Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame: Brandi Brooks, Estancia

Barry Faulkner

Passage to paradise was not without peril for former Estancia High

girls volleyball standout Brandi Brooks.

Before landing at the University of Hawaii, where she was a three-year

starter for the Rainbow Wahine, the player former longtime Estancia Coach

Tom Pestolesi called the best in school history, absorbed more than her

share of defeats.

Her first three seasons at Estancia, the Eagles played in the Sea View

League, where powerful Corona del Mar, Irvine and Newport Harbor ruled

the roost.

Adding frustration to the futility Brooks’ Eagle teams experienced,

before competing in the Pacific Coast League her senior season, was the

fact that her Orange County Volleyball Club teammates bolstered the

rosters of the aforementioned Sea View powers.

“I think I lost every time I played against my club teammates,” Brooks

recalled. “But I took a lot of pride playing for Estancia.”

As 6-foot-1 senior, Brooks played myriad positions to lead Pestolesi’s

team to a second-place PCL finish and a berth in the CIF playoffs.

But, after a three-game sweep of wild-card opponent Redondo Union, the

Eagles were eliminated by eventual champion Corona del Mar, featuring

several of Brooks’ OCVBC buddies, 15-1, 15-3, 15-5.

Brooks’ talents, however, were welcomed at Hawaii, where volleyball

reigns supreme. The women’s team regularly fills the campus arena and

matches are frequently televised locally.

“Everyone knows who you are,” said Brooks, who made a name for herself as

a standout right-side hitter for Coach Dave Shoji, who recently lured

Newport Harbor High setter Jennifer Carey to Honolulu. Brooks was

second-team All-Big West Conference as a senior and made the conference’s

All-Academic team as a junior.

“I just went back and, even though I’m five years removed from playing, I

still get recognized,” said Brooks, who now lives in Foster City, a San

Francisco suburb.

“I loved it (in Hawaii),” she said. “How often do you get the chance to

live in paradise for four years and not pay a dime?”

The 26-year-old, who remained in Hawaii until moving to the Bay Area two

years ago, sells golf apparel for a popular clothing line.

Though volleyball has slipped from her list of interests, the latest

member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame said she values her

experience in the game and the life lessons learned through athletics.

“Sports teaches you discipline,” said Brooks, who first learned about

same from Charlie Brande at OCVBC. “I learned to push through in tough

situations. You couldn’t quit during a workout and you can’t quit now

during a project. I’m one of 17 sales reps who form a team. We’re

expected to meet a certain dollar volume per year and if you come up

short, the whole team comes up short.”

Brooks was never short of talent, on the court or off.

“Her biggest asset as a player was her mind,” Pestolesi said. “And she

was just tough. Everyone liked Brandi, because she had absolutely no ego.

She was just a great kid.”

An excellent student at Estancia, she carried that through in college.

“I thrived off the demands of balancing sports and academics at Hawaii. I

always got better grades during volleyball season than I got in the

off-season.”

A communications major, she posted a 3.43 GPA en route to her bachelor’s

degree.

Her job takes her to some of the finest courses in the Western United

States, but Brooks plays golf only casually.

Still single, she enjoys the Bay Area, though she misses the balmy

beaches she enjoyed in Southern California and Hawaii.

“The water is close, up here, but you freeze your tail off,” she said.