Joanna Orban

Sports Writer

What motivates college athletes? What pushes them through mental and physical exhaustion, and the stress of being both a student and an athlete? Brooke Kortekaas, a senior on ISU’s soccer team, had one answer.

“I think it’s just a love and a passion… I think I’m a very competitive person when it comes to being on the field,” Kortekaas said. “And it’s also like an escape so with everything that can go on it’s like I can go there and then feel better.”

Hailing from Alta Loma, California Kortekaas has been playing soccer for at least ten years as well as her three years at ISU. After watching her three older siblings play, she knew that she had to give it a chance. In addition to playing on her high school team, where she was a three-year varsity player, Kortekaas also played club soccer.

Her club team travelled all around California, and even made trips to Arizona. With so much time spent playing soccer, it was always a dream of Kortekaas’ to play at a university.

Rather than send in tapes or invite a coach to Alta Loma High School, she attended a showcase sponsored by her club. While there, she caught the attention of several schools, but the only school she had an official visit with was Idaho State University.

When she came here, part of what stood out to her was how adamant the coaching staff was about the players pursuing their studies.

“The coaching staff was very well oriented and they made sure that you’re a good student as well as an athlete,” Kortekaas said.

College students may have trouble balancing, especially when life gets crazy. As an athlete, in addition to classes and homework, there are practices, weight-lifting sessions, as well as mindfulness and in Kortekaas’ case, physical therapy.

“We have study hall hours, and that helps a lot,” Kortekaas said. “A lot of girls on my team are very adamant about getting their work done first. And even the coaches are like, you’re a student first”.

Being a student athlete helps develop discipline along with a drive for doing your best. Because of that stress might start to creep in.

“You’re either mentally or physically exhausted,” Kortekaas said. “But it teaches you to push through all of that. And I feel like every person that’s been a student athlete usually comes out a better person.” One thing that new coach Debs Brereton has introduced is called mindfulness. Staff from the ISU Counseling Center comes and helps the team with breathing exercises and other methods that will help them be in the moment.

Even with all of the challenges, being a student athlete, is a once in a lifetime opportunity. During her time as a student athlete at ISU, Kortekaas has had the opportunity to travel to both Costa Rica and Hawaii when the team played there. While there the team was able to build on bonds that continue on and off the field. The bonds she’s made with the other players is one of Kortekaas’ favorite part of being a student athlete.

“Just being with the team, those bonds. You’re very close knit with everybody on an off the field, and I think that’s something you don’t really get anywhere else,” Kortekaas said.

With Kortekaas being a senior, after ISU she plans on applying for a master’s program in Occupational Therapy. However, one of her goals for this upcoming season is to recover from her concussion in time to play Big Sky Conference games and then win them.

The official conference season hasn’t started yet, but the team has still been playing at least twice a week. The first conference game is on Sept. 27 against Portland State. The will be hosted in Pocatello on Davis Field. In the 2018 season, ISU fell to Portland State 3-1, where Kortekaas scored the only goal for the Bengals. In the meantime, Kortekaas continues to recover and itches to get back on the field.