For this story, I chose to do it on one of the two returning true sophomores, Britain "Brie" Botsford. A native of Delray Beach, Florida, Botsford joined SCF in fall 2018 yet her story of her career in tennis began in her own backyard with a strong tennis background.
"I first got into tennis when I was four years old and it was thanks to my dad," said Botsford. "He decided it would be a good idea to to stick a tennis racket in my hand and I’ve been doing it ever since."
Although she was committed to continue playing, Botsford did go through many obstacles that tried to stop her from playing or continuing to play sport she loved.
"Playing a sport for as long as I have its hard not to. It usually involved past coaches or losing passion. I’m a very stubborn person so no matter what obstacles I faced, I pushed through and it all worked out in the end."
And low and behold she did and continued to push herself harder on a competitive edge to partake in several tennis tournaments like the Orange Bowl and the Eddie Herr Tournament as well as several different national tournament like the Extreme Tennis Academy Tournament.
Despite having several offers to many different colleges and universities, Botsford fell in love with SCF after a campus visit and committed to being a Manatee a couple of days after. Upon her official arrival at SCF, the first person to give her a 'Welcome to SCF' warm welcome was head coach Chloe Murphy. Botsford joined SCF as one of six newcomers and five true freshmen, yet at first she was a little hesitant in the beginning of the season.
"I was scared at first," said Botsford on meeting her new teammates. "I was nervous that we wouldn’t get along, but it couldn’t of worked out any better. I consider them my sisters and couldn’t ask for better teammates."
Right as rain, Botsford warmed up with all of her teammates and was officially placed at the number five singles spot and the number three doubles pairing up primarily with then sophomore Diarra Thomas, yet still having her jitters even in the Manatees season opener against Southeastern University (NAIA). In fact, Botsford wasn't too nervous in her spring season debut.
"I’ve played hundreds of matches so it wasn’t really different, so I was more excited than nervous," said Botsford.
Even though she loves playing tennis, Botsford does have several hobbies she likes to do outside of tennis, even if it was on a strict time frame.
"There’s a lot of hobbies that I have," said Botsford on outside of tennis. "Photography has always been a really big passion of mine. It got to the point where I was considering going to art school for it. Reading is also really big for me, I own a couple hundred books but with tennis and school I haven’t had as much time as I used to. But currently I’ve been really into makeup and been practicing on my teammates practically everyday. "
Botsford did finish 8-10 in singles play and 10-8 in doubles with Thomas her freshman year and went as far as the quarterfinals in both areas at the NJCAA National Tennis Tournament, but even before that Botsford has had her fair share of intense matches during the season she flashed back on as well as memorable moments at SCF, especially when flashing back to their 6-3 win over Broward College and her match against Hillsborough.
"Probably my most talked about match would have to be when I played HCC last spring," said Botsford on one of her matches. "We ended up splitting sets and I won in a tie breaker 11-9. The match lasted over 3 hours. It was one of the toughest matches of my life and took a lot of mental and psychical strength to get through it. The girl ended up winning states and got very far in the draw at nationals. So, it was considered a pretty big win for me."
"I have so many great memories here," Botsford added on her memories. "Honestly anytime I’m with all the girls is a favorite memory, but if I had to pick one it would have to be when we went to Disney World on our day off after winning 2 matches in a row and knocking Broward out of their spot. Or the day we all came back to school and reunited this past August after being away from each other for the entire summer."
While she now prepares for her sophomore campaign and 2020 spring season, Botsford stills plans to continue getting involved with something she loves.
"I plan on going to a division 1 school to continue my tennis career," said Botsford on her future. "I haven’t decided what school yet, but I’m not in a rush. But after college I plan on retiring from tennis and not going pro. I’ve always been so interested in many different career paths, so I’m going to go after one of those. Tennis will always be apart of me, but for me I don’t want to do the same thing for the rest of my life and tennis has been my life/job since I was a kid. I know I want to do something within the publishing or film industry, but I’m not sure exactly what yet."
Wherever Botsford's journey takes her, whether it's in the publishing industry, film industry or on the tennis court, her journey with SCF is not close to being over yet as she continues to push herself this season and looks to help lead the Manatees to another state and national tournament appearance.
Despite having several offers to many different colleges and universities, Botsford fell in love with SCF after a campus visit and committed to being a Manatee a couple of days after. Upon her official arrival at SCF, the first person to give her a 'Welcome to SCF' warm welcome was head coach Chloe Murphy. Botsford joined SCF as one of six newcomers and five true freshmen, yet at first she was a little hesitant in the beginning of the season.
"I was scared at first," said Botsford on meeting her new teammates. "I was nervous that we wouldn’t get along, but it couldn’t of worked out any better. I consider them my sisters and couldn’t ask for better teammates."
Right as rain, Botsford warmed up with all of her teammates and was officially placed at the number five singles spot and the number three doubles pairing up primarily with then sophomore Diarra Thomas, yet still having her jitters even in the Manatees season opener against Southeastern University (NAIA). In fact, Botsford wasn't too nervous in her spring season debut.
"I’ve played hundreds of matches so it wasn’t really different, so I was more excited than nervous," said Botsford.
Even though she loves playing tennis, Botsford does have several hobbies she likes to do outside of tennis, even if it was on a strict time frame.
"There’s a lot of hobbies that I have," said Botsford on outside of tennis. "Photography has always been a really big passion of mine. It got to the point where I was considering going to art school for it. Reading is also really big for me, I own a couple hundred books but with tennis and school I haven’t had as much time as I used to. But currently I’ve been really into makeup and been practicing on my teammates practically everyday. "
Botsford did finish 8-10 in singles play and 10-8 in doubles with Thomas her freshman year and went as far as the quarterfinals in both areas at the NJCAA National Tennis Tournament, but even before that Botsford has had her fair share of intense matches during the season she flashed back on as well as memorable moments at SCF, especially when flashing back to their 6-3 win over Broward College and her match against Hillsborough.
"Probably my most talked about match would have to be when I played HCC last spring," said Botsford on one of her matches. "We ended up splitting sets and I won in a tie breaker 11-9. The match lasted over 3 hours. It was one of the toughest matches of my life and took a lot of mental and psychical strength to get through it. The girl ended up winning states and got very far in the draw at nationals. So, it was considered a pretty big win for me."
"I have so many great memories here," Botsford added on her memories. "Honestly anytime I’m with all the girls is a favorite memory, but if I had to pick one it would have to be when we went to Disney World on our day off after winning 2 matches in a row and knocking Broward out of their spot. Or the day we all came back to school and reunited this past August after being away from each other for the entire summer."
While she now prepares for her sophomore campaign and 2020 spring season, Botsford stills plans to continue getting involved with something she loves.
"I plan on going to a division 1 school to continue my tennis career," said Botsford on her future. "I haven’t decided what school yet, but I’m not in a rush. But after college I plan on retiring from tennis and not going pro. I’ve always been so interested in many different career paths, so I’m going to go after one of those. Tennis will always be apart of me, but for me I don’t want to do the same thing for the rest of my life and tennis has been my life/job since I was a kid. I know I want to do something within the publishing or film industry, but I’m not sure exactly what yet."
Wherever Botsford's journey takes her, whether it's in the publishing industry, film industry or on the tennis court, her journey with SCF is not close to being over yet as she continues to push herself this season and looks to help lead the Manatees to another state and national tournament appearance.
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