Melissa Brooks, the head coach of women’s basketball at Fairleigh Dickinson University - Florham, joins us in this episode of the 35,000 Feet podcast. She talks about how she got her start in coaching basketball, some of her favorite team travel experiences, and how important it is for athletes to be a sponge and enjoy the learning process!

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Coach Brooks got into coaching (0:20)

• How this past season went for Fairleigh Dickinson University Women’s Basketball (3:50)

• Melissa’s favorite travel experience (6:04)

• One thing that no one knows about Melissa (11:01)

• Melissa’s advice to athletes wanting to play in college (13:11)

• Melissa’s next adventure (16:14)

The Start of Coaching for Melissa Brooks

Morgan: Just to dive in and get to know you a little bit more, how did you get to be a coach?

Melissa: Mine is a little bit of a different journey. I know some people were, during their college experience, they're like this is what I want to do. I want to get right into coaching. I had that mentality of the rule following. Okay, I got my degree in graphic design. Now I have to get a job in graphic design because that's what I got the degree in, and that's what I'm supposed to do and so forth.

Right after I graduated college in 09, I got a job at a boarding school to coach high school basketball. It was local from where I grew up, and I was like, okay let me just do this until I can get that graphic design job. Then I just loved it. After two years there is when I was like, let me try the college level. I still talk to all these college coaches, and if I don't have the patience at this point for high school ... I was very young at the time. When you come from playing from such a good program to the high school level, it was an adjustment for sure.

I got a job in Arlington, Virginia. I'm originally from Philly. I up and rooted myself for that coaching job at Marymount. It only paid $2,000, but it was a way to get my foot in the door. I was like, I'll figure it out. I'll move. I'll figure it out. It's my foot in the door, and I figured it out.

Morgan: Oh my gosh, I love hearing journeys. Like how you got somewhere. I guess what's been one of your favorite parts of coaching?

Melissa: The mentorship, 100%. I still talk to a ton of players that I've coached from all different universities I've worked at. I think it's the mentorship and knowing that it's not just for however many years you're there or the athlete's there. It's about after. It's about what they want to do after. It's to make them the best that they can be without even ... they think that they know everything at that age, and it's just trying to get them to be vulnerable and to understand that it's okay to be uncomfortable and get them out of their shell and hopefully mentor them into who they're going to be after college. That's my absolute favorite part.

Morgan: I can tell that you're a good coach because you care about that. Not just athletes, but people that will go out into the world and make a difference.

Melissa: Thank you. Thank you. I'm trying to do as much as I can. Fairleigh Dickinson has given me that opportunity. I started a leadership academy at FTU. I am a one team facilitator. I facilitate other athletic programs, athletic departments around the country in how to make their athletic department more inclusive to the LGBTQ community. It's things like that that make me want to do more for the student athletes and for other departments that aren't even the ones that I work at. I think that that is where I just like hit the ground running. I'm only at the starting point, and I just want to continue to do more now because of that.

Morgan: That's awesome. You'll continue to, and you can tell that you have that passion for it. It's fun to hear the passion you have for this industry.

Melissa: Thank you. Thank you.

Morgan: Yes, no for sure. You've been coaching at Fairleigh for how long?

Melissa: I just wrapped up my second season.

2019-2020 Fairleigh Dickinson University Women’s Basketball Season

Morgan: Oh, wow. Can you tell us about the current season?

Melissa: Yeah, it was a little bit on the rough side in the beginning, especially having the mindset of relying heavily on freshmen especially. We should have saw it coming, but I don't ever have that mindset. I just always want to be really good. It was really rough in the beginning. Then when we came to conference play the second time around, we just started really rocking people's boats and losing to a team in conference the first time around by 40 to then taking them into overtime the second time. It's just from then on, we just never looked back. We grew a lot by the end of the year. I think that that's because when you look at freshmen first semester, they're really freshmen. Then when you challenge them second semester, and you're no longer freshmen, you've been through it academically, socially and athletically that I'm not going to coach you like a freshman anymore. They really took that and ran with it.

We also struggled a little bit on the leadership side. I had seniors that really wanted to carry that torch and be that representative for the team. I didn't have enough time with them because, like I said, it was only my second year. I didn't have a lot of time with them to fully develop them into what it really does mean to be a leader. They tried their best, and we were really grateful for that. But it's crazy how we see it already in the freshmen for what they're going to be able to do as far as leadership wise going even into next year when they're only sophomores.

Morgan: Yeah. Well, it shows that your team is like, it's just growing, and you're doing a great work that it's only going to go up from here. It was already good, and it's going to keep getting better, especially because of your dedication.

Melissa: Thank you. I hope so.

Morgan: No, it will for sure. I played a small junior college, for volleyball and you see that. That hard work, dedication, it pays off.

Melissa: Yes, it does. It does.

Coach Melissa Brooks’s Most Memorable Travel Experience

Morgan: That's so cool. Thank you for sharing that information with us. What's one of your most memorable travel experiences?

Melissa: Travel experience as in, non basketball related, I take it?

Morgan: Yeah, it could be basketball related or normal life related.

Melissa: Awesome. Back when I mentioned how I was working as a high school coach, it was at a boarding school. I had the opportunity to do a service trip with a bunch of students from the school. The boarding school was really awesome. It was students from all over the world. We took about 10 to 15 students to Kayenta, Arizona, which is a Navajo reservation. It was really awesome. They were working with younger students like elementary school age. They were working with them throughout the day, and the students stayed with host families. They were fully emerged into what it's like to live a daily life on a Navajo reservation. We stayed in Hogans, which are houses built on a dirt. We helped build Hogans. We were just really a part of the community.

We did a 10 mile hike on Black Mesa, which was just incredible. It's a place that you have to be invited to by somebody from that community. You can't just wander yourself there and do it. We saw great sites, but it was the experience with the community that was so rewarding. Just to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and lifestyle that you probably would never think to ever do that. It was great. It was for about a month too. It was really awesome.

Morgan: Wow. Traveling gives you the coolest experiences, and it sounds like you got to do a lot of service on those trips too, so that's awesome.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. It was great. It was great.

Morgan: I love that. Has your college team been able to go yet?

Melissa: When I took over the program, there was already a trip planned for Florida. We did do that last year.

Morgan: Fun.

Melissa: Unfortunately, it's winter, and you're like, oh awesome. Let's go to Florida. But it rained the entire time.

Morgan: Oh no.

Melissa: Yeah.

Morgan: You're like, so much for that.

Melissa: But I have learned very quickly a great thing about FTU is the diversity of the school. As in diversity financially, educational, and their overall background story. I learned that very quick. Even to take a trip to Florida with some of the girls on my team, a lot of them had never been on a flight, and a lot of them didn't even have their license. It was a lot of handholding, which people are ... they get frustrated or I don't have time for this. How do you not have all this stuff? It's just like, you know what? We are the ones that are giving them experiences for the first time in their lives. I want to give them those experiences that they won't get on a regular basis.

But being a division three, as far as funding, it comes a lot of it out of fundraising. I'm looking to do a tournament, a trip every four years so that they go once a year. But we'll do some local stuff to give them experiences as well. But other than that, about once every four years, we'll look to do a trip.

Morgan: Like a foreign tour?

Melissa: I don't know if right away it'll be foreign just because if I have girls in my team that don't even have a license, when now you're dealing with passport, they're going to be super [inaudible 00:10:03] for that.

Morgan: That's so true. That would be-

Melissa: I know. I would love, in the future, to get to that level. But right now, even just taking the team to One World Trade and out to a nice dinner in Manhattan was such an experience for them. That's only an hour away. I'm going to think a little more in state before I think out-of-state, but that would be definitely a goal to reach.

Morgan: Hey, and even going anywhere in general, you can learn so much and see so much. I think that's awesome.

Melissa: Yeah definitely.

A Lesser-Known Fact About Coach Melissa Brooks

Morgan: Yeah. I think it sounds fun. But thanks so much for asking. Yeah. I'm excited for that. What is one thing that no one knows about you that you can share with us today?

Melissa: Well, right now, it is a secret, but it's only a secret for a couple more weeks. But I am planning on proposing to my girlfriend, Amy the first weekend of April. We are heading back to New Orleans, and that's where we met a couple of years ago. We're going there with a bunch of friends and everything. I think it's going to be a really exciting time. I can't tell if she's getting the itch of like, I feel like you're planning something. I don't know what's going on. She's super nosy, but I think no matter what, either way, it'll be a surprise, and it will be great.

Morgan: You've kept it quiet. That's good though. It'll be a nice surprise.

Melissa: I know. I know. I didn't realize, obviously, I mean, not obviously. Some people have been down this road maybe more than once, but this is a first time for me. When that's your best friend, and you're keeping a secret like this for so long, it's like, I want to show you everything. It's like I can't.

Morgan: You just have to keep it a secret.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. But I am super excited. She's great. She's in her third year of residency for pediatrics, and she just got into her fellowship, which will be for adolescent medicine with focusing on gender medicine, which is really exciting.

Morgan: Oh my. She sounds awesome. Wow.

Melissa: She's epic. She's greater than me for sure.

Morgan: Wow. Well, I'm glad that you get to do that. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Melissa: Yeah. First weekend of April. Just keep it on the-

Morgan: Oh my goodness. Okay. We'll keep it on the down low. Yes. I'm excited for you guys. That'll be so fun.

Melissa: Thank you. Thank you. It'll be a great time. When we met, she was there for her childhood friend's bachelorette party. I was there for a wedding. We just ran into each other of course on Bourbon Street.

Morgan: Of course.

Melissa: It was pretty funny. Now we're here. Now we're really looking forward to go back.

Morgan: Oh my. Well, good luck with that. I'm excited for you guys' future together. That's so fun.

Melissa: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Coach Melissa’s Advice to Future Athletes

Morgan: If you're an athlete wanting to play for a team or university, what would your advice be?

Melissa: That could be a whole different podcast on that. But I would have to say student athletes, at the years of being recruited, they work so hard for that scholarship or for that offer and for that roster spot. They work so hard for it. But all that hard work that you do as an athlete to get that offer, to get that scholarship, to get that roster spot was enough just to get it. You have to know that that's just the beginning. There's so much more work and time and learning lessons that happen when you step foot on campus. I think that a lot of young athletes think that, hey, I got it. I'm good to go. But it's a completely different reality check once you step foot on that campus, and you actually go through the work ethic that it requires and the time commitment and the responsibilities.

I think that to just understand that you did enough to get it. Now you got to do even more to keep it and to thrive with it. I also think that you have to be comfortable with being a sponge. Don't walk into any situation and think that you've been here. You've done that. I know it all. Be a sponge and enjoy the learning because again, it's going to be completely different. If you're open to learning, then you're totally open to whatever role that you will get. You're coachable. You're ready to go on to the next level at the college level if you're coming in ready to just be a sponge and absorb everything you can.

Morgan: No, that's awesome advice. Just being I guess coachable or teachable.

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. Be coachable. Be coachable, and not just on the court, but in all aspects because everything is a learning lesson. You mess up academically, your coach is going to hear about it. They're going to talk to you. That's a coachable lesson as well.

Morgan: It's true.

Melissa: Yeah.

Morgan: No, and that's what I love about sports is you can take a sports situation and make it into an analogy for life. Like you've learned so much about life through sports and the lessons you learn.

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. I 100% agree with you. I could sit here and go through some of the classes I took in college like Shakespeare and what am I doing with that? But what my college coach taught me on the court is ... I can sit here and say it has everything to do with what I do now. But even if I wasn't coaching, because like I said, a majority of why I do what I do is for the mentor aspect. It comes a lot from the coaching aspect of when you're an athlete yourself.

Morgan: Yes. Wow. Thank you so much for the outlook on that. I love getting insights into teams and how coaches think, so thank you for that.

Follow Fairleigh Dickinson University Women’s Basketball

• Coach Melissa Brooks Twitter

Podcast made in partnership with Acanela Expeditions

Theme Song - I’ll Just Be Me by Gravity Castle