Brookelynn Entz: In Her Own Words
11/13/2020
December 26, 2014. It was one of those moments that you just don’t forget. Kind of like when people talk about a time in their life when they remember exactly where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with. For me, this was it. It was like my future was just written out for me in the heading of a newspaper article.
I was sitting at my grandparent’s house waiting to eat my Christmas dinner when I decided to pick up the newspaper. I don’t even know why I did. I never read the paper. Of course, I turned to the sports section and the front page read, “Kansas State hires former Kansas Wesleyan coach to lead women’s soccer program,” and there was this tiny picture of Mike Dibbini on the side. I remember yelling to my parents, “Look who the new soccer coach is at K-State! It’s Coach Dibbini!” And I think it was at that moment when I knew that I was going to Kansas State University to play soccer.
Growing up, I played every sport I could, but soccer was the game I loved the most. It came so naturally to me, like it was what I was meant to do. When I was five years old I played in my first soccer game ever, and the first time I got the ball I dribbled through everyone and scored. And from then on, I never really stopped dribbling. I always had a ball at my feet.
As I got older, I continued to get better and seek out more opportunities to improve. In fourth grade, my coaches from Wichita took me with them to a soccer camp at Kansas Wesleyan University. Apparently, they knew some guy named Mike Dibbini who invited them to come help out with his summer camp for the week. So on Monday morning, I rode up with my coaches to Salina to go to camp. Coach Dibbini opened up his house for me and about five or six other coaches to stay there so we didn’t have to drive back and forth every day. Even Gabe and Kat, who were graduate assistants for Dibbini at the time, were there. It was just a big, crazy, happy soccer family. I think this experience grew my love for the game even more because I would spend all day hanging out with a group of coaches who had so much fun together. It made me realize that soccer was something that I wanted to be involved with my whole life.
When I committed to play soccer at K-State, my goal was to leave the program better than I found it. I hope I’ve done that. I know the rest of my senior class feels the same way.Brookelynn Entz
I continued to come back to stay at Dibbini’s house and attend KWU camp every summer after that. Coach Dibbini saw what I could do right away. He would always move me from my age group to play with the older boys, so that by the time I was in fifth grade, I was playing with the seventh and eighth grade boys. But, after a few years, Dibbini got hired at Cal Poly Pomona and moved away to California. The KWU summer camps stopped and I forgot about Coach Dibbini.
It’s all been worth it. Every loss, every sprint, every goal, every touch, every moment. I’ve truly enjoyed each second of my career with K-State soccer. This program has given me everything.Brookelynn Entz
My sophomore year of high school rolled around and I started the recruiting process. I was from Newton, Kansas and I played on a small club team that nobody knew about, so I had to get my name out there the hard way. I would travel all over the country to different camps, put together tons of film, and email and call countless coaches every week. None of them would come watch my games because my team didn’t go to all of the tournaments and showcases where the “biggest and best” competed. Despite all of this, I still managed to catch the eye of quite a few D1 coaches, but all of them said the same thing. “You’re from a small town. You haven’t been on an elite team. You don’t play against the best competition.” They were like a broken record.
Cue Coach Dibbini.
Just a few weeks after I saw his name in the paper, Dibbini contacted me and we set up a date for an unofficial visit to K-State. He hadn’t seen me play in over two years, but he still remembered me. He told me that he wanted me to help him build a legacy, that he wanted me to be the face of the program. When everyone else doubted me because of where I was from and who I played for, Coach Dibbini never did. He always saw what I could do. He always believed in me.
And I believed in him just as much as he believed in me.
When he got hired, Coach had nothing to sell except himself and a vision. No team, no field, no staff. He didn’t even have an office. When I came on my visit, Dibbini had set up shop in a First Aid closet in Bramlage Coliseum. Basically, they had cleaned out this tiny little closet, stuck a desk in there, and said “Alright Coach, start building a soccer program.” So, he did.
And now look where we are. Every day we get to show up at Buser Family Park, one of the best college soccer facilities in the nation. As a fourth- year team in arguably the most competitive conference, we compete toe-to-toe with teams who have been established for over twenty years. All credit to Mike Dibbini, the man who accepted the most difficult job in college soccer.
I don’t think there’s ever been a coach who believes in his team as much as Dibbini believes in us. After the worst loss in program history at Texas this year, Coach called me the next day and started talking about what we could do to get better and how we could rebound. I didn’t want to hear it. I thought there was no fixing what had happened. I had given up. The team had given up. Nobody believed in us. In everyone’s minds, our season was over. But when nobody else did, Coach believed.
On Monday when we got back to practice he held a team meeting, sat in the locker room with us and asked how he could improve as a coach and how he could help us. He took the loss on himself. He never put it on the team. He continued to tell us that he thought we could do something special.
Gotta love it. ?#KStateSOC x Family pic.twitter.com/LJwjRxzodf
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) October 17, 2020
And then that Friday we pulled off the biggest Big 12 win in K-State soccer history, beating Oklahoma 3-0. A couple weeks later we took TCU, the fifth- ranked team in the country, to overtime in a thrilling game. The next week, on the road against Iowa State, we won 2-0 to achieve our best conference record in the history of the program.
How 'bout them 'Cats ????#KStateSOC x #OnTheRise2020 pic.twitter.com/10EJkNykXk
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) October 31, 2020
So proud of my team tonight. Writing our history one game at a time... https://t.co/sMWtBtues2
— Brookelynn Entz (@b_entz8) October 31, 2020
It might sound like a funny statistic to be proud of, only winning two games in conference play, but I don’t think anyone really understands how tough it is to start a program from scratch. It’s been the hardest, least-rewarding work I’ve ever done. But, following Coach Dibbini’s lead, I keep going. And we keep making history.
When I committed to play soccer at K-State, my goal was to leave the program better than I found it. I hope I’ve done that. I know the rest of my senior class feels the same way.
We were the first to play all four years in the Big 12 and we want to see our work pay off, see this program be successful in the future. I hope we can come back years down the road and say, “Yes, we started this and all that work was worth it.” That work that nobody saw and nobody valued because the results weren’t there. But now this program is where it is today because of the work that we put in.
A couple weeks ago, as we were lacing up our boots to go out to train, I asked the seniors if they still would have committed to K-State if they knew this would be the result at the end of their four years. Every single one of them said yes.
It’s all been worth it. Every loss, every sprint, every goal, every touch, every moment. I’ve truly enjoyed each second of my career with K-State soccer. This program has given me everything.
Thank you, Coach Dibbini, for taking a chance on a kid from Newton, Kansas. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my dreams and to chase new ones. Thank you for always believing in me. And thank you for an unbelievable four years.
Gallery: Brookelynn Entz
