Student Athlete Spotlight: Brooke Kratche ’15

Brooke Kratche ’15 has been a model of consistency over the past four years for Gordon Women’s Basketball. She is one of only 12 student athletes to score more than 1,000 points during their time at Gordon, amassing 1,221 so far and she has five regular season games remaining in her career. As astounding a feat it is to score with such consistency, it’s what Kratche was expected to do when she joined Gordon Women’s Basketball. “I came in as a freshman with the intention of helping to change the program,” she says. That is a daunting task for any 18-year-old during her first months away from the familiarity of home and high school. But Kratche was prepared for the challenge, and in her first season she averaged 9.0 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, while shooting 35% from the floor. The stalwart first year performance would only be a glimpse of things to come. Over Kratche’s sophomore and junior years she would average 14.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. For a program that has experienced coaching changes and a difficult time “getting over the wall,” as Kratche puts it, number 3’s consistent contribution has been the team’s one constant. When asked how she manages to carry the burden of scoring high year after year, Kratche chuckles, “Years of practice.” She was consistently a top scorer on a team of newcomers at Chagrin Falls High School in her native Ohio. But as talented as Kratche is on the basketball court, her career aspirations lie in another sport. A dedicated Cleveland Browns fan and a business administration major, her dream job would be to work in that team’s marketing department. “I played football and she loves it a whole lot more than I do,” asserts her boyfriend, Ricardo Cofre ’18. Gordon Women’s Basketball has been a fun team to watch this season. They have been a tough opponent on the Bennett Center court, with all three of their season victories coming at home. Kratche attributes this to the team’s sense of camaraderie and cohesion, a key part of the culture created by new coach Corey Laster. “As a team, we’re better. There’s better teamwork,” Kratche says. Under Laster, Kratche says, practices are high-energy and the team has been “moving through things quickly.” For Kratche, playing basketball at a Christian college has changed the way she views her sport. “If I see a ball on the ground that I could dive for but I just don’t want to make the effort to do it, I feel like that’s saying ‘I know You gave me this ability, God. I just don’t feel like using it,'” she says. “Just working as hard as I can with what God has given me is my way of thanking him.” In one of Dr. Valerie Gin’s recreation, sport and wellness classes, Kratche went by the name “Nike,” as each student was asked to assume an alter ego. “Because I was supposed to just do it. Don’t think about it, just do it,” Kratche says. That mantra has been representative of Kratche’s time on the Gordon Women’s Basketball team. Year after year she has been depended on to lead the team and score. How did she achieve such consistency? By just doing it. By Daniel Simonds ’18, Communication Arts