Sports Odds and Ends
There are approximately 100 African American and other student-athletes of color this school year at the University of Minnesota. In an occasional series throughout the school year and sports year, the MSR will highlight many of these players. This week: Gopher softball player Breezy Burnett.
It’s hard to play softball outdoors in Minnesota in February and March. Therefore, the Minnesota Golden Gophers annually head to warmer locales to jump-start their season.
“We’re about to be traveling for the next two months straight,” explained sophomore Breezy Burnett after a workout at the Gophers outdoor football practice facility on an uncharacteristically warm February afternoon. “We’re definitely ready for that.”
The Gophers’ 2024 season started last weekend in a tournament in San Diego, against UC Santa Barbara, San Diego State, Stanford and Kentucky. This weekend they are in Clearwater, Florida for games against Washington, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Georgia and LSU.
The team’s second road trip of the season also takes Burnett back to her home state—she’s from Jacksonville, Florida, where the 5-7 outfielder was an all-state prep player. She is studying journalism and hopes to one day become a broadcaster. She has the personality and the drive for it.
Burnett started 41 games last season and had a .436 slugging percentage. She drove in 17 runs and scored 14 runs in her first collegiate season, but Burnett admitted that her rookie season wasn’t what she initially hoped for.
“There were definitely some rough points throughout the whole season for me,” she recalled. “I don’t think it went completely as planned. I felt like at times you’d go up and down, up and down. And at the down points, I was trying to figure out why. It was just like getting through those rough patches.”
When asked who or what helped her deal with those ups and downs last season, Burnett said, “I say my mom helped me. I’m very religious so God and praying every day, He helped me the most.”
The Gopher sophomore comes from an athletic family—her father Brian once played college football at Colorado State, and her brother Brian, Jr. also played college football (Jacksonville University) and pro football for two years in the German Football League.
Breezy helped her high school win a championship as a freshman, and finished as a four-time district champion and three-time regional champion as well. She believes that her skills will ultimately prove successful at Minnesota as well.
Her personal goals this season include not letting the tough times overwhelm her: “Learning how to get out of it faster than I did last year” ranks high among those goals, said Burnett. “Going into this season, I feel like I have all my physical aspects coming together. I just have to stay in a positive mindset and trust in my process.”
Even though she’s in her second year on the team, and not an official team captain, Burnett concluded, “I feel like my team shows a lot of respect for me and values my opinion and what I have to say. So, I just keep climbing to continue to get a leadership role.”
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