STORY BY JEANYLYN LOPEZ
Lady Bruins basketball player Sabrina Brathwaite has enough ambition to reach her goals in school and on the court.
Brathwaite is a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. Now, she’s a second-year Athletic Therapy student at Sheridan.
She’s been playing basketball since she was 6 years old and a cover photo on her Facebook page shows 22 basketball jerseys that she’s collected over 15 years. All of them neatly folded and lined up one on top of the other in a colourful row on her bedroom floor.
Basketball is a driving force in her life.
“I love the competitiveness about it. The style of plays and being your own player but being part of a team,” she said.
At one point Brathwaite was playing for three basketball teams at once: her high school team the Cardinal Leger Lancers, the Filipino Athletic Association of Brampton, and rep basketball for the Brampton Blue Devils. But in Grade 11 she opted out of rep basketball and played for the Amateur Athletic Union with CIA Bounce, a team that competes in Canada as well as the United States.
But time commitment wasn’t a major issue for Brathwaite until she joined the Waterloo Warriors.
Kinesiology students from Waterloo should expect 17 to 22 hours of class per week according to the university’s website. On top of her school schedule she would have practice five times a week for two hours, strength and conditioning training four times a week for two hours, and scheduled individual meetings with her coach once or twice a week.
When Brathwaite’s grades started to falter because of basketball she decided to stop playing for the varsity team.
“But I still wanted to be in that athletic environment,” said Brathwaite. “I dedicated so much time to it. “
That’s when she spoke to the head athletic therapist of the school and got a volunteer position as a trainer for the women’s volleyball team at Waterloo and found that she wanted to pursue a career in athletic therapy.
“It keeps me challenged,” said Brathwaite. “For me every day needs to be different or I’ll get bored. I don’t want to get stuck in some desk job behind a computer. I need something where every day is going to be different and I’m going to be challenged and I can help and interact with people.”
Aside from basketball Brathwaite has been active in other sports. She joined her volleyball, dodgeball, and basketball intramural teams at Waterloo. As a hobby she began muay thai in the summer. And by the end of last year she ran in Colour Me Rad and participated in Tough Mudder. She also received her certification as an exercise physiologist last summer.
“I like to get involved, but sometimes I get a little too over involved,” said Brathwaite.
As a guard for the Bruins Brathwaite averages 10.9 points and 9.9 rebounds a game.
“She’s a great asset. Her ball handling, her scoring, her rebounding; she rebounds a hell of a lot. In this league you need strong rebounders and she’s one of them,” said head coach Willie Delas. “Her knowledge of the game is a great asset to the team.”
Brathwaite hopes to work with a university as a head athletic therapist after she graduates from Sheridan. But eventually she would like to work with a professional sports team, whether that’s basketball, baseball, or tennis. She is also playing with the idea of opening her own clinic.
“Sabrina’s a go getter, she definitely knows how to get it done on the court and she also knows how to get it done in class. She’s definitely determined in perseverance,” said teammate and classmate Danielle Cletus.
A Facebook picture of Brathwaite shows her sitting on her bed with one leg tucked under the other while she plays her guitar. Behind her, pinned to the wall of her residence room in Waterloo is a caricature of her playing basketball as well as a Frisbee that reads “Applied Health Science.”
Among the many posters in her dorm, one motivational poster stands out. “Ambition: If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”
Brathwaite smiling for a picture in the women’s locker room.