Senior Spotlight: Women’s hockey forward Brooke Bryant

An interview conducted with Brooke Bryant, a senior on the women’s hockey team. 

Kole: What’s your name, major, and where you’re from?

Brooke: My name is Brooke Bryant, my major is business management, and I’m from Linden, California.

K: What are three words you’d use to describe yourself?

B: I would say pretty outgoing, passionate, and laid back.

K: What are some of the most important things to you in life?

B: Definitely my family. That’s always number one. My friends, teammates and hockey. But family, for sure.

K: Who inspires you to be the best version of yourself?

B: My family. Growing up, my parents always inspired me to be the best version of myself, not only in hockey, but in everything I do.

K: What kind of sports were you involved in growing up?

B: I mainly played roller hockey growing up.

K: How did you get into ice hockey?

B: I didn’t really play ice until I was about eight or nine, I would say. But when I was young, I kind of did everything. It was soccer, softball, swimming, you name it. I  just kind of tested out everything and hockey ended up being the go to.

K: What made you stick with hockey over the other sports?

B: I think for me, it was just from what all my friends were doing, especially ice. It’s not very big at all. So I think it was just different, and it was my own thing. And I know I just felt really comfortable there compared to all the other sports I was playing growing up, just fell in love with the game.

K: What is your favorite part about playing hockey?

B: Definitely the team. I love the team atmosphere, and the intensity of it is different from any other sport. I just love the fast pace of it.

K: What is your favorite part about being on the hockey team at Minnesota State?

B: All the people I’ve met, and it’s different. Hockey is such a big thing out here and meeting people from all around that I’ve made such good friendships with is something that I wouldn’t have done without hockey. The atmosphere, a little hockey town in Mankato, it’s awesome. Definitely something I wasn’t familiar with growing up in California. Yeah, just how passionate everyone is about hockey. It’s pretty cool.

K: Are there any sports you wish you would have continued playing or possibly been able to compete in at the collegiate level?

B: If I could do anything else it would probably be volleyball. My mom played volleyball in college and professionally for a little bit. My sister also played when we were younger. So that was kind of a big part of my life growing up, and I loved volleyball. I wasn’t that great at it, can’t really jump that well, but it was so fun.

K: What are your goals for this upcoming hockey season? First as a person and then what are your goals as a team?

B: As a team, we always talk about just getting to playoffs, maybe getting past the first round. Obviously everyone’s number one goal is winning a National Championship, but taking it step by step, getting past the first round playoffs comes first. I mean, that’s always been a big goal for us and something that we try and work towards during the season. So that would be my team goal. Personally, I just want to be able to, even if I’m not putting up the points, be a big team player for this team. I did pretty well my freshman year, but I’ve kind of been in a little slump. So that’s definitely something that the coaches and I talk about. Just have more confidence with the puck on all parts of the ice. Defensively, offensively. Whether it’s not even putting up goals or assists, just being a key player in certain parts of the games.

K: What is your dream coming out of College? Any job dreams that you’re looking at? Any aspirations?

B: I still don’t know exactly what I would do for my fifth year, but I definitely want to keep playing hockey, maybe playing professionally would be pretty cool. I don’t know if I would want to go anywhere outside the US, but just trying to keep playing hockey, maybe get back into the roller world a little bit, I kind of miss out on that being in Minnesota. Job wise, I haven’t really figured it out. That’s probably what’s going to make me take my fifth year. I haven’t found anything I want to lock in on.

Feature photo by David Faulkner/SPX Sports