Bain makes mark at Oklahoma Christian

Brooklin Bain literally hit the ground running when she arrived on campus at Oklahoma Christian last fall.

The 2020 Comanche High School graduate excelled in two sports in her freshmen year, winning several accolades over the course of basketball and softball seasons.
“Looking back on it, I think it was very successful,” Bain said. “Going into it with COVID and everything, we weren’t sure how the games and practices would work out. We had a lot of challenges and struggles.”

The struggles came from the fact that neither the coaches nor anyone else had ever been through things they were trying to navigate.

“We had to pivot every time something came out and we just tried to not get upset about it because there was nothing we could do to help it,” Bain said. “Looking back at it, I think I’ve grown from it and I think it was just a really successful year.”

Bain was only the second athlete in Oklahoma Christian history to win Player of the Week awards in unrelated sports. She won it for basketball in January and in April in softball.

In basketball, she was named the freshman of the year and was selected to the first team of the All-Lone Star Conference team. She averaged 15 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.

In softball, she was named to the Lone Star Conference All-Region team and second-team All-LSC. She played third base, center field and even pitched some. Offensively, she finished the season with a .327 average with nine doubles, eight home runs, 29 RBIs and was 10-of-12 on stolen base attempts.

Bain was also successful in the classroom and was named to the LSC Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Being a multi-sport athlete in college was quite different than being one in high for Bain.

“I really didn’t realize how much of a change it would be,” Bain said. “In high school, you go from one season to the next and the seasons don’t overlap, but in college, I practice basketball early in the morning, softball late at night and then I’d have class in the middle of the day.”

Her schedule did not leave her much free time and she had to learn to take care of her body.

“Learning how to manage my time was a huge part,” Bain said.

She did manage to go injury-free for the most part, which turned out to be a good thing, especially in basketball when they were down to dressing out around eight players due to injuries of other team members.

“Overall, I think I handled it pretty well, but there were times I kind of broke down,” Bain said. “Both of my coaches were super understanding, so if they saw I was tired, they told me to take a day off, which I never did.”

Fighting through the fatigue allowed her to reach the goals she’s had since she was in high school evidenced in the postseason honors.

“All my hard work in high school and my younger years finally paid off in my dream of being a college athlete,” Bain said. “At the beginning of the season, I sat down with my coach and she told me I had a chance to do that and it just pushed me harder to strive for that and seeing that I won (those honors) was a huge accomplishment.”

She admits there were times she thought she was crazy trying to play two sports, but she would not have it any other way.

“Especially with the schoolwork, I was like I am absolutely crazy for doing this, what is wrong with me,” Bain said. “But then, I would get back out there and I absolutely loved it and I could never give up one or the other.”

The Lady Eagles softball team was one win away from making it to the national championship tournament.

“Actually, the team (West Texas A&M) that ended up winning the national championship in Division II, we run-ruled earlier in the season,” Bain said. “I really think we just peaked earlier in the season and at the end of the season, we just couldn’t improve. We struggled with our batting in the regional tournament, and it rained the entire time so there were delays.”

They finished the season with a 38-9 record.
And while her college coaches helped her out tremendously, sometimes it took a call back home to get her back on track.

During one doubleheader, Bain went 0-for-4 in the first game, so she called her mother, Misti Mitchell Bain, a coach at Comanche. She went 4-for-4 the next game.

“I called her and I was upset,” Bain said. “She was like, you know what to do, Brooklin, you work on it at practice every day. And then the next game, I (did well) and I don’t know, maybe that little talk was all I needed.”

So now the goals for her sophomore season are set higher.

“My goal is to be better than last year and work harder,” Bain said. “Instead of being Freshman of the Year, maybe get Player of the Year. I was half a rebound short of averaging a double-double and I would like to do that this next year.”

There will be some adjustment in softball as they have a new head coach, Shalee Rodriguez, who was promoted from assistant to the top spot when former coach Shanon Hays left in June to take the same position at Division I Grand Canyon State University.

“His daughter was our shortstop and she was one of my best friends on the team,” Bain said. “That is hard, but our assistant coaches are taking over, which I love. She’s a good coach and I think we have some good recruits coming in and I think we can be even better this next season.”