West Point, Navy, and the Air Force Academy.”

Brewer found out later that she was accepted into all three of the academies she applied to, leaving her with the difficult decision of which one to attend. “I went out to visit West Point and Navy, but Air Force was a little too far away for me,” she said. I fell in love with Navy and decided that was the one for me.”

While Brewer says she doesn’t know what she wants to do in the Navy, she currently has her sights set on the skies. “I’m really interested in aviation,” Brewer said. “I’m thinking of becoming a pilot.”

Whatever she decides to pursue, those around Brewer have no doubt she’s on the right path.

“Over the last four years, I have witnessed Morgan in numerous high-pressure situations and she has handled them with hard work and dedication,” said Waddingham. “Her leadership on the soccer field has made everyone around her better, and her training in pursuit of fitness and skill on the track has aided in her decision to serve our country upon attending the US Naval Academy this fall.”