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The Singing Striker

Brie Hooks (Soc’17) may be small — 5 feet,1/2 inch — but she’s come up big for Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØsoccer. Last season the forward from greater Seattle led the team in goals (8) and points (23) and made the All-Pac-12 second team. A singer who has studied sign language, she imagines a career working with the deaf.

Do you remember your first college goal?

No, I really don’t. Freshman year was pretty much a blur because everything is going so fast. Just getting the opportunity to start some games and play so much for the team was the most exciting part about it.

Your parents played college sports, and your grandfather, Jim Hooks, played for the Detroit Lions. Have you talked to them much about their experiences?

They really tried to help me with the competition level — how it’s going to be different — as well as all the hard work you have to put in outside of practice. Having two really competitive and athletic parents helped push me to continue to grow as a player and just not give up.

Did you talk to your grandpa about that at all?

He didn’t really like to talk about it too much. But it was cool just knowing he had played [in the NFL].

What made soccer stick for you?

My freshman year of high school, I had made varsity for track as well as basketball. My sophomore year, I decided that I had to just stick with soccer. Honestly, I’m barely 5-1; I don’t think playing college basketball was a realistic goal for me. I wanted to help my parents [by earning a scholarship] and I loved soccer, and it just felt like this was the path that would take me the furthest.

What’s your major, and what are your career aspirations?

Sociology. I’m hoping to do some sort of social work or counseling. I just want to do something where I’m helping people. It’s exciting to me to know there’s a reason behind every action that people take. And I can apply that to sports as well, so that’s why I kind of like the combination of the two.

Do you want to play professional soccer?

If I was presented the opportunity, I would love to.

Is your size any impediment at that level?

No, honestly, because the people that are playing pro and recently got drafted, I was playing against them in the Pac-12 and did well against those people.

You sang in your high school choir and you know sign language. What spurred those interests?

When I was younger I always used to like to perform for my mom. She plays the piano and is pretty musically inclined, so I liked to sing for her and dance around. In high school I went to state competitions for choir. I just like singing. It had nothing to do with sports; it was something I liked to do on my own.

Sign language, I just randomly took it because I didn’t want to take Spanish and I ended up loving it. I took three years of it in high school and a class here.

If I go into social work, I really want to work with people who might be deaf or have any sort of disability with speaking and hearing. It’s hard to get through to people, obviously, if you don’t know the language.

Do you watch any of the singing shows on TV?

I love The Voice. I watch it all the time. And I like watching people sing on YouTube who are undiscovered. When I was younger, I wanted to go on to one of those shows, but I’m so nervous about doing those sorts of things, I don’t think I ever will.

Condensed and edited.

Photography by Patrick Campbell