Latest / The BIG LIFE / A Journey from High School to College Soccer: High School Senior Brooke Allen Joins TBL!

Transcript

A Journey from High School to College Soccer: High School Senior Brooke Allen Joins TBL! · The BIG LIFE

0:00
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Big Light.
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First of all, Jordan and I just want to plug in and say we are so,
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so sorry for not having an episode last week.
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Life's a little crazy. The six-hour time zone difference makes things sometimes
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a little bit hard, and just with so much going on with college graduations,
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with everything, with professional soccer and finals, life did get the better of us.
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So we deeply apologize for that, and it will not happen again.
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But Jay and I are back this week. We're on summer vacation.
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It's officially Swedish summer. Jordan, how are you doing?
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I'm doing good. It's been summer here, so I'm glad you're finally getting a little piece of it.
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I'm sick of your snow videos in there. I was getting cold through the phone.
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I'm sick of seeing it, even through social media. So it's good.
0:48
College is wrapped up. We're fully into summer.
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I'm getting back with my knee here into full
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running and hoping to get on the ball here soon so that's
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going well and you know I'm still I went
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home for Mother's Day got to see the family a little bit back
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up at Michigan State now so taking care of some business here
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but it's been good how are things over in Sweden other than the warm summer
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yeah it's finally sweet summer which I have like been told is a dream but it's
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absolutely wonderful I think it's been like 72 and sunny with no humidity like
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the last five days it's been absolutely marvelous so So happy there.
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Season's going good. We're officially six games into season.
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It's been kind of a crazy week. We had three games in a eight-day turnaround.
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And so it's one of those bang, bang, bang. I kind of feel like we're playing in college again.
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My body wasn't really ready for that, but we're doing good.
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We're sitting fifth in the table out of 14, and we've had some really good results
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recently, which I'm super proud of the team and just starting to connect,
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get used to playing over here, the different playing styles.
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And I finally think I think I've just had a moment of peace and just.
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Knowledge that this is where I'm supposed to be you know there's obviously so
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many like oh like playing in the U.S.
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Versus playing in Europe there's all this debate all this stuff and you
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know I had a moment we were playing a team Hammerby who
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won the league last year and I realized
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I did my typical digging before the game I was
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like I'm defending someone who has spent years at Chelsea right
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now and then the girl who subbed her out was spent years at Man
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City and you know I do have to shout out my father real
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quick I texted my dad I go hey dad I'm marking someone who played
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at man city he writes back he's like man man city
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span city they should check out iowa city so my
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dad was my little hype man and you know that
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game went really really well for us and so for me just to be able to be like
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i'm doing this like this is my moment in my life right now i'm honestly feeling
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super super gracious also side note i am going to see kevin switch in stockholm
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this weekend so that might be why i'm feeling super gracious you never know
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oh my god we'll have to get the report on that. That sounds amazing.
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Or is Trey going as well? Trey and I are going. We have floor tickets because
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that's like the cheap option in Europe. It's very weird.
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So like general admission floor is like the cheap options. We're like, all right, bet.
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So I will report my saga of the Eros tour Stockholm edition next week. Very excited.
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Oh my God. Do you have an outfit? No, because it was the very last thing to
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go. So we're still building it. We're like, okay, how do we build friendship bracelets?
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Like, what are we doing? I think Trey's going to wear a t-shirt.
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I told Trey this. This is so Trey. I go, hey, we're going to get you a t-shirt.
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I'm just going to write Karma on it. Because, you know, like, Karma is my boyfriend.
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Sam, I'm not your boyfriend anymore. I'm your husband. So...
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There's not. Oh, Trey. How's he settling in? Enough about our lives.
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Jordan was able to find an amazing guest. Unfortunately, I was not there for
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this interview because it took place way past my bedtime Swedish time.
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So Jordan, I'm so thankful you were able to find someone that fantastic to fill my shoes.
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And I'm so happy to finally hear this interview of you and your guest.
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Yes, I got very, very lucky. Miss Brooke Allen, who is a senior in high school right now.
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We went to Brunswick together. I got to play with her for one year.
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I was a senior. She was a freshman.
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She is now committed to the University of Wisconsin.
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And we got to talk a lot about just the commitment process and recruiting process, how it's changed.
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You know, me and Sam have gotten a bunch of questions and we said,
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like, we're a little out to date at this point in our careers.
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Sam's freaking 80 years old over here, grandma, you know, and I'm going into my senior season.
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So it's changed so much. So being able to have fresh eyes and a fresh perspective
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on that process was super informative.
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Affirmative she's so well spoken for a senior in high school I
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was so impressed I mean it was like there's no way I could
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have done this when I was a senior so that and
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then she also is recovering from an ACL injury so being able
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to touch on all that and really learn about that process I think it was you
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know one of my favorite interviews and I'm a little bit biased because I love
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Brooke and I cannot wait to see her in the Big Ten this year so are you just
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saying that you're replacing me like listen Brooke you can be good but you can't
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be this good yeah absolutely that is exactly what what I'm saying.
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And I'm glad you picked up on that.
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Okay, good, good. Well, without further ado, my replacement,
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apparently, Brooke Allen.
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Thank you for joining us, Brooke. We have a lot of questions about how the recruiting
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process has gone and all that stuff.
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So we thought a great guest to bring on would be someone who is just joining
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the college scene here in the fall, Ms.
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Brooke Allen, who I got the privilege of playing a year with in high school
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and will We'll now see on the field again in the Big Ten season.
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So thank you for coming on, Brooke.
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Yes, of course. I'm so excited to be here. So the biggest question,
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like I said, we get is just about the journey.
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So can you just talk us through a little bit about who you are and how you kind
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of got to this place in terms of your younger career days and club soccer?
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Yeah. So growing up, I played for CFC and we were always just kind of in like
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normal league, like nothing that was going to like get us recruited, like just growing up.
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And then my freshman year of high school, basically how the ECNL works or at
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least how it used to work is that you have to play a year in the regional league
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before you can go right into the national league.
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So we, my freshman year of high school,
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we, I played ECRL and we were just blowing out teams like 8-0, 9-0.
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We like won our conference and went, we're one of the teams that went into the playoffs.
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So then my sophomore year, we started playing in the national league, which is ECNL.
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And that was just a completely like different experience.
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I'll never forget like every year they have showcases. So our first one that
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we went to was December of my sophomore year. And that was ECNL Tennessee.
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And all of a sudden there were just like college coaches up and down the sidelines.
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And I was just like, oh my gosh, like I've never seen this before.
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And like, I know they were, they were like, oh, there might be some colleges
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there, but it was truly like a whole different experience.
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And, you know, then they, we went to one of those like selection games and you
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see like the best players in the country play And there's hundreds of the best
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colleges and any college you can name just up and down the sideline.
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And you're just like, oh my gosh, it was truly like surreal.
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And my team was just, we honestly like weren't really, I think,
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I don't think we scored a single goal that entire weekend. I think we maybe had one.
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I think we, but I think we tied all of our games. So we just were kind of like still getting into it.
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But then our next showcase was in January, and we went to Florida.
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And that was the first time that Wisconsin saw me play.
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So that was almost two and a half years ago now.
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And honestly, they weren't on my radar at all. I had been emailing tons of coaches,
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and I kind of always wanted to play in the Big Ten, but I was still new to the
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recruiting process, so I hadn't done that much research.
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But after, I remember we were at soccer training, and my club coach,
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Coach Felton, and came up to me afterwards.
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And he was like, so here are the coaches that reached out to you.
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And I remember he said, University of Wisconsin.
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I was like, hmm. And so I went home and told my mom and she was like,
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oh my gosh, University of Wisconsin.
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I'm like, that's in the Big Ten. I was like, what?
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I was so excited. And so I did my research on them. I was like,
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this seems like a really good fit.
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And so at the time, we couldn't talk to coaches until June, I think it's June 15 of that year.
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So I kind of just like sat back and had like my coaches communicate with them.
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But what you can do is like, they invited us to invited me to an ID camp.
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And so I went up with my dad's to Wisconsin and did an ID camp.
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And honestly, I don't think that I've trained very well there.
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I was like so stressed out.
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And that was like my first one ever or no, my, it was like my second one,
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but I was like, Oh, I don't know if they're still interested And again,
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they couldn't like text me and be like, Hey, we liked how you played because
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that's you like, you can't do that at that stage.
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So they saw me play.
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At ecnl new jersey and then
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like the ecnl national playoffs in seattle until then
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finally like june 15th and i'll never forget that day
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like the whole day it was like 12 a.m i remember
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like there were multiple coaches that reached out at like 12 05 5
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a.m or whatever and i was like okay okay like good
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colleges but all i was that like email from
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wisconsin and i was like my mom was like you just need to get
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your mind off of this like go do something else i went to the pool with my
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friend and finally like I'm sitting there like just relaxing
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and I get a text and it was it was like hi this
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is Paula the head coach at Wisconsin and she
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was like we've really enjoyed seeing you play and I'd love to be
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a part of your recruiting process and I was like I literally think
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I started crying I was like so excited from that
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point on like I mean I was just talking with her like as much as
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I could getting to know like the assistant coaches and stuff and
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then like our my
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junior year of high school started and I was having like a really successful junior
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year and so then
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they invited me up on a visit like once that was possible and stuff and then
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like a week after my official visit they made me my offer and then like a week
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later I committed so yeah so it seems like you had your I set pretty quickly
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there once you heard about Yeah.
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I mean, my dad was always like, don't put all your eggs in a basket.
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But that is exactly what I did.
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And I mean, luckily, it worked out. But yeah, I mean, I had a couple other schools in mind.
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But like, I kind of knew, like, once they reached out that like,
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that was kind of where I wanted to go. So Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
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If it wasn't going to be Wisconsin, what were your backup schools?
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So the biggest other school that I was looking at was Xavier.
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And I think like the, I mean, they both have really good programs,
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but they're very different like schools.
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Wisconsin's obviously much bigger, completely different conference.
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So, I mean, it was a pretty big decision, but...
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Not a super difficult one at the
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end of the day so yeah how much did you know about
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Wisconsin before they reached out like did you know they're in the Big Ten
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or did your mom kind of bring that to life no honestly I I
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didn't I'd already I'd always seen like that like W logo like
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you know just like a big school like that but I didn't know that
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they were in the Big Ten and the reason I always wanted to play in the
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Big Ten is because all I knew was like Ohio State like oh I'm
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from Cleveland I like Ohio State and they're in the Big Ten so you
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know what I mean but I mean that's
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kind of all that I knew until I like
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the ID camp and I started like learning more about
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them and stuff and talking with the coaches yeah see I
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love that because I always get like dogged on because I knew so little going
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to the recruiting process like I was like I didn't know Michigan State was in
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the big 10 and it's not common people oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I was I was the
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same way and it's like I mean honestly like I follow like college sports but not like that closely.
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And I was also only like 15 at the time. So it's like, you're so young.
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Like, I don't know how you're expected to know all this stuff, but.
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Exactly. And it's interesting to hear how much the recruiting process has kind
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of changed because Sam, who's usually with me in her grandma years now,
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they were back in committing when they were like 12 years old. Oh yeah.
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And then I had the rule change kind of right in the middle of my process.
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So half my team committed prior to that June 15th date and the other half like me were
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later but you kind of started the process then we were
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dead and then you're back in it so to see how kind of how it's all you know
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shaped out and where it's at now it's been really interesting yeah it was definitely
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yeah it was definitely kind of like a learning curve because like just the coaches
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also like weren't completely familiar with it either like my club and,
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So it was like, like my parents honestly helped me so much with it.
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Like my dad was more of like the focusing on the soccer aspect of it and the
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training to get noticed.
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And then my mom was following all these pages and learning all about it online
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from like parents who had just gone through it, which was honestly super helpful
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because like you learn how to write emails and talk with adults and like,
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you know, be more professional,
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not just like a 15 year old.
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So yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
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And that was kind of the main way I went through the process was writing them
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emails, being like, come watch the showcases, come watch me play.
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What you see a lot of days now is like all over my Twitter and Instagram feed,
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I see kids using social media to get recruited. Was that ever something you did?
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Yeah so I honestly don't under really understand
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how people use like Instagram to I haven't seen
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like much people have success with that but I do think that
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Twitter is super good and I would totally recommend that for anybody going through
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the recruiting process because coaches can see it on their feet even if they
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don't follow you or whatever and so like what I would do like with the Wisconsin
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coaches is like I would follow them and they can't talk to you but you know
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if a coach follows you back, they know who you are and that they're interested.
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You know what I mean? So like they would follow me back and like other coaches
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from other schools would follow me back.
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And I was like, Hey, they also emailed me because also at the time you don't
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know whether an email is, Hey, we're trying to make like money and get you to
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come to our ID camp or, Hey, we're interested in you and trying to get you to come to our ID camp.
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So that was actually super helpful.
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And then like I could post highlight reels and stuff. And I got like a good,
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like just a couple hundred like coaches and
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like people following me but you know when people like and repost
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stuff but I mean though I see some girls have like thousands
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of followers but like like when people like and repost
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stuff then it like generates onto other people's feeds
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so I would definitely recommend Twitter I know there's
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like other like people will do your recruiting stuff for you but I don't know
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how trustworthy any of that is I don't I can't speak at any of that but yeah
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no that is really interesting because that was always a big struggle with us
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was figuring out who was actually interested and who just wanted you to spend money in the ID.
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I see a lot of people go both ways where they're like, oh, the school like really, really wants me.
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And it's like the generic email we all have in our inbox.
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And, you know, there's where like, I have no idea. And the school is trying
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to get their attention and it's hard to manage. So that's something really interesting.
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I never thought of those follows and likes and shares is a good way to tell
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because they're not going to do that for anybody.
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No, right. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So as you're going through this process,
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you're still playing club and it seems like your journey really started to take
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off once you're in high school.
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But at what point did you know that you were trying to pursue something past
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high school and that college was what you were interested in?
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So, I mean, I kind of always just had that vision in my mind.
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It was never really like I didn't want to play, I would say,
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more than like I did want to just because like growing up in club,
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like I think honestly, your older club team was a really big inspiration for
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that because like we had our big sis and little sis program and it was like,
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oh, that's Jordan. She's committed to Michigan State. eight.
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Oh, that's Peyton. She's going to Memphis. That's Shelby. She's going to Xavier.
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You know what I mean? And so it was like, all those girls are playing in college.
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Like that's going to be us soon.
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And then eventually like that was, that was, so it was kind of always just like,
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in the back of my mind, my dad also played in college.
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So it was kind of always just like discussion in our family too.
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Yeah. I honestly, I forgot you were part of that team, the little sis
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team yeah I remember I was like I
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Shelby was my big sis and it was
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like that first time in that like random hotel or something
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and I don't even remember how old I was but they had us
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do that like little scavenger hunt and stuff and you
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guys gave us like these metal mini juggling balls I still use
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mine to like train and stuff oh my god yeah
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that's crazy like in my
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head you guys never grew up like when I think back to
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that team like you guys are still little kids the fact that you're going
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to college now is absolutely insane I know it's
16:46
crazy yeah wow good times
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John Felton what a guy oh yeah
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did you kind of have a timeline that you wanted to commit by or was it just
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kind of going with the flow because for us there was more wiggle room with it
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because the rules were changing and nobody really knew what was going on and
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you're still figuring it out?
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Did you know you want to be committed kind of close that June 15th date?
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Or are you just waiting to see how things were? Did you have a timeline set?
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Yeah. So like, in my opinion, like, I don't think you can go on visits until
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it's like August 1st or something like that.
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So committing like between June, like before then was kind of just like,
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I want to be able to see my college camp, like really see it and stuff and do
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a visit and whatever, like before just committing.
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So that those couple of months were kind of just like whatever.
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And then I, but my goal was like to hopefully get committed before,
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like before the the end of that spring season just
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because I knew that the bigger colleges like the
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power five or now power four colleges are
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that's when they're committing their recruits and I mean as much as people want
17:59
to say like oh they'll still pick up one or two girls their junior year yes
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but the girl like their priority players like that's when they do their committing
18:08
and their recruiting and stuff as far as I've seen for most colleges at least
18:11
so I knew that like if I wanted to play at the highest level,
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that that would be the time that I should make a decision by. Yeah, absolutely.
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Going with that, the power five, now power four, and who knows what it will
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be by the time you actually play here.
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You are going to end up playing in a much different scenario than you originally committed to.
18:33
Do you have any kind of thoughts or opinions on that with the addition of schools
18:37
along with, which hopefully it doesn't affect you, but the unlimited transfer
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rule, which even if you're not transferring out, you can still bring additional
18:44
players into your program or have other players maybe decide to leave or things of that nature.
18:49
With all those rule changes and situations, what are your thoughts on that going
18:53
into this first college season?
18:56
Yeah, I mean, I think it's super exciting, the schools that are joining from Big Ten.
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I mean, obviously, like, UCLA, USC, we go to California and play them this year.
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And I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's, like, that's crazy.
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That's a really cool experience that you never forget.
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I also think, like, it's just, it changes things so much.
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Like, I think a lot of it has to do with, like, the money and stuff behind it,
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which is, you know, is it better for the athletes? It's, you know,
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I don't know too much about like behind the scenes of that, but I think it's a cool opportunity.
19:29
But yeah, I mean, I don't know too much about it.
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I just, I wonder, you know. yeah yeah it's definitely i mean something because
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i got three years of the normal.
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Normal big 10 up until this point which is
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something that's just super interesting to think about i do think it makes our
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conference it kind of elevates that competition level for sure addition of the
19:53
schools and who knows where this will go by the time you're graduating but it'll
19:57
be interesting to watch for sure yeah i think like the the thing i mean with
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like the The money and stuff behind it is I think that,
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you know, we've cut now power fives down to power for UCLA, USC,
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Oregon, Washington or joining the Big Ten.
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And it's like these schools are getting so much money, so much like I don't
20:19
want to say power, but power.
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And then what's going to happen to all of the mid-major schools?
20:24
You know, nobody wants to play there anymore because literally like the bigger
20:28
schools are completely taking over is kind of how I see it.
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And those schools are just not going to have as much money and stuff,
20:36
which is just going to create an even bigger gap.
20:39
But which will probably happen while I'm playing. So we'll see how that plays
20:44
out. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
20:46
I actually wrote a paper on this, like a whole essay in high school when they
20:51
were first bringing up the thought of NIL.
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And I would love to find it now because it was basically predicting what would
20:59
happen if they ever opened it up with the separation between the conferences.
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And then my prediction, essentially, in my essay was that eventually you'd have
21:08
complete separation from the power conferences from NCAA and they'd become their
21:12
own entity, which would be really interesting if that plays out because it's all money.
21:18
And a lot of it is tied to the NIL opening up, which has huge benefits for those
21:22
top schools and programs.
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But like you said, those mid-majors and some of the lower leagues who don't
21:27
have the funding that our schools do, which luckily we're a part of that.
21:33
It'll be interesting to see how it comes out for them and how they manage that with the funding.
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But going with that, like NIL can be great, can be bad, you know,
21:41
positives and negatives.
21:42
Does Wisconsin do anything like team-wide deals or anything like that for NIL with you guys?
21:49
Not that I've been aware of yet. I haven't honestly not talked to my coach about any of that stuff.
21:55
But I do see some of the Wisconsin girls doing deals with restaurants in Madison
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or certain drinks or programs that they become a part of for a certain cause or something.
22:08
I'm not exactly sure how all of that works, honestly, yet, because it's all so new.
22:13
But I think it's a really cool concept, I think.
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It really is just such like a jump from the football players that are making
22:21
millions of dollars, you know, to like many, most players won't get anything from that.
22:27
But I think it is a cool concept because you have these players that are bringing
22:31
in like the football players or whatever, they're bringing in millions of dollars from the school.
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And yes, their college is paid for, but is that enough to really justify how
22:42
much work and how much stress and how their school life and stuff is completely
22:47
jeopardized by their sport?
22:49
Can they get anything else out of that? You know what I mean?
22:53
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm interested to see, and the reason I asked was because
22:58
I wonder how it will change the recruiting process in the future if they'll
23:02
start tying NIL deals, if they have team deals into their kind of scholarship bundle.
23:06
They'll be like, we'll offer you 50% athletic scholarship, but we can give you
23:11
maybe 30, 40, 50% in terms of NIL deals.
23:14
Because if we have team-wide deals or things like that in connections,
23:18
which I think definitely a few schools have to be doing, even for women's soccer,
23:23
which is definitely a lower level than the football players who I know are getting
23:28
just ridiculous amounts of money.
23:30
But it'll be interesting to see how that yeah is out
23:33
and changes the recruiting process as well it seems like you
23:35
you had your eyes set in Wisconsin pretty early but what kind
23:38
of drew you into them other than the competition level was
23:41
there certain things and criterias you had in a school that they checked off
23:44
yeah so I kind of had like my main criterias and like honestly this sounds like
23:50
so stupid when I say this but I'm not like because it's gonna feel like oh she's
23:54
just saying this because she committed there but honestly like there wasn't
23:56
anything that they were missing like when I would look at other schools like.
24:00
They were missing like the location. Like I don't really, like if I didn't play
24:04
soccer there, I wouldn't really want to go to school there or,
24:06
you know, their program was like, okay.
24:08
But you know, when I looked at Wisconsin, I looked at first,
24:11
like the coaches and the team, I mean, Paul is one of the best coaches in women's
24:15
soccer and their team has been consistently ranked a top 2025 team in the country
24:20
consistently do well in playoffs.
24:22
So that was easily checked off. And then I looked at the location.
24:27
I mean, Madison is one of the top college campuses and just surrounded by two
24:33
lakes right in the capital city.
24:35
It's beautiful there. Oh, academics, of course.
24:39
And I mean, it's a high academic school and their business school,
24:43
which is what I'm going to be majoring in, is one of the best in the country.
24:48
So, I mean, those are kind of like my main three things.
24:51
And, and then also like distance, you know, could my family see me play?
24:54
And it is an eight hour drive, which to most people, like when I say that,
24:58
they're like, you're going to Wisconsin.
25:00
Like, I don't know anybody going that far, but I'm like, I think when you play
25:03
in a league like the ECNL and you're traveling every single weekend and you're
25:07
traveling five times a year, somewhere eight hours away,
25:10
you're flying to San Diego to play in the playoffs and Seattle to play in the
25:14
playoffs that it's like, what's another eight hour drive? a couple of times a year.
25:19
You know what I mean? So that's kind of how me and my family felt about it.
25:22
And it's not like we have to fly. We could drive if we wanted to.
25:26
I don't think I would have gone and played completely across the country.
25:31
I kind of kept that in mind during
25:32
my recruiting. I wasn't really emailing coaches too far West, but yeah.
25:39
Yeah, no, I think that's a great list. The distance is definitely something
25:43
like you mentioned, when you travel all the time, eight hours really isn't that far.
25:50
If you can drive it, if it's manageable to drive in a day, I mean,
25:54
that's practically next door. Yeah.
25:57
Right. Exactly. That's how I felt about it too. I think it does depend on how you grew up.
26:02
I mean, if I grew up, some leagues you stay in your state or just the surrounding
26:07
states, it would have been different. But,
26:10
I mean, we've been to Tennessee for probably 15 times and that's like a nine
26:16
hour drive. So I'm like, whatever.
26:20
Yeah, I will say I think Wisconsin is my favorite school that I've played at.
26:24
Your guys' downtown area, the environment.
26:27
I absolutely loved it. It was so nice.
26:30
Yeah, State Street is super cool. I mean, it's like right in the capital and
26:35
like you've got all these shops and restaurants. ounce.
26:38
And I know the sophomores are staying in an apartment this year that I think
26:41
is like right on that street or right by it or something.
26:44
So definitely looking forward to that.
26:48
Yeah. Yeah. That's another huge part that you look at is kind of the dorms,
26:51
that living situation going into it. What is Wisconsin with that?
26:56
So yeah, our freshman year we're in dorms and it's with like one other girl
27:00
and we have our roommates and stuff figured out.
27:03
And then after that, it's kind of just like apartments. I
27:07
know out the sophomores they're all I I think they're all in like one or two
27:10
apartments this year and what we're doing for the pre-season so like we like
27:17
all of the incoming freshmen we got our like this little house that we're all
27:21
going to share so that will be kind of fun but.
27:26
Yeah so what's the your dorms is it communal bathrooms is it suite bathrooms did you say that,
27:34
so I'm yeah so we it's like two dorms
27:38
share one bathroom so it's like four people share one bathroom two people in
27:42
each dorm so and then yeah that our roommate is somebody else soccer team so
27:47
and then the other two people I think like can be other athletes or other just
27:53
regular students I'm not completely sure but,
27:57
Yeah. Yeah. Cause that's always interesting. The difference in the universities
28:00
because Michigan State,
28:01
we have sweet style our freshman year and then you room with another soccer
28:06
and then your suite mates are usually gymnastics or field hockey girls to give
28:11
you a little bit of a break in there.
28:12
And then you have to stay on campus for us for two years.
28:16
So we have on-campus apartments if you get into them.
28:18
Yeah. Now you have to file an exemption or go back to dorms,
28:22
but you have to be on campus for two years. So it's always interesting hearing the difference Yeah.
28:26
No, yeah, definitely. Yeah. So you said you're in a house for preseason.
28:30
When does that start for you guys? When's your return date for play?
28:34
Yeah. So our first day of captain's practices is July 8th. So I'm planning to
28:39
head up there July 6th, July 7th.
28:42
So, I mean, it's not like extremely early, but not like, I mean,
28:47
a couple of my other friends are going up at the end of July, first week of August.
28:52
So you know it seems early but like it's not i mean that's what you expect like
28:58
from bigger programs and what is necessary if you want to have a successful
29:02
season getting to know the team,
29:04
and getting comfortable with
29:06
the level of play and stuff so i mean i think it's completely reasonable,
29:09
absolutely i think that's pretty typical for at least the big 10 for the people
29:13
i've talked to and honestly i kind of forgot how long summer is because my brother's
29:18
home for the summer now like when are you going back he's like maybe like end of august i'm like what,
29:24
yeah here for like four months you're just home that's great yeah and i think
29:29
we kind of have an advantage at wisconsin because we don't start school till
29:33
super late i'm not sure exactly when but i at my mom just said after labor day so.
29:43
Like we have like most of our soccer, at least half our soccer season is out
29:47
of the way by the time school starts.
29:49
So we don't have such a, you know, struggle balancing.
29:52
I think that's the biggest thing is balancing school and soccer.
29:55
But, you know, we don't have that for too long.
29:59
Absolutely. Like in season. Yeah, that's huge, especially freshman year,
30:04
being able to go in, acclimate with the team, being able to figure out your
30:08
role and everything before throwing academics on top of it.
30:11
Right. I think it makes a huge difference.
30:13
So that'll be, that'll be nice. What's kind of most exciting thing you're looking
30:18
forward to going into the college, college world?
30:21
Honestly, just kind of like just a fresh start, like just with like this recovery
30:26
and everything, it's just, it gets repetitive and you know, it's not like I'm sad leaving.
30:35
I'm obviously sad leaving high school soccer and club soccer behind,
30:37
but I've already, it's not like I just ended my high school career and now I'm
30:42
saying goodbye to all my club teammates.
30:43
It's like, I kind of have gotten over that. Like, you know, it took me a couple
30:47
of months, but I got over that a while ago.
30:50
So it's like, now I've just been waiting and waiting.
30:53
So I'm just ready for like a new team to get back into that team aspect of things
30:57
and to just start fresh with everything. So.
31:01
Yeah, absolutely. Going into your injury a little bit, you tore your ACL in
31:07
the very beginning of fall high school season. do you know the date?
31:12
August 21st. Okay so you're looking at kind of the end of this recovery process
31:17
for your ACL journey how has that been like what are when did you tear it like
31:24
how did you tear it and then what was that process like of fixing it and figuring
31:29
out what your next steps were?
31:31
Yeah so it was just right in the start of the second half of the game and I just went in for a.
31:40
Good because I knew right away, but also bad because I knew right away.
31:44
Like I heard a couple pops and I felt my knee just go boom, boom, gave out.
31:49
And it was such a weird feeling. It was like, suddenly you have like,
31:52
you just, you couldn't even stand up. And I just like completely fell over.
31:57
And I just like, you always hear like growing up, I was terrified of tearing
32:02
my ACL because it's become so common in women's sports.
32:04
And it's about the worst injury you can have, of especially for
32:08
soccer like such a putting heavy sport and
32:11
so you always hear like that infamous like oh if you hear a pop like
32:14
and I was like well I heard three pops so that's probably not a good thing and
32:21
that first night was probably the hardest night ever because I was just like
32:25
it just doesn't like feel real I was like I remember when I stood up and Kira
32:30
our trainer finally got me to walk off the field.
32:33
And I was like, this is literally the last time I will ever step foot on this
32:37
field. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so sad.
32:40
And she was like, like, I mean, they can't really like diagnose you right then
32:45
and there, but like she did the test and my ACL was not there.
32:49
And then luckily I was able to get in and see my surgeon the next morning.
32:53
I had like, literally like the best care possible I'd say throughout my recovery.
32:58
So I was super grateful for that. I saw my surgeon the next morning and you
33:02
have to wait to see the MRI, but he was like, I'm 99.9% sure you tore your ACL,
33:08
possibly your meniscus.
33:09
They can't tell until you get into surgery.
33:12
And then I also sprained my MCL.
33:15
So I was like, okay, great.
33:19
So yeah, the first, luckily, I mean, it was like, I got my surgery like two
33:25
weeks, two and a half weeks after it happened.
33:28
So that was good. I mean, I got it. I was able to get my legs straight,
33:30
get the swelling out of the way and get into surgery pretty quick,
33:34
which was September 7th.
33:37
But I mean, yeah, the first couple of weeks, it just didn't feel real because
33:40
you can still walk and you feel fine.
33:42
I wasn't in any pain, but it was just like the reality of like,
33:45
you know, I'm still going to practice every day, but for what, you know what I mean?
33:50
Like trying to cheer my team on was super hard, but I'd say the biggest thing, it was good.
33:57
It was super busy time. Like a couple of days later, we had senior sunrise and,
34:02
you know, there were football games and stuff. off.
34:04
So I was trying to keep myself busy, but I mean, yeah, it didn't feel real.
34:10
And then after surgery, when I woke up from surgery, the biggest thing my surgeon
34:15
said was, you did tear your meniscus and you'll be on crutches for six weeks,
34:20
which was like six weeks of literal hell.
34:24
I'm not a very coordinated, which sounds stupid, but I mean,
34:28
I'm 6'1". I'm not But I'm not great with knowing where my feet are.
34:32
And like, you know, so being on crutches for six weeks and going to school and
34:37
going to soccer practice every day and not being able to drive as a senior in
34:41
high school and not being able to go to the football games was like the worst
34:46
thing I've ever definitely had to go through.
34:49
And then also me and my Wisconsin teammates did our unofficial visit while I was still on crutches.
34:54
So trying to, which I had a fun weekend, but trying
34:58
to get around the college campus on crutches about killed
35:01
me so yeah the crutches
35:04
are definitely the worst part but after that I
35:07
mean things with my recovery have gone so well I literally the hardest part
35:12
was getting my knee straight which I know a lot of people have struggles with
35:16
because I also have a 10 degree hyperextension in my leg so trying to get that
35:20
back was difficult but besides that I've had a very pain-free recovery,
35:27
which is pretty unheard of for like ACL tears.
35:32
So, I mean, I, I'm very grateful for that.
35:35
My quad, the next, the day after surgery, I was able to activate my quad and
35:39
start doing like lifting it in the air and doing exercises and stuff.
35:43
So, and then, you know, getting into the gym was, I was in a brace for a while.
35:48
So it was just kind of like embarrassing, like, oh, I have to go to the gym.
35:51
Everybody from my school goes here. I can't even squat the bar.
35:56
Like I can't even, I can barely even walk right now.
35:59
Like that was really hard but I'd
36:02
say the biggest like relief was once I started being
36:05
able to do stuff with the ball again and that was like around like four months
36:10
and since then the process has been like 10 times easier because you just miss
36:14
that so much and you don't even realize it but it's like such a big part of
36:19
your life and yeah I mean my touch came back right away and since then
36:23
it's just been, you know, everything with soccer while trying to balance the
36:28
strength and stuff. But yeah.
36:31
Yeah. So when you tear your meniscus, the crutches portion, that's non-weight bearing, isn't it?
36:37
Correct. So it was non-weight bearing for the first two weeks, I believe.
36:43
And then the last four weeks, it was like 25% weight bearing,
36:46
which is basically meaning like you want
36:49
to get the walking motion back down but like I
36:53
honestly I think it would have been easier to just non-weight bearing
36:56
because then it's like you have to walk so much slower because you're
36:59
genuinely like trying to relearn how to walk but I think if you're non-weight
37:03
bearing for completely six weeks without even doing that I think relearning
37:07
to walk would be a lot harder and it was hard to begin with I mean I have a
37:12
video of myself trying to walk for the first time and it was like oh my my gosh,
37:16
like I almost collapsed and I had to like use the crutches for another couple
37:20
of days trying to relearn how to do it.
37:22
And yeah, it was, it was definitely like, it was definitely hard,
37:27
but yeah, that, that I'd say that was the biggest thing with the meniscus is
37:30
people are like, oh, you tore your meniscus too.
37:33
Well, that's going to lengthen your recovery and it doesn't,
37:37
it just makes the beginning a heck of a lot harder.
37:40
But once I was done with that six weeks, I was at the same rate as somebody with an ACL tear.
37:45
It was just getting through that six weeks, which I mean, does suck because
37:50
when you just have surgery, you don't want to be told that told that right away.
37:56
Yeah. Yeah. You definitely, that's the last thing you want is any more bad news
38:01
after waking up someone cutting your leg open.
38:05
Oh yeah so you you tore
38:08
your ACL and your meniscus in a high
38:11
school soccer game yes you have you know a lot of parents that's kind of their
38:16
biggest fear and that's kind of why they pull their kids from it or kids choose
38:20
not to play high school soccer what are your thoughts on that and do you have
38:24
any regrets from playing high school yeah no regrets at all I mean I think you
38:29
kind of would definitely agree with me on this.
38:32
I think that Brunswick has such a special program and the best three years of
38:38
playing soccer I could have asked for. I mean, I looked forward to it every fall.
38:42
And I think when you, you know, have the platform that me and you do is like,
38:46
you know, we were the goal scorers of our team and stuff. It is so much fun.
38:50
And if you make the best of it, it, it truly is.
38:53
I mean, my junior year, I still think will like always be like the most fun, best year of my life.
39:00
And you know I think to people that say like you
39:03
can't if if you're going to play high school soccer you know you're not
39:06
going to play in college it's going to make it hard to play in college I don't
39:10
believe in that at all because obviously you can still do plenty of recruiting
39:14
during a long club season I mean it seriously is high school is only a couple
39:19
months so you know if you can't make the best of it with those other nine months
39:22
of the year then that's on you and And also I think that college coaches,
39:26
I know my coach agrees, like,
39:29
you know, yeah, I can score six or seven goals against a high school team.
39:35
And they'll be like, that's not preparing you for college.
39:37
Any type of goal scoring is, you know, is goal scoring, whether it's against
39:42
shitty team or a great team.
39:44
I mean, you're still getting comfortable from shooting and from all different
39:48
types of angles and like stuff like that.
39:50
So I think that it prepares you no matter what it prepares you to play under
39:54
pressure. I mean, we had, We would get tons of people at our games.
39:58
And I mean, it prepares you to be a leader like us on our team.
40:01
We were captains and stuff like that's preparing you to kind of take that step.
40:06
So, yeah, I mean, I have no regrets. I think it also gives you a ton of confidence.
40:12
Club season was the first two years was like a struggle for me because I mean,
40:18
I was getting recruited and stuff, but it was still like I wasn't a top player
40:24
on my team. I wasn't always starting and stuff.
40:26
So, you know, then when I would go into high school season, I would get that
40:31
confidence back and it really did help my soccer career so much.
40:36
And I give a ton of credit to that. So.
40:38
Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad you said that. I think I'm the biggest advocate for high school soccer.
40:44
I'm also very biased. Ford was my coach since I was like two years old.
40:49
It feels like, I think he was like one of my first ever soccer coaches. is
40:52
yeah being able to play for him and play for brunswick honestly i
40:56
think everyone in our area in brunswick played high school
40:59
that went on to play at the next level maybe one
41:01
or two kids didn't but yeah you know it
41:04
was it was a great experience and when you say like
41:07
goal scores you're being modest like brooke would have broke every single i
41:12
think high school record there is to rake in her senior season if you had the
41:16
opportunity to and yeah there's there's no doubt about that so i definitely
41:20
think there's a lot to learn from high school and like you said same thing here
41:22
like i wasn't probably the best kid on my club team like not even close.
41:27
Getting the opportunity to become a leader and have a voice that I never would
41:30
have had otherwise on club team, it forces you to grow up a lot.
41:34
And I don't think there's any preparation like that for college when you have
41:38
peers coming to your games.
41:40
That's a whole different level of pressure than parents and then a coaching
41:43
staff. You know, they're adults.
41:45
It's one thing to introduce yourself to strangers, but to your own peers and
41:49
doing all that and being able to perform under that type of pressure.
41:52
You know, it's a whole different level. So I love
41:55
that you said that I love high school soccer and I get
41:58
those questions so often about like parents not wanting
42:01
to do it and you know I if you
42:04
have a good enough team I say go for it all the time so I'm glad
42:07
you don't regret it yeah oh I think me and you
42:10
are kind of the best examples of that you can do both
42:13
you can play high school soccer and you can go on to play at
42:16
a high level college team so yeah absolutely
42:20
and like you said what are you doing with the other nine months you know you have so so
42:23
much time to figure it out and get right yeah colleges
42:26
aren't even looking at you in the fall anyways because they have their own season
42:29
going on they're busy exactly they're in their own season they're busy so they're
42:34
not focused on that either so yeah so what's your you know just kind of wrapping
42:40
it up here with that what's your favorite soccer memory.
42:44
So I'd have to go with my junior year.
42:49
We played North Ridgeville and it was like our second game of the season.
42:54
And I remember our first game of the season started off not good.
42:58
Like I didn't have a great game. I scored a goal, but I wasn't feeling good.
43:02
And I was like, oh gosh, it's going to be a long season if I keep playing like crap and whatever.
43:07
And then the second game, I just went into it and I was like,
43:09
okay, like I need to set the tone for the season.
43:12
Like I need to straighten things out. out and we were
43:15
up like I think it was three to one at half I had two goals and then going into
43:20
the second like second half early on they tied it up it was three three and
43:24
I will say there were like a bunch of people at this game like I think they
43:27
had a student section we had a big student section so it's just super exciting
43:31
you know we were playing under the lights it was three to three,
43:34
and then I scored it was four to three and then they
43:36
scored it was four to four and then with like a couple minutes
43:39
left I scored a PK and we won the game like five to
43:42
four and it was just like such an
43:45
exciting thing and I got pictures with my friends after the game
43:48
and like I don't know I that was definitely like my favorite soccer memory ever
43:54
just because like the whole game was you know sometimes you have games where
43:56
like you have a really good goal but then like the rest of the game just like
43:59
but that one was like the whole thing was just super special so yeah yeah that I I mean, absolutely.
44:07
There's nothing like it. Like
44:08
when your friends come afterwards and you get to share that with them.
44:11
Like you said, you're going to Tennessee so often, nobody's doing that for your club games.
44:16
So being able to share that moment, I think it's a huge part of college soccer,
44:21
especially like Wisconsin and Michigan State, they have big sections where you
44:25
come afterwards and you're like, you get to see everyone that's actually cheering
44:29
you on at a different level.
44:30
It's a whole different experience. And I'm really excited for you to be a part of it
44:34
because you know it's been a minute it's
44:37
been a minute since we got to share the book I know
44:40
I know I'm so
44:43
excited yeah so one more question a little bit serious now I forgot to ask it
44:50
early but once you found out you were injured how did you go about telling your
44:55
coaching staff and what was their reaction your Wisconsin coaching staff those
44:59
first couple days I was just not in a good mental state.
45:02
I could not think about anything without crying.
45:05
My face was just, oh, it was awful.
45:10
And I knew that I could not get on the phone with my coaches,
45:13
which to this day, I feel bad about because I think I could have handled it better.
45:17
But genuinely, I don't think I would have been able to get a word out.
45:20
So I cut myself some credit there.
45:22
I mean, I still choking up talking about it nine months late,
45:25
almost nine months later. Yeah. So.
45:29
The next morning, I texted my coach, and I was like, what did I say?
45:35
I was like, obviously, I never wanted to have to send you this text,
45:40
but last night, I went down during my high school soccer game,
45:43
and my surgeon is 99.9% sure that I tore my ACL.
45:49
Obviously, this really sucks, and I did
45:52
not want to have to go through this right before coming up there
45:55
but you know I'm going to work so hard to be
45:58
able to come back and try and make an impact my freshman
46:01
year and obviously like I got
46:04
a ton of people like when you
46:07
tell people that like the first thing people would say is like oh my gosh your
46:10
scholarship's going to get taken away right or oh my gosh you're not going to
46:13
be able to plan in college anymore and I'm like that is so not true and at least
46:18
for my program and Paula and stuff that was just completely untrue she I think what she said was,
46:26
we've got you, don't worry about it. We know you're going to come back.
46:30
Once she said that, I remember I was crying.
46:33
I was like, it felt so nice to hear that because as much as I knew,
46:38
she wasn't going to take my scholarship away or take my position away.
46:42
It's still such a scary thing to go through.
46:45
Once she just said, we've got you.
46:48
It kind of just relieved a ton of my nerves and stuff and I was like okay now I've got to focus on,
46:55
doing my part to you know thank her for for
46:58
that so yeah absolutely I think that
47:01
just reiterates the choices you make and it's another thing
47:04
to look at yeah who's a program you know
47:06
you want someone who's going to be there for you through the good times and the hard
47:09
you know good times and the bad times just as
47:12
much as you're gonna work your butt off for them to be the best player
47:15
you can be on the field you need their support as well and to have
47:18
a relationship with your coaching staff where it's that two-way support system
47:22
and to have that open communication i think
47:24
is that's amazing and i'm so happy to hear it yeah you know and don't get me
47:29
wrong like college soccer is it's very cutthroat you know i've yeah michigan
47:33
state i think we're pretty open about it has one of the biggest turnover rates
47:38
and and yep 10 or maybe ncaa like some kids.
47:43
Are cut out for it some kids aren't but you
47:47
get a lot of like these outside views for it and
47:49
they're like you're just taking scholarships left and
47:52
right and you're doing this and anytime any minor inconvenience happens
47:55
they're like oh you're done you're like that's that's
47:58
not their quality at all like it's it's as much as you put in
48:01
as they give back to you and it's a relationship both ways
48:04
so I'm so happy to hear you say that and like I know
48:07
it's the hardest conversation in the world and while my injury is
48:10
you know grateful it's a fraction
48:13
of the recovery time and as serious as yours is you
48:16
know I tore my PCL and I still haven't been on the ball for it it's been like
48:20
too long in my opinion but one or two months I think we're yeah closing in on
48:26
two months but the hardest part was telling my coaching staff having to go in
48:30
there and be like I'm so sorry but but I'm hurt.
48:36
Like I can't play for you. I can't do the thing I love and I can't do the thing
48:40
you hired me to be here for.
48:43
And in that moment, I think for me, it was like.
48:48
It felt and i i overthink things a
48:51
lot for sure but it was like did i just like end my career did
48:54
i just end my career by doing this not because i won't be healthy good enough
48:57
for the fall but like will they forgive me for being hurt for
49:00
getting hurt right you know and you
49:02
have the conversation and it's like you're totally
49:05
fine you know like it happens it's a part of the game it's a
49:08
part of college it's part of life like you're gonna get hurt at
49:11
times and it'll all be you're okay in the end so I'm
49:15
glad I will say like I'm sorry to girls who
49:18
are like going through recruiting and stuff it's definitely something
49:21
to ask your coaches before you commit because it was a big thing and like my
49:25
mind just I've had little injuries here and there but nothing ever this major
49:29
obviously but you know it is something that you think about and I've had friends
49:32
who have torn their ACLs and stuff and I would ask my coaches you know like
49:36
when I was talking to them I'm like,
49:38
what would happen if, you know, you have a long injury, like an ACL or something,
49:43
and you can kind of tell right away, like what their response is to that.
49:48
Like, you know, our coaches were like, on my visit, they were like,
49:51
yeah, I mean, we take care of you. We don't take your scholarship away.
49:54
And then other coaches will be like, well, it's definitely, I mean,
49:57
it's definitely something that sucks. Like it's a hard, long injury.
50:00
And I was just like, okay.
50:01
So what does that mean? You know what I mean?
50:05
So it's definitely something, I mean, as much as I want to say every coach would
50:10
react the same way as my coach did.
50:12
I don't think that that's true. So it's definitely something to consider.
50:16
Yeah, absolutely. And as hard as it is physically having to relearn all of that,
50:20
you know, walking and bending your knee and getting back on the ball and getting
50:23
your touch, the hardest part is the mental aspect of it.
50:27
Have you done anything or what has kind of been your focus, getting yourself
50:32
mentally prepared to be back and to not just be back, but to level up in terms of the college life.
50:41
Yeah. So I'd say like my biggest piece of advice would be, you kind of have to let yourself,
50:47
feel it through and let yourself grieve because nine, like, you know,
50:51
being eight, nine months out is a long time for somebody who's playing at a
50:56
high level. And that's like soccer is your entire life.
50:59
And I think that a lot of girls will try and, you know, right away,
51:01
just be like, okay, it happened.
51:04
You know, I need to get over this. But I think that, I mean,
51:07
the first four or five months of my recovery were super mentally draining for
51:12
me and, you know, super hard to get myself to go to the gym every day.
51:15
I was, you know, it was, it was really hard, but I think that when you let yourself
51:20
feel those things out and kind of go through that, that once you start playing
51:24
again and stuff, it will almost completely go away.
51:28
And at least that's what happened for me. So now I feel a lot more mentally
51:32
stable and, you know, I feel, it feels like it used to, you know,
51:35
where I'm not, I'm not afraid to do stuff anymore.
51:37
And, but I do think it's super important to let yourself kind of have those,
51:41
I mean, couple months because you have the time to let yourself grieve and process
51:46
kind of what happened. So.
51:48
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And especially with, I'll take this opportunity with
51:52
May being mental health awareness month, especially when you're dealing with
51:56
it, it is okay to fall apart at times.
51:58
If you ever need help or you ever need to do anything, you can always reach
52:02
out and And there will be people to help you for that.
52:05
988 is the number to call if you ever need it.
52:09
But I definitely agree. Like you're going to fall apart a little bit and then
52:13
you're going to put yourself together and you're going to be okay in the end. Like it will come back.
52:17
And I think that's the hardest part is trusting that process,
52:20
especially when you lose so much, you know, you feel like you'll never be the same again.
52:24
And you really just have to trust yourself and your ability to get back and
52:28
your doctors and their timeline and all that, you know, and you will.
52:32
You'll be back and I'm sure you're gonna kick some butt this fall I'm so excited
52:37
to see it but if you had one piece of advice to leave a younger kid you know
52:43
trying to maybe go to Wisconsin what piece of advice would you give them?
52:48
Join a club team where you're going to get seen because at the end of the day,
52:54
you can be as good as you want.
52:56
If you're not playing in front of coaches and you're emailing,
53:00
but you're emailing them at the end of the day, you have to,
53:03
they have to see you play. And the only way to do that is to play.
53:07
I mean, in my personal opinion, the ECNL is by far the best platform right now.
53:12
I know GA has some top club teams too, but get on a club team where you can be.
53:18
Seen by those types of coaches because they don't just go
53:21
to random showcases 30 minutes away from
53:24
your house and as many times
53:27
as you email them you know if you're playing
53:30
in a league that they've never heard of they're not going to keep watching your
53:34
highlight videos and you know what I mean so I'd say that would be my biggest
53:39
piece of advice yeah I think it's that's definitely a good piece of advice and
53:43
it's something that's changed a lot since me and Sam have gone through it I
53:46
think Definitely, at this point,
53:48
the ECNL is the top league that I see a lot of the coaching staff at this level go to.
53:56
Not that it's the only league out there, but it's definitely one that if you're
53:59
looking to go to the Big Ten specifically, it's a league I would take a look at for sure.
54:06
I know some ECNL teams are hard to make, especially if you've got a team of
54:12
girls that have been playing together. other, even their regional league,
54:15
they still get colleges at their games.
54:17
I know we have regional league girls that are committed to play D1.
54:21
So does, you know, internationals, which is an ECNL team nearby.
54:25
So even the regional league is still, you're still going to get seen even if
54:29
you're not on the first team. So.
54:32
Yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much, Brooke, for coming on and sharing your wisdom with us.
54:39
It has been so nice to catch up with you and get to talk to you again.
54:42
I truly can't believe how much you've grown up since freshman year.
54:46
And I can't believe it's been that long.
54:48
How much have you grown since freshman year? Because you definitely weren't six years old freshman.
54:54
I was five, six, five, seven my freshman year.
54:59
And then I kept growing like two inches every year and
55:01
yeah it's definitely unexpected
55:04
but yeah I remember I was like I thought that like you
55:07
maybe you were like the same height as me or something yeah maybe you're like
55:13
a little bit taller but you definitely yeah no yeah it's it's been crazy and
55:18
yeah it's definitely unexpected and a challenge with soccer too because it's
55:23
not a like height like I mean you don't get
55:27
a ton of advantages being super tall it's hard to find your
55:30
center of gravity sometimes but it has its perks so definitely it's been so
55:37
amazing to watch your journey and to watch you grow up these past few years
55:40
I am your number one fan and I cannot thank you enough for coming on and you
55:43
know talking with me and coming on the big life podcast so thank you so much.