National Collegiate Athletic Association

Veterans Day 2011

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Brooke Cultra, Air Force basketball

No post-college letdown

By Michelle Hiskey
For NCAA.org

Both the military and elite sports attract those who constantly reach for greater challenge. Brooke Cultra likes to push herself, and the U.S. Air Force has given her a year-round arena to do so.

As an undergraduate who played guard for the Falcons, she discovered that no off-season exists at a military academy.

 “While there is the option to take a few weeks of leave, the majority of the cadet summer is spent doing other programs—soaring, jump, basic cadet training, Operation Air Force, language immersion, etc.  So even during the summer, student-athletes at the Academy have to juggle training for their sport with other military and academic responsibilities.

“Establishing priorities and finding the right balance—mentally, physically, and spiritually, through the constant demands and time restraints of daily life, are unique obstacles to pursuing a sport at a service academy.”

After graduating in 2009, Cultra entered the Air Force as an officer. Now 24, she is a contract manager/first lieutenant stationed at Kaiserslautern, Germany.

“My experience as an NCAA student-athlete pushed me outside my comfort zone, and helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Cultra wrote in an email from Germany. “I think I was [mistaken] as a student-athlete in thinking life after the Academy would slow down—it hasn’t.  The balance and time management that I had to learn as a student-athlete is just as important now as it was then.”

Her military career would not have been possible without basketball. Not only was she recruited for her sport, but once at the academy, her coaches and teammates pulled her through the days when she worried that “maybe I wasn’t cut out for life in the military.”            

Today, while her best military friends are from her undergraduate basketball team, travel has stretched her athleticism. The area around Ramstein Air Force Base has a strong volleyball presence, and Cultra says she “was able to play for the All-Air Force and Armed Forces teams, which gave me a great avenue to channel my competitiveness.”

Like other military athletes, Cultra recognizes her inclusion on two teams – one for sports, the other for country.

“There’s something special about representing a branch of service and our military in athletic competition that’s hard to put into words,” she said. “You’re playing for a bigger team, and it’s really an honor.”