Basketball
Favorite athlete: Dwayne Wade
Favorite team: Miami Heat
Favorite memory competing in sports: Scoring 20 of 27 points in a junior varsity game leading to a win
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When myself and a former player were running down the court and continue to pass to each other fearing our shot was going to get blocked and finally took the shot, and a tall girl from William Tennent blocked it.
Music on iPod: Hip-Hop and R&B
Future plans: To work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with newborn babies
Words to live by: ‘Action is the foundational key to success.’
One goal before turning 30: To be successful and able to give back to my family.
One thing people don’t know about me: The struggles I fought through to be where I am now as a student and athlete.
Nieyana Brooks once received a piece of advice she’s never forgotten.
“Somebody told me – don’t ever use your situation as a crutch to hold you back, and that’s not what I’m going to do,” the Harry S Truman senior said. “I’m not going to use it as a crutch to lean on and hold me back and use that as an excuse. That’s not an option.”
Brooks – who grew up in Philadelphia - has lived in a foster home for the past five years. She has never used her difficult circumstances growing up as an excuse, preferring instead to use them as motivation.
The Truman senior boasts a 4.049 GPA and is ranked 29th out of her senior class of 387. Next fall, she will begin pursuing her dream of one day becoming a Neonatal Physician’s Assistant when she enrolls in the health/sciences program at college.
If the past is any indication, Brooks will realize her dream because the Truman senior has made a habit of setting goals and then going out and achieving them.
“The goals started when I was younger and my mom was on drugs,” she said. “I never really held that against her, and I knew that by me bettering myself I could make the situation even better than it was.
“My mom’s been clean for four years, and to me, that’s an accomplishment. To be clean for four years is big, and that’s made me want to better myself even more.”
Even during her darkest days, Brooks recognized the value of attending school and getting an education.
“I knew there was a reason for me to be there, and I had to attend and do the best I could,” she said. “I always got good grades, and when I was in ninth grade, I received my first report card. I had straight A’s, and I said, ‘Oh, I can get straight A’s. I’m going to make this my plan for all four years,’ and that’s what I did.”
Brooks brings that same drive and determination to the basketball court where she is the lone senior on Truman’s squad.
“It’s frustrating because my friends were supposed to play, but I got tired of asking people, ‘Are you coming out?’” she said. “Obviously, they really didn’t want to be there if I had to keep asking them if they wanted to play or not.
“I just left it alone and left things be, and if I was going to be the only senior, I was going to be the only senior. I really didn’t have time for it any more.”
Making Brooks’ stick-to-it-ive-ness even more impressive is the fact that the Tigers have not won an SOL game during her four years with the program.
“Quitting never came to mind, not really,” she said. “I have too many supporters to even have the option to give up.
“That just never crossed my mind because there always were positive people around me. I don’t surround myself with negativity. You become who you hang around, so I just stay away from negative people.”
That’s not to say it hasn’t been frustrating for the senior captain.
“You have to show leadership qualities on the court, but it’s hard to manage at times, and it gets the best of me sometimes,” she said. “You’ve got to understand that everybody plays at different levels, and you have to understand that everybody doesn’t pick up things as quickly as other people, but it’s frustrating sometimes.”
Coach Collette Munford remembers Brooks when she came on board as a ninth grader.
“We had very low numbers for the jayvee and varsity combined,” the Tigers’ coach said. “She would play four quarters of jayvee and three more for varsity. She was the only person who would think of doing that.”
By this time, Brooks was developing a passion for the game, and her 20-point performance in a jayvee game as a sophomore only solidified her love of basketball.
“As I got better at basketball, I started to love it even more,” she said. “Playing with different people on the team and seeing how different people played made me want to play more and become an even better player.
“Even though we don’t win, I know I’ve become better over the years, so I look at it as a different challenge every game, and I have to improve myself.”
Brooks understands all about improving yourself and making the best of tough circumstances. The Truman senior was introduced to basketball as a youngster, albeit without a hoop,.
“We lived on the corner of the block in Philly, and we played trash can basketball,” she said. “We had the squares on the ground, and we played all around the world in the trash can.
“We used to try and hang crates on the poles, but they always took them down. You just have to play with what you have.”
Brooks admits she got off to a very slow start.
“The guys would be playing at the corner of my house, and I had to learn how to play by myself because I didn’t know the calls,” she said. “So as soon as I got the ball, I was walking and double dribbling, and I used to get angry because they were making calls that I didn’t know about, so I used to sit back and just watch.”
Brooks learned the basics of the game when she joined a coed league with East Falls Sports Association.
“I didn’t know exactly how to play, so I didn’t really get the ball that much,” she said. “I was in the game a lot hustle-wise, but I didn’t really know how to be an offensive player.”
While playing for the Bucks County Tigers in 10th grade, Brooks got her first and only taste of winning.
“We were 18-3,” she said. “It felt so good to win. I was like, ‘If only this could come to our school, we could start winning games.’”
The chances of winning during the final three games of her high school career might be slim, but Brooks knows the future at Truman could be brighter than the present.
“She just loves basketball,” Munford said. “I have these younger girls that I have been working with since fourth and fifth grades. She has been working with me, and she keeps saying, ‘I wish I had programs like this to help me with basketball when I was growing up. I really would have been better.’
“She said, ‘Man, I wish I would be here when they get here’ because she just wants to be part of a winning team.”
While Brooks may not be winning on the basketball court, she is winning off of it. She is the recipient of a Horatio Alger Scholarship and has applied for several other scholarships as well.
She has already been accepted at Lock Haven, Bloomsburg and Penn State.
“My sister really was my role model,” Brooks said. “If I didn’t have a sister, I probably wouldn’t be in Bucks County. I don’t know where I would be.
“Who would I have stayed with when my mom was in rehab and stuff like that? She was the only one there. She was able to graduate from high school in Philadelphia and even go to community college and graduate from hair school and get her license.
“It she can do it, I can do it. She was always someone who was there for me. She lives with my mom, and I’m able to see my mom. I want to be in a situation where I can be successful for myself and also help my family.”
Brooks already boasts a track record of success, and her next goal of pursuing a career in the medical profession is right around the corner.
“She’s very smart,” Munford said. “She has goals, and she’s achieving them one by one. She busts her butt in class.
“She’s definitely a student-athlete, and she puts student first. She’s not going to let anything mess up that. She’s a strong girl, very strong. Everything she’s doing she’s doing for herself. She knows if she doesn’t do it nobody will do it for her.”
Brooks is grateful to those who have helped her along the way, and she points to Elizabeth Ousley – the church youth group organizer in her Philadelphia neighborhood – for playing a significant role in her life. She also credited the Neighborhood First program, which last week afforded her the opportunity to shadow someone in a profession of interest.
“I like the opportunity because I never know what I may walk into,” Brooks said. “I like to learn new things and just experience different things.”
It’s that desire to learn and embrace new challenges that has set Brooks on a path toward achieving her goals.
