Coaching sisters Cassie Rhuems and Abby Farabi have been two of the most successful high school head coaches in Southeast Kansas over the last 15 years.

Rhuems coached Frontenac softball to five state titles (2016, 2019, 2022, 2024-25) and Farabi has coached St. Mary’s Colgan girls basketball into a perennial state tournament qualifier since taking over the job in 2011.

They were brought together for the first time during the 2026 season when Rhuems left Frontenac to become the Colgan softball coach and Farabi became an assistant.

The Panthers finished their season 27-3 overall and 12-0 CNC League and won the Class 2-1A state championship with a team featuring no seniors.

“It’s something that I have prayed would happen for a really long time,” Rhuems said. “We’re each other’s biggest fans and have been since we started our coaching journeys. It happened that she was at one place and I was at another. During basketball, I was always in the stands cheering her on and she always at my games doing the same thing for me.

“To have the opportunity to finally be on the same side of the chalk and share a dugout and share the passion that we both have for coaching and being around kids was just something incredible.”

“It was a lot of fun,” Farabi said. “It was different for sure getting to be the assistant coach and my role was a lot different than I had been used to, but it was an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often so I just wanted to seize it. It was just so much fun to be a part of it and just watch to how successful the kids were and be on the other side watching how good Cassie is with the kids.”

The Panthers were led on the field by all-state selections Bella Ascanio, Kylee Kretchmar, Callie Lundy, Drew Dayton and Kara Osborn.

“Obviously, the success that we had was totally awesome,” Rhuems said. “The journey we had with the kids watching them where they started to where they finished, it was so rewarding for all of us. Being able to share those moments with Abby and put our heads together during certain situations and just be able to talk amongst each other in the dugout during the game and being able to lean on her during pressure situations and rely on her during practice to get our outfielders in a better place, it’s just something that like I said I always prayed it would happen and it was better than I ever expected it to be.”

“I knew going in that we had the potential of being good, especially with Cassie being at the helm and Bella in the circle,” Farabi said. “The kids wanted to work hard, they wanted to be coached hard and I just think when you have kids like that and there’s someone that can get the most out of them like Cassie can, it’s a recipe for success.”

Rhuems’ and Farabi’s father and biggest fan, Francis Buche, passed away March 31, 2024.

“He definitely would have been so proud and he is proud of us,” Rhuems said. “I would have given anything to have him in that dugout with us. His health just took a turn for the worse at unexpected moments and he just never got that opportunity to share the dugout with us.

“But, he’s always with us and we are who we are in large part due to him and how he lived his life and the lessons he helped us learn about your effort and your attitude and how you treat people and how you show up everyday and give it your all and just having passion for what you’re doing.

“It would have been really awesome to have him in person with us. Gosh darn, he would have been grinning from ear to ear. He’s with us every step of the way, just in a different form and Abby and I still rely on him a lot and his advice and look to him for guidance a lot.”

“We were talking before this interview about the article several years ago and our dad was a big part of that,” Farabi said. “He had a shirt that said, ‘House Divided.’ He’s just been one of our biggest supporters through this journey coaching, whether it would be basketball or softball. Softball was always his love, so I think he would be so ecstatic that we were both doing it together right now.”

This sports reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/fund/support-local-journalism-project-fund