Career Highlights
BY THE NUMBERS
Stanley Junior High/Middle School 1996-1998: Softball, girls track and girls basketball Most Valuable Player, 1997-98; County Division II track meet MVP, 1998; Stanley Athlete of the Year, 1998.
East Gaston High School 1998-2002: Three-time cross-country MVP 1999, 2000, 2001; All-Conference volleyball, 2000; All-Conference cross country, softball and basketball, 2000, 2001, 2002; All-Gazette basketball 2001, 2002; Coaches award 2000-01 and Best Offense award 2001-02, basketball; Best Defense, softball 2000; Warrior Award, softball, 2001; MVP softball, 2002; Gazette All-Tournament, and Charlotte Observer All-Tournament, softball, 2002; East Gaston Female Athlete of the Year, 2002.
Gardner-Webb (player) Class of 2006: Four-year starter; third in G-W Div. I history with 106 games played; Most Versatile player 2005; 2006 Atlantic Sun Conf. All-Academic team; 2006 Coaches Award; Team was conference tournament runner-up in first conference title game in Div. 1 history, 2006.
Wingate University 2006-2008: Assistant coach, 2006-07, 2007-08; NCAA Div. II South Atlantic Conference runner-up 2007; conference champion 2008; regional champion 2008; NCAA Div. II Tournament Elite Eight, 2008.
Mars Hill University 2008-2010: Recruiting coordinator/ assistant coach; college professor; NCAA Div. II South Atlantic Conference Tournament quarterfinalist; Top 25 for Division II team GPA.
Gardner-Webb University (coach) 2010-2012: Recruiting coordinator/ assistant coach. Big South Championship, 2011; First-ever NCAA Div. I Tournament appearance, 2011; Player Dominique Hudson invited to WNBA draft, signed professional contract overseas.
Gaston Day School 2013-2014: Season record 23-6 and undefeated (10-0) in Southern Piedmont Athletic Assn. Conference; N.C. Independent Schools 2A State Tournament quarterfinals; Conference Coach of the Year 2014.
Lincoln Memorial University 2014-2015: Associate head coach/ recruiting coordinator; NCAA Div. II South Atlantic Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
Virginia University of Lynchburg 2015-2016: Senior women’s athletic administrator/ associate athletic director; college professor; head coach; most school wins in one season.
Brooke Wilkinson
Basketball is life.
The rest is merely paperwork.
She grew up in a small town, where boys didn’t notice, or care, that their teammate was a girl. She was as good as them, or better, and her two brothers – one older, one younger – let her tag along, bring her skills.
“I would just sign up for anything. I played with all the guys in rec league, and I was the only girl,” she says. “I grew up in Stanley, and I have a younger brother and we were always on the same team, and I always made All-Stars. In a small town, it didn’t bother them. They didn’t offer any girls programs at the time.
“I was just one of the boys, and I wanted that, my parents wanted that, and they didn’t treat me any different.”
Brooke Wilkinson played basketball, mostly, but also softball and track and field, because she craved competition. Her first girls-only team was sixth grade basketball.
But it was basketball that became an essential accessory, like toting your lucky pocketknife everywhere, even on Sundays. She needed to play it, coach it.
“Sometimes, especially when we went to All-Stars, they realized I was a girl, but that was being around teams from other counties. It definitely helped with my competitive side. I’m crazy competitive,” she says. “I think it helped with other things, like getting athlete of the year, and getting a scholarship.”
Wilkinson, who turns 37 in August, played for Stanley Junior High (a.k.a Middle School); East Gaston High and Gardner-Webb, on a full ride, where she was a four-year starter. She coached at Wingate University – where she earned a Master’s – and Mars Hill, in Mars Hill, N.C.; at Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs; Gaston Day School; Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.; and Virginia University of Lynchburg.
In between, the basketball ended once, in 2012.
She took a job at her family’s business.
But the sport pulled like a magnet, and in 2013 she went back.
Her journey that started in Stanley now led to Gaston Day School, then Lincoln Memorial, as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. It ended, for the last time, in 2016 in Lynchburg after a year as head women’s coach and senior women’s athletic administrator/ associate athletic director. She had the most wins, ever, in one season that year and was a college professor. One of her courses was organizational leadership.
Wilkinson drove home, to Davidson.
After a short break, she became Chief Financial Officer of Wilkinson Family Incorporation, the umbrella of her family’s two car lots, finance company and real estate interests. She worked with her dad, Jeff Wilkinson, and brothers Kevin and Tyler.
“I took six months off and didn’t work anywhere,” she says. “I visited people, traveled to Myrtle Beach for a month to visit my grandma, hung out with my nephews, honestly just laid low.”
Then the phone rang.
It was the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
“I was very shocked, very humbled,” she says.
It had been 20 years since she joined Stanley’s basketball, softball (she played shortstop) and track teams, and was named MVP of each. She was the county Division II track meet MVP in 1998 and the school’s Athlete of the Year for 1997-98.
At East Gaston, she totaled 1,265 points, 572 rebounds and 384 assists as a 5-foot-8 point guard and graduated as the second-highest girls team scorer in school history. The night she joined the 1,000-point club, coach Ernie Bridges said, “She is one of the most athletic individuals I’ve coached in my 14 years, male or female.”
She was MVP in softball in 2002, her senior year, and made the All-Charlotte Observer Team and was an All-Charlotte Observer Scholar Athlete. She also was senior class president.
“I’m never the kind of person to do nothing. If I had free time, I’d fill it with something else, so I was lucky to be voted class president. My mom (Sharon Bryant) is a very academic person, and she wasn’t going to let my academics fall because of sports,” Wilkinson says. “She definitely helped me.”
In her first game at Gardner-Webb, she led the team with 14 points. Her senior year, 2006, she was on the honor roll, won the Coaches Award, made the Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic Team and led the team to its first tournament championship game in school history.
“I know kids whose dream is to be a D1 athlete. That was mine. I was going to do it no matter what,” she says. “But, it’s a whole other level. We weight-trained. We conditioned at 5 a.m. We had study hall for two hours. It was a job within a job. Other college students get weekends to go home. We had two-a-days on weekends, or were flying to a game. There are two things that are important to me, and that’s Jesus Christ and family, and that’s why I chose Gardner-Webb, because it’s a Christian school.”
Her first coaching job was point-guard coach at Wingate University from 2006 through 2008. One of her players, Anna Atkinson, was 2008 Regional Player of the Year, the season the team made the NCAA Division II Tournament Elite Eight.
While point guard coach and recruiting coordinator at Mars Hill from 2008 through 2010, player Brittany Young was the leading scorer in the South Atlantic Conference.
Wilkinson returned to Gardner-Webb as recruiting coordinator/ assistant for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. The women won the Big South title in 2011 and made their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
During her short break in 2012, Wilkinson thought she could relax.
Didn’t happen.
“I wasn’t ready,” she says.
She took on Gaston Day and had an undefeated (10-0) conference season, 23-6 record and was Southern Piedmont Athletic Association Conference Coach of the Year.
Then came Lincoln Memorial, as associate head coach (2014-15) and, finally, Lynchburg.
“Honestly, I was about 30 when I went back to Gaston Day, then Lincoln Memorial, and being a college coach is fantastic – you’re living your dream, but it’s a lot of hours. Your whole life goes into coaching, taking care of your team, travelling all over the world. And it’s fun, until you realize that in two months, you’ve only been at your house two nights.”
Her sports philosophy guides her day-to-day life:
“The first thing is attitude. Was there a good attitude? How did they respond if they missed a shot or made a mistake? Before you even look at talent, look at attitude,” she says, “because every person wants to play. If they struggled, were they giving it their all? Recruit the person, not just the athlete.”