A 26-year veteran in the classroom, Stacee Hetzel can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a teacher.

The Brownwood High School graduate has taught Business and Finance at her alma mater for 23 years after beginning her career in the classroom at Brady High School for one year, and Early High School for the next two.

“Honestly, I think I knew I wanted to do this my whole life,” Hetzel said. “I didn’t play with baby dolls or anything growing up, I played school and I was always the teacher. My poor sisters were tortured. I’d tell them they had a book report and they’d say ‘we can’t even read.’ I remember going with my grandmother to garage sales when they baby sat us and if there were old school books or chalk boards or anything that looked like it went in a classroom I’d beg for it.”

Hetzel credited three of her teachers for further fostering her passion for teaching.

“My first-grade teacher Ms. Wilcox at Woodland Heights, Ms. Conaway at Central Six was my sixth-grade teacher, and of course my senior English teacher Ms. Stovall, they were the three that made a huge impact on me,” Hetzel said.

Originally thinking she wanted to teach elementary school, time as a substitute while in college resulted in a change of plans.

“When I first started I thought I wanted to be elementary,” Hetzel said. “I was commuting to Tarleton on Tuesdays and Thursdays and would sub Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I told them when I signed up to substitute teach that I wanted elementary. I started doing that and realized pretty fast that wasn’t me, I needed to be with the bigger kids, it just fit me better. I went in and talked to my advisor and back then if you weren’t elementary ed and you were secondary ed you had to have some direction, some specialty. I had already started taking business classes cause it interested me and my adviser suggested going with business and having secondary education on top of it. I went ahead and did Business Composite and there’s ton of classes that fall underneath that category.”

Along with her time as a teacher, Hetzel spent 15 years as the lead sponsor of the Lionettes drill team.

“I was a Lionette and I loved it,” Hetzel said. “It was something that made me feel good about myself when I was in high school in those awkward years, and it gave me something to look forward to all the time. In February of 2006 my dad passed and it was the weirdest feeling, I almost felt lost. So the next school year there was the job opening posted and I thought it was a calling. At that time the program had gone downhill and was not really incorporated with the school, it was an after school program. There were only a handful of people involved and it wasn’t like that when I was there. Mr. Faircloth was principal at the time and told me I’d have to sell him on it because I had little kids at home. So I got on my computer and designed the uniforms with the boots and hats and told him the traditional, old school stuff we were going to do, and he looked up and said I was hired. I was already teaching Business classes so they just incorporated it into the last period of the day.”

Regarding the most enjoyable aspects of her career, Hetzel said, “I love teaching, I love the kids I have in class. I love that now we have pathways these kids have to finish so if they sign up their first year for Business Finance I get them all four years, so I really get to know those kiddos. But I think the most rewarding part is when I see them 5 or 10 years down the road and I watch what they’ve become and see their kids. To me, that’s the best part, just watching them become successful people.”

As for the impact she has made on her students, Hetzel believe that’s a two-way street.

“I don’t know that I’ve had a huge impact, I feel like they’ve had an impact on me just as much as I have on them,” Hetzel said. “I keep up with kids, I love going to weddings and baby showers, especially all the years with the Lionettes. I spent so much time with those girls that I get to know them and their families. For me, I don’t look at it so much as what impact I make on them as much as what they’ve brought to me. What they’ve done for me is incredible.”

She and husband, Keith, have two daughters, Alex and CarolAnn, who both graduated from Brownwood High School as well.