Brooke Lynn Watts courtesy FAMU athletics
Brooke Lynn Watts couldn’t have done better at making a solid impression this volleyball season.
Watts, a junior criminal justice major at Florida A&M University, is a 5-foot-9 outside hitter who has totaled 126 kills in just nine games. She is also a great passer and defender.
Watts has been playing volleyball since she was 12 years old. She started playing on a travel team when she was 12, which is when she fell in love with the sport. She was a varsity captain, state title holder, and record holder at Arundel High School.
Her teammates say Watts is dependable, dominant, and consistently composed. She always knows the right things to say to people when they are struggling, and that’s an excellent quality to have.
Her brilliant skills on the court radiant off the court as well. Teammate Sydney Humes, a freshman political science student from Homewood, Alabama, commends Watts for her uplifting attitude and skills to boost up her teammates.
“Brooke is such a fiery teammate off and on the court. She’s always encouraging her teammates and is always focused on boosting the confidence of her teammates,” Humes said,
While she did not initially start at FAMU, her volleyball career at Murray State was just as impressive. In 2021, Watts made MSU history. She then transferred to FAMU.
Recently, Watts and her teammate Brooke Hudson were named co-Players of the Week for the Southwest Athletic Conference.
“It’s good to know that my hard work throughout the week is paying off in the game. The SWAC is very competitive, and it has a lot of dominant hitters. To win something like that shows me that what I’m doing is working, and I need to continue to play clean and aggressively,” Watts said.
After winning the SWAC championship last season, Watts knows what it takes to win another title and advance to the NCAA tournament.
“It takes a lot of preparation to win a championship, and we were able to see that process last year and the year before. I expect us to be mentally and physically prepared to put us in a good position in the SWAC tournament,” she said.
When Watts isn’t being a trailblazer on the court, she’s making the time to talk to the people she loves most: her family.
“Anytime I have free time, I like to FaceTime my parents or my sister,” she said.
Watts is dedicated to family and being around her support system, even if it means virtually.
“Outside of practice, I’m normally talking to my sister or playing with my nephew on FaceTime,” she said.