Each week, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues highlight a student-athlete and their academic pursuits. This week, we meet kinesiology student and Varsity Blues catcher Will Brooks.
After switching his major from human biology to kinesiology, University of Toronto Varsity Blues catcher Will Brooks has found his calling.
“While I have always enjoyed the sciences, I realized that I really wanted to work in sports, and more specifically with athletes,” said the fifth-year student from Nashua, New Hampshire. “Kinesiology is a much more focused and specific degree program, and it allowed me to connect the things that I am most passionate about: science, sports, and helping other people.”
Brooks serves as co-president of U of T’s Varsity Board, is an academic mentor and has worked as a student athletic therapist at the David L. MacIntosh Clinic. He has come to apply his studies to his everyday life at U of T.
“Classes related to the biophysical realm of kinesiology have helped me better understand my own body and how to care for it while training and playing baseball, and classes related to the physical cultural realm of kinesiology have allowed me to think more deeply about sociological issues and how I could apply them to my work,” he said.
(Brooks receiving his 2022 Dean’s Student Leadership Award)
The 2021-22 OUA academic achievement award winner is excited at the prospect of pursing a Master’s of Professional Kinesiology with a focus on strength and conditioning, as well as completing a degree in physiotherapy after working at the MacIntosh Clinic.
“I have had the benefit of multiple strength and conditioning coaches, who have helped to dramatically improve my performance on the diamond, and I want to be able to provide that for other young athletes,” he said. “I believe that the leadership qualities that come with working as a strength and conditioning coach can be uniquely applied to the realm of physiotherapy, creating a modern kinesiology professional who is extremely versatile.”
Brooks, who helped the Varsity Blues win the 2021 OUA championship title, has high praise for the University of Toronto. The dual Canadian/American citizen offers sound advice to those looking to follow in his footsteps.
“There is a common misconception among Canadian athletes that if you don’t get recruited to play in the NCAA or in the U.S. that you didn’t fully ‘make it.’ To that I say: Create your own path,” he said. “Every situation is what you make of it, and I would challenge young Canadian athletes to think not about what their school can do for them but to think about what they can do for their school.
“U of T has allowed me to receive a quality education in addition to being able to compete in elite level sport, all the while living in one of the best cities in North America.”