Williamstown grad Brooke Stewart ends athletic career
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HUNTINGTON -- For former 2017 Williamstown High School graduate and multisport standout Brooke Stewart, her days as a student-athlete are now officially over.
At least the athlete part is as the recent graduate of Alderson Broaddus has enrolled at Marshall University to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy.
During Memorial Day weekend, the ex-Battler volleyball and rugby player went to New Orleans as part of an all-star team to compete in the CRC May Madness 7s National Collegiate Rugby championships.
Stewart, who competed at AB for three years in volleyball and two in rugby, said her team in the tournament "was people from all different schools. There were people from Kent State, Gannon, a girl from Fairmont on my team. It was just people from different schools that I hadn't played with before."
The ex-Yellowjacket, who was a first team Class A all-state volleyball selection as a senior and played an integral part on Williamstown's 2014 state championship squad, also competed in an all-star rugby tournament last year in Florida.
"I stopped playing volleyball August of my senior year because all the sports were moved back to the spring and I wanted to play rugby," she said. "I started playing rugby the second semester of my sophomore year and I did both until my senior year."
In 2019, Stewart committed to the rugby team and was actually the first Alderson Broaddus player at the school. Last spring, the Battlers were only able to play in three tournaments and Stewart competed in two because she had a hurt shoulder.
"We only got to play four. We won one out of the four," Stewart said of competing in New Orleans at the Gold Mine on Airline that's home to Major League Rugby's NOLA Gold. "The first game we played Life University and they are ranked like second in the U.S. for women's rugby.
"That was a tough game. They play with each other all year around and they know how each other plays. The team practiced once on Friday, but I wasn't able to be there because I had class and I couldn't miss class. We never met before this past weekend."
Stewart, who eventually hopes to work in home health with pediatric physical therapy and later on open her own pediatric clinic, earned her degree in exercise science with concentrations in physical therapy and prosthetic orthotics with minors in psychology, business administration, healthcare administration along with strength and conditioning.
"That was my first time in New Orleans and Louisiana," she added. "It was great. It was a great experience. I wasn't expecting to be able to play again after AB with my career.
"It was a great opportunity to be able to go down there and play in one last tournament since my seasons at AB got kind of shot because of COVID."
Fully focused on finishing what she just started at Marshall, Stewart said if things go as expected she will graduate in April of 2024.
"AB, I loved it there," Stewart said. "I loved how it's a small community kind of like back home and everybody pretty much knows everybody, like all the faculty and staff who work at AB were great and very welcoming and supportive whenever you needed them in anything.
"I wouldn't change anything. You know, AB gave me a lot of new experiences. I got involved on campus really early my freshman year. I never thought I'd be playing rugby or be the first women's rugby player or the first women's alumni."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com