Hi, I’m Brooke.
I’m a student researcher at Benet Academy in Lisle, Illinois, and I’m deeply interested in neuroscience, especially when it comes to adolescent athletes and brain health. As a high school athlete myself, I’ve seen how much sports can shape confidence, friendships, and identity. I have also learned how vulnerable our brains can be.
My academic research focuses on the psychological and social factors that influence concussion recovery and return-to-play decisions in high school athletes. I study questions like:
- Why do athletes sometimes return to play too soon?
- How do coaches, parents, and teammates influence recovery decisions?
- What role does identity play when an athlete is told to sit out?
Through survey-based research and collaboration with research programs at the University of California, San Diego, I’ve explored how social pressure, internal motivation, and lack of awareness can affect recovery outcomes. What I’ve discovered is that concussion recovery is not just physical. It is emotional and social as well.
But this topic is not just academic for me.
I wrote Put Me In, Coach because of my own experience as a girls basketball player who suffered a concussion. When it happened, I felt confused, frustrated, and disconnected from the game I loved. I remember wanting to get back on the court as quickly as possible, even when my brain needed more time.
That experience changed how I see sports and health.
Drawing from both my personal journey and my research, I created this story to help young basketball players understand what concussions really are, why brain health matters, and why speaking up is an act of strength, not weakness.
My goal is simple:
To make brain health conversations normal.
To empower young athletes to advocate for themselves.
And to help coaches and families understand that protecting the brain protects the future.
Because sometimes the bravest thing you can say is not “Put me in, Coach.”
It is “I need a minute.”
