Hall of Fame
Talented, versatile, and dedicated would be three apt words to describe Melissa Brooks, who becomes the 11th women’s softball player inducted into California University of Pennsylvania’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Brooks was a four-year starter from 1999-2002 and she helped the Vulcans compile a 149-49 cumulative record with four consecutive PSAC-West titles, two PSAC crowns and one NCAA II Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
Before Brooks’ arrival, Cal softball won consecutive NCAA Division II National Championships in 1997 and 1998.
“Because we had come down to watch Cal play a couple times while in high school I was aware of the program’s success and I definitely knew it was going to be a challenge,” Brooks said. “I was a little nervous but looking forward to it and hoping that we could carry on what the past teams had done.”
She was Cal’s pitching ace in 1999 and 2000 with single-season records of 21-9 and 24-3 respectively. Brooks was selected as the PSAC-West Rookie of the Year in 1999 and the division’s Player of the Year in 2000.
After missing all but four games due to a shoulder injury in 2001, Brooks played mostly first base in 2002 and earned first-team all-conference honors for the third time but was selected at the utility player position. A 2000 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-American, Brooks was twice named all-region.
During her sophomore season she set school records for single-game strikeouts with 14 (twice) and fewest walks in a season with 17. She ranks second in school history in career strikeouts (497) and career ERA (0.51).
Over her first two years Brooks won 45 games with 422 strikeouts in 399 innings pitched. She finished with career pitching totals of 53 victories, four career no-hitters, three perfect games, 69 starts, 55 complete games, 463.2 innings pitched, a .791 winning percentage and three saves. She allowed just 39 career earned runs.
Despite pitching only two full seasons, Brooks remains ranked in all 11-career school pitching records categories.
Offensively, she produced 121 career hits, 73 runs, 23 doubles, one triple, six home runs and 69 runs batted in. Brooks batted a career-best .357 in 2000 with 60 hits, 12 doubles, three home runs and 32 runs batted in. She helped the 2002 team hit a school record 41 home runs which ranked fourth highest in NCAA history at the time.
“Melissa Brooks epitomizes what a team player is all about,” said Bertagnolli, who will begin his 16th season at Cal U this spring. “She sacrificed her own individual career to do what best for this team and had a great career here. Melissa is the kind of person you love to coach and have represent your team.”
Though she excelled on the mound as well as at the plate, Brooks’ main concern was the team performing well on the field.
“I prefer pitching but by then we had other pitchers such as Amber Riggle that could step up which allowed me to help out in the infield,” she said. “I did not want to red-shirt my junior season and am very proud to have been able to come back and get all-conference as a utility player my senior year.”
The Vulcans won five straight PSAC titles from 1996-2000 and four straight NCAA Regional titles from 1996-1999 under head coach Rick Bertagnolli, who begins his 15th season at Cal this spring. Brooks also helped the team win four of its 16 straight PSAC-West crowns (Nos. 11-14) and Nos. 10-13 in Cal’s string of 17 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.
Not so surprisingly Brooks praised Bertagnolli for the program’s remarkable success. He received PSAC-West Coach of the Year honors in 2000 to complement her player of the year award.
“He’s an amazing person, an amazing coach and I would not have wanted to play for anyone else,” Brooks said. “On the softball diamond he was there to put a winner on the field and I absolutely loved his coaching strategies. It’s interesting to come back now and watch him coach because he’s different than he was before. He’s got so much knowledge about the game and knows how to pass that knowledge on to other people.”
An assistant coach at Cal during her first two years was the pitcher who appears just ahead of Brooks in he record books—three-time All-American and 2004 Cal U Hall of Fame inductee Danielle Penner.
“It was a great experience to learn from her,” said Brooks. “Seeing where she came from and all the success she had was helpful.”
No Cal athletic program besides the 1996-2000 Vulcan softball teams has won five consecutive conference championships and Brooks is proud to have made a strong contribution to this dynasty.
“That was special and we just had strong players,” she said. “We were just trying to do what the other teams had done before and players such as Ali Ferrari, Kristin Heslop and Katie Vaughan just had such a winning attitude.”
Brooks believes the team’s camaraderie had plenty to do with the team’s success.
“I had a lot of fun more my junior and senior years because before I missed home a lot,” she said. “But I met so many great people. We were together all the time. We all got along really well, knew what had to get done and how hard to work to accomplish what we wanted but it was all fun.”
She earned her bachelor’s degree in geography and regional planning from Cal U in 2002. Brooks signaled out emeriti professors Mitch Bailey and the late Ron Forsythe as impressionable teachers. She is understandably looking forward to the next visit to her alma mater.
“Just the thought of this honor is so exciting and I worked hard over the years to accomplish this,” Brooks said. “It has always been a family-like atmosphere at Cal and the campus is so beautiful now. It’s great to keep in touch with my teammates but it’s also nice to see players that I did not play with because we all played softball here.”
Originally from Guelph, Ontario, Brooks is a graduate of John F. Ross High School. A two-time Softball Canada First Team All Star who led the 1997 team to the national championship, she was named the Provincial Women’s Softball Association’s (PWSA) top pitcher three times. Also a standout basketball player, Brooks was one of 15 players selected over a three-year process to represent Team Ontario at the Canada Games.
For the past three years, she has worked as a nurses’ and dietary aide at a retirement and nursing facility in Guelph. Brooks also conducts pitching lessons and participates in pitching clinics at Kitchener, Ontario. She is single and resides in Guelph.
