Joe’s Take: Adkins guiding Pioneers through undefeated waters
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Brooke Adkins Brooke Adkins 6'0" | PG Wayne | 2025 State WV is the Wayne County Pioneers’ leader. At least, right now. Following countless hours in the gym over the summer, she’s repeatedly risen beyond her sophomore status into the…
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Continue ReadingBrooke Adkins Brooke Adkins 6'0" | PG Wayne | 2025 State WV is the Wayne County Pioneers’ leader.
At least, right now.
Following countless hours in the gym over the summer, she’s repeatedly risen beyond her sophomore status into the ranks of a senior. “She just leads, it is like she’s a natural at it,” Mikayla Stacy Mikayla Stacy 5'10" | SF Wayne | 2025 State WV said. Indeed. Spreading across the opening parts of the season are a plethora of examples – lessons that just can’t be ignored.
When anyone on the team makes a mistake, she’s right there to show them she makes them, too. And, it’s OK. “It’s really freeing when you have your leader coming up and telling you that,” Stacy said.
Yet, it doesn’t end there.
When the team needs her to take over the scoring load, she’s there with a “Can Do.” And when she’s out in front leading the Pioneers’ wicked zone defense, you can bet she’s showing everyone just how far their arms should stretch and how fast their feet should move.
Everything really has helped.
To say all this isn’t meant as a dig at any other Wayne player, “I can rely on anyone on this team and of course, I know Brooke and I want her to do well but I am very confident in every single player we have,” sister Addie Adkins Addie Adkins 5'11" | PF Wayne | 2025 State WV said. Exactly.
Still, it is hard to argue the point when that image of a leader is how her sister wants to be seen. “That is why I am here,” said Brooke. “I work like it and play like it.” And how.
Going back to the gym, there has been no shortage of additions to Brooke’s game, just adding more pieces to the entire arsenal. All of them actually have a building block effect on one another. Just take a look:
“I have always been a guard and I have recently been playing at the foul line,” Brooke said. “It has been going well. I get to do those little midrange shots and at the same time, I have these tiny moves I need to work on.” Yet, it is going well.
Which, by chance, that success also has given rise to another perk. “We kinda realized as a team that we have a few girls who can handle the ball fine,” Brooke said. “And it would open me up and a bunch of other girls up if like Addie or Lainie were dribbling the ball up, and I was in the middle. We have so many more open decisions now, versus if I was taking it up.”
All of this has led to perhaps the greatest compliments of them all, “She just makes us all want to play at our very best,” Stacy said.
For a prime example, look no further than the Pioneers’ game against Williamstown Friday night inside Doddridge County High School.
Brooke was all too happy to score the opening point of the game, and then keep on scoring, running, and doing what she does.
She continued steering the early charge thus grabbing an early lead for the Pioneers. She intercepted a Georgie Inman pass, ran down the sideline, and dished it to sister Addie for an assist. She hit a backbreaking teardrop to extend the lead, moments after Williamstown’s Riley Landis Riley Landis 5'9" | SG Williamstown | 2024 State WV ‘ watched a trey rattle out. She constantly talked in the fourth-quarter huddle, even with the game in hand.
After which, Williamson praised three of his players with Brooke being among them.
“Brooke, Laneigh and you can say Addie all did a really good job tonight. When you are on the road, you want your leaders to step up and that is exactly what those two and Addie did for us,” Williamson said.
Yes, you heard that correctly. Brooke isn’t the only leader on the team or the one the girls turned to, there is another gal deserving of her own piece. Until then, if you don’t believe Wayne has two great leaders, Brooke is a great leader here, believe her – she’ll tell you, just like she did this reporter before the victory.
“I don’t want to sound like I am bragging about myself or anything, but I want to say, ‘I am a good leader for us,” she said.
Sure looks like everything is intact, even after the victory.
Contact Joe Albright at josephpalbright3@gmail.com.