By Ethan Gaines

With Brophy College Prep senior athlete Robert Brooks, there is definitely more than meets the eye.

The track and football star has faced expectations and injuries head on while still maintaining a successful life both on and off the field. He'll help Brophy any way he can during Thursday's state quarterfinal game against Red Mountain at Central High. 

Brooks was born in Green Bay, where his father, Robert Sr., played wide receiver for the Packers. His family then followed his father to Denver for a season with the Broncos before finally settling in Phoenix, where Brooks Sr. retired after eight NFL seasons.

Entering high school, Brooks immediately gravitated toward sports, joining the football program and making the varsity track team as a freshman. As a sophomore, Brooks made the varsity football team as a wide receiver and averaged 24 yards per reception while catching six touchdowns.

That same school year, during track, he set a school record in the long jump (23 feet and two inches).

He plans on breaking that record this year.

He loves football and track, but Brooks said he feels a particular affinity for track.

“Of course I love to play football, but track is definitely what my heart is in when it comes to picking a favorite sport,” Brooks said. “I definitely think that track and football go hand in hand. Using all that straight line speed and the flexibility you need to perform well in football is definitely useful in track. That’s why you see a lot of college athletes doing track and also playing football.”

During his early years on the track team Brooks was mentored by two of Brophy’s more impressive track alumni, Texas A&M University’s Bobby Grant and the University of Colorado’s Isaiah Oliver.

“They definitely have been huge role models for everybody on the track team,” said Brooks. “They definitely inspired me to be a better athlete and to push harder. Their work ethic was definitely something that I wanted to emulate. That was probably the biggest thing I took away from them, their work ethic.”

Oliver in particular was especially helpful since he was a two-sport athlete and also the son of a successful football player, Muhammad Oliver.

“I just tried to help him be able to balance both sports,” Oliver said. “I tried to teach him how track could help him in football and how football could help him in track and really show him what he could do in both.”

Oliver said that he and Brooks both had similar lives growing up and that shared experience brought them together.

“Us growing up the way we both did under our fathers doing [football and track] successfully,” Oliver said. “Being able to follow in their footsteps definitely allowed us to gravitate toward each other.”

Being the son of a professional athlete definitely has its challenges, according to Brooks.

Brooks Sr. won a Super Bowl with the Packers and was a track and football star at the University of South Carolina. However, Brooks said his father has always supported and mentored him, never putting on any pressure.

“There is definitely [outside] pressure,” Brooks said. “I feel it all the time. When I feel like I’m trying to fill his shoes or I’m living in the shadow that he’s created, he does a fantastic job of letting me know that I don’t have to pursue what he did or be successful like he was. He just wants the best for me and he has huge expectations for me but there is no pressure from him, although I do feel it from other people expecting a lot from me being the son of Robert Brooks. It’s good to have a father like [him].”

With interest from colleges such as South Carolina and Washington, Brooks said he had big expectations for himself coming into his senior football season. However, his season was cut short by injury during just his seventh game.

“I was coming off of a hamstring injury and on the first play I came in I sprained my ankle,” Brooks said. “They tapped me up and I went back in and immediately broke my left collarbone on the next play. It was just a really unfortunate chain of events, but I don’t feel down about it.”

A broken collarbone is an injury Brooks is familiar with. Three games into his junior year Brooks broke his right collarbone and had to have a metal plate with six screws placed to fix the break.

His injury to his left collarbone this year required the same procedure. 

“It was definitely hard to deal with, but I think I recuperated very well,” Brooks said. “I think up until that point where I got injured I was having a good season. It was pretty unlucky that I got hurt like that again but what can you do about it. You have to look on the bright side of things.”

Senior George Rivera, a nose guard for Brophy, said that losing Brooks for the season had a tremendous impact on the team.

“When he went down it was devastating for us,” Rivera said. “He’s one of our go-to guys because he has that combo of speed and height. He has the ability and athleticism really to beat any corner in the state. When we need a win or a touchdown we look for him.”

Brooks has used his injury as an opportunity to be a leader and mentor for the younger receivers on his team, helping them learn plays, study film and read opposing defenses.

“He’s just one of those guys that you look up to on the team,” Rivera said. “Being injured, he was still helping the younger receivers on and off the field and in practice. He really cares about his teammates and he leads by example.”

Brooks said that as a leader he tries to connect with and mentor the younger players as opposed to viewing them as beneath him.

“Usually when I’m out there I don’t try to act like I’m standing over them,” Brooks said. “I try to be level with the younger guys and try to tell them that I’ve been there and done that and tell them about the experiences that I’ve had. That way they can avoid any of the mistakes that I made while I was trying to learn the game.”

Off of the field Brooks said he has another strong interest, art. He has been drawing and painting since he was a child and was encouraged by his parents to pursue his artistic passion.

“I’ve been really into painting with oil, water color, and drawing with pencil or charcoal,” Brooks said. “I even enjoy working on the computer in Adobe Illustrator and using Creative Suite software. I also like video editing and working on video effects. That’s something most people definitely don’t know about, me but I’m really passionate about it.”

Brooks has put his artistic and technological talents to work, using his skills to create more than 50 commissioned projects.

These projects range from logos for Press Play Clothing to creating branding for a small family business. He wants to major in graphic design or computer science when he gets to college.

“There’s always got to be a fall back for athletics even if I got to the professional level for track or football,” Brooks said. “That’s something I could fall back on and see myself doing and loving for the rest of my life.”

In regards to which college he’ll attend, Brooks said he probably make a decision in January. He is considering Texas A&M, Colorado, Michigan State University, the University of Washington, Oklahoma State University, and the University of South Carolina.

He said he already has an offer to play football from Washington, and if he can reach 25 feet in his long jump and 36 seconds on the 300 hurdles, South Carolina has told him they will give him a scholarship for track. Brooks also said his goals go beyond the college level.

“I’m hoping to go above and beyond the collegiate level,” Brooks said. “Ever since I was little I’ve wanted to play pro football, and any track athlete that is serious about [track] has aspirations of going to the Olympics. So that is absolutely something that I would love to achieve. I know it’s going to take a lot of work. I’m just going to take it as it comes and work the hardest that I can so I can get to that high level in track and football.”

Gaines is an Arizona State sports journalism student. 

Robert Brooks. Photo by Steve Paynter/maxpreps.com.