“It was a great opportunity being able to experience another country and culture just because of a game.”
Brooke Atkinson, the head coach of women’s basketball at New Mexico State University sits down with us in this episode of the 35,000 Feet podcast and gives us insight into her journey as a basketball coach. During our interview, Brooke tells us about how she got her start in coaching basketball, how their current season is going, and shares some advice that is useful and important for any athlete looking to play college sports!
In this episode, we discuss:
The current season highlights for NM State Basketball (0:18)
How Brooke got into coaching (3:20)
Brooke’s most memorable travel adventure (6:19)
Brooke’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (10:05)
Brooke’s next adventure (12:56)
New Mexico State Women’s Basketball 2019-2020 Season
Shianne: Can you tell us about your current season and how it's going?
Brooke Atkinson: Yeah. I guess our current season, it's been a lot of lessons, a lot of learning lessons, especially, I'm sure, for my team, for my staff, but especially for myself. Coming into this year, New Mexico State, me as the head coach for two years, but the three previous, we had won the last five years straight, and so coming in, going for six, which had never been done. And our preseason is pretty tough. We were three and 10 going into conference, and I think we're two and eight now with points four or less, so losing games. And so there's been some games that haven't really gone our way.
So currently in league, we're five and five, I think. That's the kind of year it is. And so we've lost a couple at home, a couple of close ones on the road, but we still have six to play and that's the most important thing. And then it's all about playing in March.
Shianne: Yeah. Did you guys lose a lot of seniors last year?
Brooke Atkinson: We did. We lost the two time player of the year, Brooke Salas, who's playing professionally in Spain, but we lost four other seniors: Monique and Dominique Mills, they were two-year starters, just did all the little things. We had to graduate transfer, Brie McDaniel, that she had been to the BCS level and just had that confidence that she was very level, just always brought that toughness. And then we had a post player, a New Mexico, Baylee Robinson, who just did all the little things, was a really good leader.
So we lost five kids, brought back our second leading scorer, who's currently out for four weeks with an ankle. We've dealt with just a lot of injuries this year, lost our best team defender before the season started to an ACL, lost a starter for four games because of a knee and then lost another starter for a knee as well, but she should hopefully be back this week. So like every team, you have the ups and downs of a season. It just seems like we haven't caught a lot of breaks this year.
Shianne: It seems like you've had lots of challenges and hurdles to overcome.
Brooke Atkinson: Yeah, definitely. The thing that we tell our team every day, and I just told them this this morning in film and in practices, that's life. You get knocked down, you've got to get back up even stronger. There's so many lessons in this that are bigger than basketball.
How Brooke Atkinson Became a Basketball Coach
Shianne: Can you tell us how you got into coaching?
Brooke Atkinson: I think I was just born to coach, you know into it. My dad was a football and baseball coach at my high school and so I just grew up ... I'm the youngest of three and my brother and I just were at all my dad's practices, so we just grew up in sports and competition and in coaching right from the start.
Shianne: Yeah. Can you tell us how your journey was, how you got to become the head coach at the New Mexico State, the path you took?
Brooke Atkinson: Yeah. My senior year in college, I had a back injury and so I was out the first semester; I had surgery, and we played at New Mexico State. And we lost in overtime at New Mexico State, and I played at Wichita State. And so I remember we were driving down university, and this was in 2002, and I was like, "Man, this is kind of an interesting place." I'm from Denver, it's small and I was like, "Who would want to live here?" And six months later, I get a job here in '03. And so it's always, be careful what you wish for, but it ended up being a place that I love and I've called home for 11 years.
So my college coach, Coach Smith, he knew Darin Spence, who got this job. And so it's all about your playing career, the relationships you have. That's how I got involved. And so I was hired on here in '03 as an assistant and I was here from '03 to '11, for eight years, and then after that, I went to the University of South Dakota for three and I coached under Ryan Williams, who is currently a Colorado State, and then Amy Williams, who's at Nebraska now, and then I was at Colorado State for three years.
And so then in 2017, when Coach Trakh, Mark Trakh, was hired back to USC, that's how I got back here; they brought me back and in May of '17. And when they first talked to me about it, it was just a, "Okay, yeah. I'll go through the process," and then it's just surreal. Having started my career here as an assistant and then obviously, they gave me an opportunity as a head coach.
Shianne: Yeah, that's so cool. You went full circle as you were there for a little bit, well, for awhile, eight years, and you left, came back as a head coach. That's awesome.
Brooke Atkinson: Yeah. I loved Las Cruces and I loved New Mexico State, so when the opportunity came, and sometimes it's just surreal, getting a chance to come back here.
Brooke’s Favorite Travel Experiences as a College Athlete and Coach
Shianne: We are a travel company so I love to ask everybody that comes on the show their favorite travel memories that they have, whether it's as your personal life or as you're coaching, because I know you travel a lot as you go to different schools and stuff. So can you share more about your travel experiences?
Brooke Atkinson: I mean obviously, being a college athlete in basketball, you get to experience a lot of places that you just wouldn't if you were maybe just being just a regular student. And then going into coaching, the same thing. I think sometimes as coaches though, we're so one-track mind-wise. We travel to all these cities. I don't know how many times this year I've flown to Dallas and back in the same day or LA and back in the same day. So we're so business-minded, we're going to look at a kid, we're going to do a home visit, and so I think just sometimes taking a step back and realizing all the places that basketball has basically given us the opportunity to see.
I guess I could say my best memories traveling-wise. When I was at Colorado State, we had a lot of Swedish, Norwegian kids and Danish kids, and so we did a Scandinavian tour for, I think it was almost two weeks, and that was a great experience. I mean, what basketball allows you to do and fly to all these cities. We started in Norway and then we went to Sweden and we went all the way up North Luleå and then down to Stockholm and Uppsala and then we finished in Copenhagen, Denmark. So that was a great opportunity and obviously, a great experience that, just being able to experience another country and culture just because of a game.
And then obviously, I've been to the NCAA tournament three times, and so when you're able to charter, when you're able to fly privately, it makes flying commercially seem so much more difficult. And also, when I was at Colorado State, we would charter almost every game. And so just that advantage that it has, that competitive advantage, it's really hard to beat.
Shianne: Yeah, that sounds awesome. That would be a really cool experience, both of them: flying charter and also going over to Norway and all of that.
Brooke’s Advice to Prospective College Athletes
Brooke Atkinson: I think people always want to look forward to the next game, the next school, the next job, but what you're doing that day, what you're doing currently, is preparing you for that next level. Advice to someone wanting to play college basketball, I would say, when I go to a game and I look at a kid, obviously every program, every coach, they have kids they like, they have a system, they have needs, they have wants, but the one thing that I think most coaches will agree on is, it's just effort and energy. That's what I always talk about, how hard you play, how you are to your teammates. It's just such a lesson in life. First impressions, you only get one of them.
So I think sometimes I'll look past certain things if a kid is a great teammate and plays really hard. So if you have that about you, if you bring energy, if you are giving more than you're taking away. But with today and with the internet and with summer basketball or whatever, kids have the opportunity to get seen. I think with all the AAU teams and all the different tournaments, there's so many opportunities to be seen. I think it's just taking your craft seriously, getting in the gym, working hard, having a passion about it. And if you work hard and you have energy and just that aura about you, I think you'll get seen, you'll get to that level you're supposed to.
Shianne: Yeah. I really liked what you said where you were talking about effort and energy. I feel like that can apply to whatever you're doing, whether it's basketball, in your work, really anything. I really liked that. I wrote that down. Thanks for sharing that.
Brooke Atkinson: Well how you are as an athlete, as a basketball player, that's how you're going to be in your job. Those qualities, those characteristics about yourself, they don't change. If you work hard and you have a great attitude ... We talk about just being consistent every single day: "Hey, you know what you're going to get from me every single day. I want to know what I'm going to get from you every single day." Consistency brings, it just brings a quality, it brings a success. If you're consistently a jerk, hey, people know you're going to be a jerk every day.
Shianne: Yeah, it's true.
Brooke Atkinson: I mean, at least they know what you're giving. But if these kids just consistently work hard and bring an effort to the floor every single day, you're going to have success. And it's the same thing in school, in a job. Whatever you do, if you just bring that same level every single day, it's just a quality that you really can't take away from somebody.
What’s Next for Brooke and New Mexico State Women’s Basketball Team
Shianne: What's your next adventure? I know you guys are in the middle of your season, and what are you looking forward to? What are you most excited about coming up?
Brooke Atkinson: Oh, I think the biggest thing is again, we can't look too far past today. You see so many situations where you're not promised tomorrow. And so today, how am I going to be a better coach, how am I going to get better? How am I going to put this team in a better position, because in year three, there's so many things that I've learned this year that I could've done better, that I could be better at.
Brooke Atkinson: We have a big road trip coming up. We play at Seattle Thursday, they're a game behind us, and then we play at Utah Valley and they're a half game ahead of us. What are we doing today to be better for tomorrow and then the next day? So I think just that everybody looks forward to March. March is the best time of year for basketball.
Shianne: March Madness, yeah.
Brooke Atkinson: Yeah, but what we're doing today, preparing us for March. And so I think just taking every advantage of every single day that we can to get better, and you can go to bed at night knowing you did that.
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Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions
Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle