Athlete of the Week: Brooke Jessen

Freshman forward Brooke Jessen plays for the UTRGV’s Women’s Basketball Team. She’s a native of  Spirit Lake, Idaho, where her high school team went to four-straight tournaments. In 2019-2020, she was named High School Girls Athlete of the Year and finished her career with over a thousand points.

Q: When did you first start playing?

A: “I started playing basketball in third grade.”

Q: Did you play in elementary school or was it through another organization?

A: “It was another organization. I have some family friends who started an [American Athletic Union] team and I knew them from my brother playing baseball with their son.”

Q: Who is your greatest inspiration?

A: “My greatest inspiration would probably be one of my basketball coaches back home. They always taught me to work hard, work for what I want in life. And that’s how I got here. They pushed me every day since third grade.”

Q: What do you listen to before games?

A: “Whatever the girls are playing in the locker room. I don’t have, like, a set ritual.”

Q: What do you do in your time off?

A: “Back home, I’d go hiking and camping. I’d go play kickball, spikeball. But here, in my own time, I just hang out with my roommates. We watch movies or we go do something.”

Q: What’s an aspect of your sport people don’t often think about?

A: “It’s definitely a mental game, yeah. Like if some other team gets momentum going, you have to get out of that.”

Q: Would you prefer shooting a 3-pointer, 2-pointer, a layup or a free throw?

A: “I’d say 3-pointers, because you get the bench excited and they do celebrations and you get more points.”

–Compiled by Landon Burns