St. Joseph senior Janelle Brickey was all set to major in pre-earth science at UC Santa Barbara.

Then, while watching an episode of a hit TV show, she had a sort of epiphany.

“To be honest, when I was watching Grey’s Anatomy, there was an episode where they were fitting people for prosthetics,” and that is what Brickey decided she eventually wants to do.

“I really want to help people and that would be a great way to do it,” she said.

Brickey said she will major in biology at UCSB.

A three-year varsity player in soccer and tennis, she was the St. Joseph nominee for the 2020 Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Round Table Female Scholar Athlete of the Year scholarship.

The NSBCART organization awards its scholarships at its annual awards dinner. The organization cancelled its 2020 dinner because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brickey was a regular for a St. Joseph tennis team that made it to the 2019 CIF Central Section Division 2 final even being without injured freshman standout Michahjuliana Lundberg the entire post-season.

Lundberg, in the No. 2 slot in the Knights lineup, was unbeaten in singles and had one doubles loss before she was injured in her team’s last regular-season match of the year.

Top-ranked Sanger rallied to beat the No. 2 Knights 5-4 at Sanger in the Division 1 title match.

“It was still such a triumph to get that far,” said Brickey. “We just grew as a family and I miss playing with them so much.”

Coach Trish Gooley’s 2019 squad was the first St. Joseph team to make it to a girls divisional tennis final.

“I still want to play tennis, either recreationally or at the intramural level, at UCSB,” said Brickey. “I’m not really ready to totally give up tennis.

“I think I’m done with soccer. I’ve played soccer since I was little.”

Brickey will not major in pre-earth science at UCSB as she originally planned, but she said she will remain active in environmental issues.

“I would like to be an advocate for eco-friendly activity,” she said.

Brickey wrote on her scholarship application that she founded the ECO-Knights club on the St. Joseph campus.

“My club raised over $600 to fund a bottle filler hydration station on campus,” said Brickey.

“The Eco-Knights was the most popular club on campus. We had the most people sign up to be in that club.”

Schools statewide were closed in March because of the pandemic. Though she said she would rather be in the classroom with friends and teachers, “I’ve adjusted to online learning,” said Brickey.

“The teachers gave us the tools the first day of the quarantine.”

Besides, “Doing homework in my pajamas isn’t too bad.”

2
0
0
0
0

Tags

Sports Reporter

Kenny Cress, sportswriter for the Santa Maria Times since September of 2000. BA in political science from Cal Poly Pomona. BA in journalism from Cal State Northridge.

Recommended for you