It was an offer he couldn’t refuse, the culmination of his career. Scott Breimhorst couldn’t pass up the invitation to lead a new business school for Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria. The 53-year-old father of three recognized an opportunity to bridge education and business, tapping into his vast network and cultivating the next generation of executives and entrepreneurs.
“There’s a huge call for this,” Breimhorst said. “If we can put kids on a path where they go into business and they don’t forget the Catholic, LaSallian charism, then we’ve really made a dent in the world.”
Breimhorst and his wife, Molly, live in Chaska. Two of their children have graduated from Holy Family and one is a junior.
Q) How did you meet your wife?
A) We met at Valleyfair. We were teens and we both worked at Valleyfair in the games department. I did the one where I guessed your weight on the scale. I liked the microphone. The dime slide was the big one back then.
Q) What excites you about Holy Family’s new business school?
A) It’s serving a need. And for me, having worked in education and then having left to go into the business world, it’s an opportunity to build something that’s an apex of everything I’ve ever done. That’s the moment I knew I couldn’t say no, honestly. I took a lot of walks and mentally walked through where I’d been. It just felt right.
Q) You studied at St. John’s University (in Collegeville) and then started off as an English teacher at Cretin-Derham Hall (in St. Paul). How did you move into leadership?
A) I taught there and coached football and a little baseball and built up the speech team. My third year in, Dick Engler — who is the greatest leader I’ve ever known — said, “You’ve got to be a principal. I’m paying for your degree.”
So, I did the principal licensure and master’s degree at St. Thomas (University in St. Paul) and was guided to St. Matt’s (School) in St. Paul. Then Shakopee Area Catholic School asked me to be principal. We did some great stuff and grew enrollment to become the largest Catholic K-8 in the archdiocese.
Q) Next you served as executive director of the Aim Higher Foundation (in St. Paul) and then worked on enrollment for Holy Family. Were you successful?
A) We grew the enrollment from 383 to 570 now.
Q) How did you do that?
A) There’s no one key. Number one: super high-quality programs. You’ve got to be really good. If people are going to spend $15,000 to $20,000 a year, you better be great.
One of the advantages of Catholic schools specifically is we know who we are. There’s no question what our identity is. It’s hanging on the wall, and we have a chapel. Parents come in and they feel that.
It starts with overall quality, overall identity — which for us is unashamedly Catholic — and then making sure the pathway is very clear for these kids to go there.
Q) You also worked to build a class identity and strengthen bonds, right?
A) We started a program called Fire 22. We branded an identity for the Class of 2022, made stickers and T-shirts, got them together and went bowling, brought them together for programming here, got them passes to games.
It was more than marketing. It was getting them into a mode where they had some friends.
For the younger kids, the camps are huge at Holy Family. There are a ton. My favorite is the Italian cooking class that Italian teacher Jacob Dueck does. They have to fight to get in.
Q) A business school at a high school is unusual. What’s your goal?
A) The program has a great foundation because of Robb Richter, a successful businessperson and former Holy Family parent. He was asked to take on business classes several years ago, and he started building the foundation for what we’re talking about now — some great classes and then introducing DECA (a student business organization).
I’ve been asked to come in and work with parents and administrators: What is it that’s going to serve our kids the best? And then wrap the whole Catholic and LaSallian ethos into it.
Q) Outside education, you worked for a fitness company called Discover Strength, helping it grow from eight locations to more than 40. And you’re still doing franchise development for Jet-Black International. How does being actively involved in business enrich what you can share with students?
A) Yesterday in class, we had a business ethics issue that came up, and I looked at the class, mostly ninth and 10th graders, and said, “I’ve got a really interesting example. I just got off the phone with the CEO of a company.” It was a real-time example. If they can see behind the curtain a little bit and learn the fundamentals, I think that’s great.
Q) You’re currently teaching an intro to business course and marketing and will be enlisting other teachers. Plus you’re bringing in business leaders to speak to the class, right?
A) Every two and a half weeks, someone from my world is coming in to talk. I’m going to teach the kids how to prepare for that as if they were meeting them in a meeting, how to spin through their LinkedIn, how to ask questions and then work on follow-up.
The kids are going to build the introduction to the speaker the day before. One will do a fond farewell at the end: “Hey, I really loved hearing about XYZ.”
I’ve also been collecting these small videos from businesspeople saying: “I wish I would’ve known in high school.” And I’m going to start each day with a quick video message. The goal is to bring in many businesspeople, because each speaker will inspire a different student.
Q) I love your emphasis on interpersonal skills.
A) On our second day of school, I said, “Come and shake my hand.” We shook everybody’s hand. How was your handshake? Then I told them, “Tomorrow you have to have this sheet filled out with 21 people who you shook hands with and introduced yourself to.” And now 50 kids have a new skill.
Next week we’re going to talk about how you can make yourself the most desired student in a classroom or a colleague everybody wants in a meeting. Here’s how you carry yourself and how you listen. Become a great conversationalist. You can learn that and embrace it.
Q) Are these soft skills more needed than ever?
A) One hundred percent. We’re well beyond COVID(-19), but COVID crushed a lot of that, jammed us into screens. It’s just easy to get on a screen.
I went into the year thinking we’d do less on paper and be on the computers, and on Day One, I saw them looking down at their computer screens, doing work, and I said, “Nope. Shut your computer. We’re up here, and the person is in front of you.” I did that pivot right away.
I’m the kind of person who likes a concrete plan. I had all these plans that literally changed on Monday. But looking back, I’ve had other experiences like that, where you just dive in and figure it out. There’s a lot of God in there.
Q) Does that training feel more important in the age of AI?
A) Yes. Being a great human and engaged like that is AI-resilient. AI is not replacing the fact that you care about somebody. If you’re at any kind of business, empathy and elevating others around you, showing up and wanting to be the very best, the reason someone wants to come to work, can’t be AI-generated. It just can’t.
Q) Do you look at that relationship building as Catholic in some way?
A) Community, genuine connection, ensuring that the person in front of you feels like you care about their well-being — all these principles are Catholic for sure. It completely fits who we are.
Q) It sounds like you feel called to do this work.
A) It’s like my running career. When I figured out that I could run and then I figured out that I could run really, really long distances, it felt like something I’m supposed to do. I’ve been given this gift, and I better use it and not deny it.
Q) How long is really, really long?
A) I run ultra-distance trail races. I’ve done the Superior 100 four times. From Gooseberry Falls up to Lutsen, get on the trail and don’t get off till the ski lodge — 104 miles. It takes me about 32 to 34 hours. Interesting things happen. A good friend who’s also an ultra-distance runner has had a conversation with her deceased grandfather. I see bears that aren’t there.
Q) What do you get out of that experience?
A) People need to do really hard things. It’s especially true with this new project. People have to choose to do it. Really hard things are actually going to happen, no matter what.
My workouts always start with chin-ups. They’re particularly hard because it’s just you and gravity. There’s no stack of weights, no person, and you can quit or fall. Doing a chin-up and holding it there for 60 seconds is really hard, and I’ve been doing it for 10 years. I think I was more ready for my dad passing away because I was running and doing that workout. The mindset you’re creating for your (Discover Strength) clients is maybe helping them prepare for something unforeseen. I firmly believe that.
So, you have to pick hard things to do. Learn how to play guitar. Go meet somebody. Why? Because I’m supposed to, on one level. And number two, that’s the hard thing I’m picking.
Q) How have you experienced God’s grace?
A) I think that grace has come from people who intersected with me at the moments I needed it. I’m not afraid to ask for help or tell people I’m struggling. Sometimes people just pop up.
Even the kids that first week back to school. I hadn’t been in a classroom that way for a very long time. And grace is what they’re giving. And I do think that that’s the God touch for sure. I didn’t ask them for grace. They just gave it.
Q) What’s your go-to prayer?
A) The LaSallian cadence of a prayer from Cretin has stayed with me. I’ll start with, “Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God.” I need to remember that, and then I get quiet. I always try to pray for someone else who I think needs it, ask for something and then try to give something.
Q) What do you know for sure?
A) We only have so many minutes. We’re going to die. Things end, seasons pass.
(Holy Family president) Mike Brennan said: “We have to remember that every kid in the school only gets one shot at everything we’re doing. They only get to be a freshman one time. They only get to be a senior once.” The mindset is making those experiences meaningful. What you do with those minutes is really important.
I want to think about what people put on my gravestone. I hope it’s something about making other people better. If I can use my minutes for that, in some shape or form, then it’s a life worth living.
