Cameron Brooks - Texas Soccer
“I started playing soccer when I was 7 years old. Before that, I always asked my dad to let me play because my little brother was playing. He didn’t think I would have a lot of fun because it was a sport played outside and he thought I couldn’t handle the heat. I fell in love with the game the minute I stepped on the field and surprisingly proved to my dad that I was capable of doing something other than ballet. After years of playing, I realized that soccer gave me outlets to express myself as a girl and athlete, and make a lot of lifelong friends.”
“Soccer also gave me a reason to want to strive to be the best person I could be on and off the field. It was a place for me to unleash my competitive spirit and, through the years, watch myself develop and accomplish a lot of goals I had set for myself when I was little. Soccer taught me how to be patient with myself. With some of the toughest moments in my life revolving around soccer, I have learned how to believe in myself as a person and player as well as believe in the process of what God has in store for me.”
“The most recent bump in the road I had overcome was having to be benched all of my freshman year and most of my sophomore year in college. I fought tooth and nail to improve in all the areas I needed to. I woke up early every morning in order to get 30+minutes of extra training time and touches in with my coaches, 1 on 1. Eventually, all the hard work paid off. I was recruited as a defender, but during this past season, I was needed more as a left wing (left forward). In the middle of the season, I had to learn a whole new position and continue to fine tune my technical and tactical skills in order to contribute to my teammates. I was able to do so and finished the season with some goals and assists tied to my name.”
“Soccer has allowed me to connect to people different from me in a lot of great ways. Throughout the years, I was able to learn different tactics and see different points of views for the game and of life in general. I was also able to learn skills that can’t be taught anywhere else; communication, sisterhood and how to fight for the ones standing to the right and left of me for the greater good.”
“As a black athlete, I started playing a sport that was predominantly white. Thankfully, I grew up in a kind community. Despite this, when I was eight I ran into another girl on the field that racially put me down by calling me “brownie.” As a black female athlete, I want people to know that sports are an experience that gives you and the others around you a voice. You do not necessarily have to speak with your words, but with your talent. When your talent does the talking, everyone listens because they don’t have a reason not to, even if you do look different. Being a black female athlete gives you an outlet to be yourself through your sport, and gives you an endless support system from your teammates.”
“Being a black female athlete gives you all the more reason to want to push and be the best person you can be. There will always be a sense of competitiveness, a sense of will, and a sense of fuel to your fire to keep you grounded yet motivated in anything you want to accomplish. You will want to be better than the other 90% that may look at you differently because of your skin color.”
“Inclusivity in the sporting world from where I stood growing up seemed tolerable. For the future, I want inclusivity to be more than just a standard or an item on checklist. It needs to be a priority. Better yet, it should never just be an afterthought in anyone’s mind. The sporting world has always brought different types of people together and I want that notion to continue to grow and flourish as we go through these trying times as a nation.”
