Most student-athletes have challenges managing their time, but Brooke Stonehouse is in a league of her own.
Stonehouse, a senior on the Toledo women’s soccer team, is a business management and marketing major in the John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation. She is done playing college soccer and is finishing her final semester of classes but is not even close to slowing down.
CELEBRATING SUCCESS: UToledo recognizes the Class of 2023 with a series of stories featuring students receiving their degrees at spring commencement.
Since the end of her final season wearing the Midnight Blue and Gold last fall, Stonehouse has added a lot to her plate. She is interning in the marketing office in the UToledo Athletic Department and with Buckeye Broadband writing business disclaimers and updating their website. She also works part time for The Bottom Line, a local CPA firm, and for Data Ongoing, a NetSuite company.
“I like to be busy, and now that soccer is over, I have a lot of free time,” said Stonehouse, a Camarillo, California, native. “I’ve been filling that void with every opportunity I can get my hands on.”
For some people, working two internships and two jobs at the same time would be too much, but for Stonehouse it is just right.
“I have found a system that works for me,” said Stonehouse, who is graduating in May and plans to attend graduate school. “I do get tired, but I just have to push through it.” She added that two cups of coffee is all she needs to survive most days.
Stonehouse used this same work ethic to dedicate herself to soccer and academics. She is a two-time Academic All-MAC honoree who currently holds a 3.65 GPA. In her four years on the field, Stonehouse played in 40 games and scored four goals.
“Even if I had class and practice, just like any other student-athlete, I knew I had better make it work because there are other things in life after soccer,” Stonehouse said. “I wanted to make sure I’m prepared for that, and that preparation started in the classroom.”
She credits her parents, John and Sue Stonehouse, for helping her prepare for the balance between sports and academics. Both are former college student-athletes. Her father played football at USC and professionally for the New York Giants and her mom played soccer at UCLA. They have encouraged their four children to give their all in everything they do.
“As a family we don’t do anything mildly,” John Stonehouse said. “We’re really all in or nothing.”
Sue Stonehouse said that her daughter has always been on the move. She recalled a time when her daughter wanted to learn how to do a cartwheel. She practiced and practiced and practiced until finally she got the hang of it.
Brooke Stonehouse, second to left, poses with her younger siblings. Stonehouse’s success as a student-athlete has helped inspire her brothers and sister, who also are student-athletes.
“She was very determined,” Sue Stonehouse recalled. “Whatever she wanted to do, she was going to do it.”
Younger siblings Jack, Jessie and Josh all view their sister as a role model.
“Her determination is one of the things about her I look up to the most,” said Jack Stonehouse, a redshirt freshman punter at Syracuse. “She showed me that even though it is hard, it is possible to be a successful student-athlete at the collegiate level.”
“I try to train like Brooke because she is where I want to be, physically and mentally,” added Jessie Stonehouse, a freshman defender on the women’s soccer team at the University of Wyoming. “She never quits and she makes it look easy, even though she is working her tail off to accomplish all the things she has.”
If Stonehouse’s devotion to her education and soccer wasn’t impressive enough, she also dedicates time throughout the year to her family’s non-profit organization, Rolling for Pink.
Rolling for Pink was founded in 2009 by her mom after Stonehouse’s aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. For the past 12 years, the Stonehouses have hosted a bunco tournament to raise funds for breast cancer research. Stonehouse’s aunt had breast cancer 15 years ago and today she is perfectly healthy. For the first 11 years, Stonehouse and her cousins sold raffle tickets, but this year she took on a bigger role as the donation coordinator.
“When Rolling for Pink comes around it’s a time of year that my whole family comes together to raise awareness of breast cancer,” she said. “The event allows us to do something fun and see a smile on the face of women who have breast cancer, survivors, researchers and even doctors.”
Brooke Stonehouse poses with her friend, Lexi Carson, at a Rolling for Pink event. Rolling for Pink is the Stonehouse family’s non-profit to raise funds for breast cancer research.
In 2021, the Stonehouses were unable to obtain the typical donations they had in previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We usually would get items from Estee Lauder and other big makeup companies,” Sue Stonehouse said. “Brooke was old enough to get a swag bag as a participant and was so disappointed because they were not up to the typical Rolling for Pink standard. So she vowed that the next year she would take over. She got a little taste of success and she’s all in now. She’s been doing a great job, getting donations and swag bag items.”
For Brooke, there was never any doubt that she would thrive in helping the charity event. Whether playing soccer, studying for an exam or helping out a worthy cause, there is only one approach for her.
“If I’m going to do something,” Stonehouse said, “it’s going to be done 100 percent.”
