This week, Brooke Wilson gets the spotlight

This archived article was written by: Jennifer Jarrett

If you are looking for a positive, happy person to lift up a team and get everybody going, Brooke Wilson is the one you want to see.
When questioned about her, teammates all said the same thing, “She is always so happy,” Candace Gunnell stated, “She is such a fun person to be around.”
Amy Fluckiger commented, “She is always happy and has such a positive attitude about everything. She really tries to get everybody going and really gets all of us going with her positive energy.”
Wilson came to CEU from Draper, UT where she attended Alta High School. After playing soccer all her life she decided freshman year it was time to try something different.
After only playing volleyball in P.E. and watching her older sister play volleyball on the school team, Wilson decided to try-out and ended up making Varsity, even though she had never played before and was only a freshman.
Wilson found out about CEU when her high school coach told her that Coach Martindale was interested in her playing for the Eagles. She came to CEU, tried out and played with the other girls, and decided that this is the school that she wanted to attend.
Wilson relayed, “After playing with the other girls, I remember thinking how much fun they were and how nice they all were. They really welcomed me and I had such a great experience down here that when Coach offered me a scholarship, I really wanted to come back.”
Wilson is trying out a new position this year, Coach put her in as the “Opposite” (right side setter). “I had never played it before so when Coach told me that would be my position I was pretty surprised.
“I didn’t really mind, I figured that he knew what he was doing, he has been involved with volleyball a lot longer than me and he is the coach,” Wilson stated.
“She’s an amazing player,” Fluckiger commented about Wilson. Fluckiger continued, “she is a great blocker, she can block basically everybody, she works so hard and always tries her best. She really stays up on her game, and gets everybody else going.”
Gunnell pointed out, “She has a really nice jump serve, hits really hard, plays great and does her best wherever she is at.”
Wilson’s favorite part of playing for CEU is the team she is able to play with, “The team is really fun, all the girls work so hard in practice to get better and to be good. It really makes the practice time worth it.”
The most important thing that Coach Martindale has taught Wilson is to “play desperate,” she said.
“He always wants to make sure that we go for every ball. At practice he really pushes us to dive, and make an effort and move for every ball, even if it’s 20 yards away. He always says that you never know what’ll happen each time, you can just keep getting closer and closer. I have noticed at some games that the other team doesn’t go for all the balls and I think that they would be able to get a lot of them up if they would actually just try.
“I am glad that Coach pushes us to go for everything, I think that may be the difference between our team and the other team when we play for the championship.”
Wilson’s favorite part of the season thus far has been was playing and beating Dixie.
She said, “We had lost earlier in the season and we all thought that we should have won.
So when we played them again we all played like we wanted to win, it was intense and it was just an overall good, fun game. The crowd had a lot of energy and I think that really helps out in games like that. When you have support from the people in the crowd and they just cheer you on, nothing can pump you up more.”
Wilson is thinking about majoring in Pharmacy, but like most freshmen is unsure and is still undecided for now.
When she graduates CEU she would like to go on and play at another school, anywhere close to home she hopes, but isn’t sure of what’ll happen.
This season Wilson is looking foreword to improving as a team, playing well, winning and being successful in all their games.
“I really think that we will do amazing this year. I think that we, Dixie, Snow, North Idaho, and Salt Lake are all going to be pretty neck to neck when it comes down to it but we have already beat Dixie and North Idaho so I know we can do it, we can beat all of them if we really put our minds to it.”