By Heather Sibbu
Last October marked a significant milestone. Senior Brooklyn Bawanan, a standout student athlete here at El Diamante, committed to play at the Division 1 level for Fresno State. Brooklyn spoke to The Dig about her productive daily routine, personal insights, and future goals.
Bawanan is a four-year El Diamante Varsity student athlete who participates in Cross Country, Soccer, and Track. She is also an academic force, taking multiple rigorous courses throughout her four years. She enjoys, “training young female athletes for soccer.” Despite her busy schedule, you can always find her on campus with a smile on her face.
A typical morning for Brooklyn consists of double practices; she wakes up at 6:30 AM then has a nutritious breakfast with beet juice before getting ready and heading off to school. She goes to all of her classes during the school day. As soon as school ends, she has her first practice from 3:45 PM until 5:30 PM. Once her first practice finishes, she’ll have her second session with her personal trainer from 6:15 PM until 7:30 PM.
“After both practices I go home, stretch, eat dinner, drink more beet juice and electrolytes, take a shower and work on homework until I go to bed,” Bawanan explains. She also mentioned [that she has] weight training before practices on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1:45 PM until 2:45 PM.
The hardest part of her training is Monday track workouts, “Physically, Monday track workouts are the hardest. . . it is our long sprint days, [so] many people are unable to finish this work out and throw up,”
How she initially started is she was recommended track as something she would enjoy and be proficient in since she was the fastest soccer player on her team at the time. Her mom and uncle were both her track coaches throughout elementary and middle school; this influenced her to continue with the sport.
However, she faced some challenges throughout her journey. Her biggest challenge yet was “quitting competitive soccer” in order to fully focus on excelling on running. “I had to make a decision in order to prioritize my time and recovery to reach my goals. . . Soccer was my prioritized sport and a significant part of my life from ages five until seventeen, it was definitely difficult mentally to make a switch,” she describes.
Even with some obstacles along the way, Brooklyn shares her motivating factors that keep her determined, “On difficult days, my teammates and coaches continue to motivate me to keep going. Another thing that motivates me on difficult days is asking myself, “What kind of person do I want to be?”
Her answer is being hardworking, dedicated, consistent, and successful in order to achieve her goals. “I need to keep working hard with precision, positivity, and effort.”
A skill she’s trying to improve are her arms her hurdle form. She claims that “by improving this, [she’ll] be able to shave off more time on [her] hurdle races.” Outside of the track, she’s working to improve her time management while learning how to balance training, recovery, school work, family, and friends.
With her strong self-discipline and skills, Brooklyn was able to land herself an offer to become a D1 Athlete for Track and Field at Fresno State. Her initial reaction was met with indifference. “I already made going D1 for Track and Field my goal. . . so finding out I was going D1 wasn’t surprising, but I was very excited and could not stop smiling.” The most rewarding part of being an athlete for her is the memories she makes with her teammates while watching the progression of their work, the results, and the titles they win as well.
Outside of her sport: Brooklyn enjoys making bracelets, hanging out with friends, walking her dog, and playing random sports with her friends. After graduation at El Diamante High School, she wants to be a part of the 4×400 relay and be the top hurdler at Fresno State. She also hopes to make new relationships and friendships that “will last a lifetime.” As for the next five years, she sees herself as a future Track and Field coach while going to medical school to become a dermatologist.