A team does not become the best in the country without some very special players. The Colorado Mesa University softball team has a plethora of talented young women who have come together to make something special out of 2018 season. With every great team, there have to be great leaders. One leader has worked her way to the top and earned everything she has accomplished, and her name is Brooke Hodgson.
Hodgson has been playing on the CMU softball team all four years of her collegiate career and even started when Head coach Ben Garcia has his inaugural year at the helm. She has been around for the low points of the softball team and is still swinging for the undefeated season that they have had so far this current year.
Hodgson is one of the four team captains on the team and has been one since her sophomore year, a year that she won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Defensive Player of the Year. Since then she has attained a plethora of accomplishments. Just to name a few: First-Team All American, RMAC Co-offensive Player of the Year, All-RMAC Academic First-Team and set the RMAC and CMU record for most RBIs in a college career.
“We made her a captain in her sophomore year since we felt that players followed her lead,” Ben Garcia said. “She continues to lead not only by example, but she makes sure that the girls’ voices are heard.”
Since her sophomore year, Brook has been working hard and been making a significant impact on the team. She puts in several hours a week on softball and even shows up to practice early so that she can solidify her basics and become a better player overall.
On March 24, Hodgson also broke the career RBI record for CMU and the RMAC. On top of the record, she is also currently leading the RMAC in batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, hits, RBIs and tied for first in doubles and home runs. However, most of this seems to have gone unnoticed by the player.
“I didn’t even know about the record that I broke,” Brooke Hodgson said. “I don’t really want to look at those stats. It will be nice if it happens, but I think that sticking to my goals and helping the team out is what I am focusing on instead.”
Keeping little track of the progress and position that she has in the RMAC is refreshing, especially during a time when stats are highly favored in sports. Instead of getting a big ego, Hodgson keeps her nose to the grindstone and focuses on bettering her team, doing her job and winning games with the Mavericks.
Hodgson doesn’t only bat either, she does so much more than that. Officially in the CMU roster, she is classified as a Utility Player, basically meaning that she plays whatever position they need her to play. Usually, this is the outfield, but it also includes pitching from time to time. On the first year, she pitched for the team and has since taken a step back from it with the inclusion of new pitchers like Surface and Herring.
During this season, Hodgson has pitched 26 innings and possess a 4-0 record as well as a 1.08 era.
Hodgson’s versatility on the field doesn’t stop at playing skills, as she is a captain and inspires the other players on the team to play their best and to keep on playing CMU softball. One such player is catcher Zoe Pakes who joined the softball team the same year that Hodgson did and has been through the same era of CMU softball with Hodgson.
Together, they have been through the days when CMU wasn’t the best in the country and now they both get to benefit from the team that has been built over the past four years.
“Whatever she says, the team believes in,” Pakes said. “She knows when to say it at the right time and reflect what the girls are thinking to get stuff done.”
One way that the senior class had accomplished this team building necessity was a poster project that they all created together.
In the softball clubhouse, there are several posters all over with inspirational goals that the girls all try to accomplish and follow so that they can be the best that they can be. One such quote is “No Bad Days” that encourages them to play the best that they can.
Not only does she show this on the team, but Hodgson has been working in the community for a while helping schools and young softball enthusiasts become better themselves. She has given lessons and offered assistance to young players in the community since she loves the game and seeing others thrive. Hodgson does want to eventually become a college softball coach and really loves the game and the teamwork involved in it.
“Brooke is the epitome of a coach’s dream to find someone,” Garcia said. “You hope that they are a hard worker, great in the classroom, and dedicated to the game. That is the person that she is.”
So within this very talented group of girls, Brooke Hodgson is a great ambassador for her team and offers a great look into the type of team that the Mavericks have.
