An Okotoks resident has always been close to her brother. Now she will be hanging out with him forever on the walls of a New Brunswick university.
Bambi (nee Horsman) Bradley, a teacher at Foothills Composite High School, was inducted into the St. Thomas University Athletics Wall of Fame in February along with her brother Stephen.
Bradley is the first woman to be inducted to the wall of fame.
“I ended up going to St. Thomas because my brother was already there,” Bradley said.
“It was close to my home in (Oromocto, NB) and I had been there so many times to watch my brother play basketball, I was really comfortable there.”
Bradley, 46, and her older brother are the youngest to ever be selected for the honour.
She played basketball and volleyball for the St. St. Thomas Tommies before graduating in 1988.
“I played five years of basketball and I was able to play volleyball the first year it was offered,” Bradley said.
“The volleyball was really exciting. My brother was the coach. We won the league and I was named the MVP — the team chose the MVP not my brother,” she added with a smile.
However, basketball was the sport she most excelled at for the Tommies. She received a partial scholarship to play the sport and she made the most of it.
“I was rookie of the year and the team’s MVP the first year I was there,” Bradley said.
She then went on to be the school’s Female Athlete of the Year for the next four years. She was captain of the team her final four years.
She was surprised that she was able to compete at the college level in her first year at St. Thomas.
“I used to watch my brother play all the time and I also watched the girls and I didn’t thing I was good enough at the time,” she said. “In high school we always had to compete with Fredericton High and they always dominated us.”
Although Bradley won several honours as a volleyball player and the Tommies’ starting point guard, it was being recognized for hitting the books that she is most proud of while at STU.
“My proudest moment was being named the valedictorian for the graduating class,” she said. “I was pretty close to a 4.0 GPA, but it wasn’t just about academics. It was also about involvement in the school.”
She said being an athlete complimented her studies. Sports provided her the time-management and focus skills to do well in the classroom.
Bradley is a guidance counselor at Foothills Composite. She said rarely does she have issues with Foothills Falcons athletes struggling in the classroom.
“It’s a testament to all the partners involved,” Bradley said. “The teachers, the coaches, the parents and of course the athletes.”
Bradley admits she somewhat longs for the days of the all-around athletes.
“When I was growing up we had the chance to play a number of sports,” Bradley said. “Nowadays, we have all-year athletes. If you want to be a high-end basketball player, for example, you pretty well have to play that sport all year round. I find that disappointing, but I understand it.”
Bradley came to Foothills Composite in 1997 after a stint at Slave Lake School. She coached the Falcons girls volleyball team. She was also an assistant to Margi Brown when the Foothills Falcons won the 3A provincial basketball championship in 2002.
Bradley will be heading back to St. Thomas on June 23 for the Wall of Fame induction. She will have some company. Her daughter Nitanis Bradley, a former MVP with the Holy Trinity Knights girls basketball team, is following in her mom and uncle Stephen’s footsteps by currently attending St. Thomas University.
