On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, Souderton senior Brooke Fenchel was recognized for committing to continue her basketball career at Messiah University.
Brooke Fenchel – Messiah University (Basketball)
Major: Communications & Journalism
Final list of colleges: Messiah, Muhlenberg, Thomas Jefferson
Reasons for choosing Messiah: “I chose Messiah because the coaches were more welcoming, and it was more than a relationship that had to do with basketball. It was more like a family.”
Favorite Souderton sports memory: “My favorite sports memory would probably be the team’s trip to Tampa my junior year where we won the championship.”
Coach Lynn Carroll says: “Brooke was a great leader. Under any circumstances, the way Brooke led - any coach would be happy with, but under the circumstances that she faced - she started as a sophomore and a
junior for very talented teams that had a lot of team success, and they are all gone her senior year. Not only has she lost the majority of her friends on the team, but it’s just an entirely different makeup on the court. We had a lot of young players who were thrown to the wolves a little bit and most years would have been eased into the roles they ended up having, and that’s a lot for anybody, and it was the bulk of our team. Brooke just did an outstanding job of balancing holding them accountable while also being incredibly patient and understanding and just the way that she helped them grow.
“I’ve said this about our team last year a lot of times, but it really started with Brooke where it didn’t matter what happened the night before, it didn’t matter what the score was the first time we played a team. It was like every single possession continued to matter right down to the very last game to the very last possession. Our last game was against CB West, and it’s one of the best games Brooke had all year, just playing incredibly hard. A lot of people could sit back and say – for what? This is it, the season’s over. If you lose this game, it’s just another one in a long string of losses. It’s not a big deal, but if you were watching that game, it looked like they were playing for something, and she set the tone with that. We could have lost this team by January. They could have just thrown in the towel, but they didn’t They showed up every day at practice wanting to get better. They played like every possession mattered. I really, truly believe it was the example that Brooke set that helped that continue.
“At a certain point during the season, the coaches re-evaluated where we were, and we thought one thing that was very, very important was that morale still be high at the end of the season. It was like Brooke was an extension of the coaching staff. We needed her to be playing a certain way and leading a certain way, but we didn’t actually have to ask her to do any of those things – she was just doing it.
“Somewhere around junior year she figured it out defensively. When she was a junior, we didn’t need her guarding the other team’s best players because we had other players to do that, but she had really figured it out. That’s what she did for us every single game as a senior, and she did a great job. She guarded Sofia Vitucci, Yoyo (Samayoa), a long list of players, and you could tell it meant something to her. I think that stuff is contagious. It goes back years. You get into the program, and you see how other kids defend, and you want to be that person. You want that to be your role, and I think that’s what Brooke learned from some of her older teammates, and she embraced it and really turned herself into a great defender for us. Offensively, I think the best thing that happened for her was – she was finally able to let ago and play without feeling burdened, and that’s when we saw the best of her. She’s got the skill set. She can shoot, she sees the floor incredibly well. As a sophomore and junior, she found her teammates a lot, and she kind of embraced that role more than someone who was trying to score, but towards the end of her senior season, she was playing carefree and without fear, and it’s the best basketball we’ve seen her play in games. It’s always been in there. She just has to remember that it’s in there. I think she can go to Messiah and make a great career for herself. I would love to see her continue to play with that carefree attitude. She’s another one who’s put in a ton of time and has wanted to get better at the sport. It was incredible to see her finally play that way where it was just – ‘I’m just going out to play, the days are numbered.’ Whatever the reasons were behind it, it was just awesome to see. For her to be able to get to that point, I would take that any day over winning a few more games this past year.”
About Brooke:
Favorite food: Tacos
Favorite TV show: The Bachelor
Favorite music: Alternative
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