Brittany Read Featured in Lacrosse Magazine
April 08, 2016 | Women's Lacrosse
Read's Rise Among Nation's Elite Goalies Rooted in the Cardinal
by Laurel Pfahler | LaxMagazine.com
The cardinal on the Louisville women's lacrosse jerseys is more than just a school mascot for Brittany Read.
It is a reminder that the sophomore goalkeeper's dad is always watching her.
The bright red bird is widely considered to be a sign of an angel or a messenger in a time of grief or need, and Read finds comfort always being surrounded by Cardinals.
Her father, Don, died of a brain hemorrhage one year ago this week, just over two years after his first one caused temporary paralysis and life-altering changes to his emotions and memory. Two days after his death, Read's mother, Denise, had been praying for a sign from Don that he was OK, and she found his response with the flutter of a cardinal seemingly trying to get her attention. He always did enjoy watching the birds fly around the yard, Read recalled with a memory of him holding up a set of binoculars at the window.
"Whenever my mom is upset, she seems to see a cardinal now, and I'm a Cardinal, so it's like a sign he's always here with me," Read said. "He really wanted to come see a game and sadly didn't get that chance, but I know he always gets to see me now."
Her father would be proud to see that his daughter has persevered through personal grief to become one of the nation's top goalkeepers this season.
As a first-year starter, Read ranks third nationally with a .541 save percentage while also owning the fifth lowest goals against average (6.49) to help No. 12 Louisville (12-1) to a red-hot start with three wins over ranked opponents heading into Saturday's ACC tilt at No. 3 North Carolina.
Among the highlights of her season so far was an incredible last-second save to send the game against Notre Dame to a second overtime, where the Cardinals prevailed, 10-9. Immediately after the save, the sun peaked out of the clouds, and Read saw it as another sign of her dad's encouragement.
It took a year of pushing through some personal clouds of sadness for Read to get to this point, but you'd hardly know it from talking to her or watching her play. She still appeared in nine games last year as a backup and has always kept a positive outlook, while garnering support from her team and especially her mom.
"She's the keeper we recruited, very present on gameday," Louisville coach Kellie Young said. "Obviously with everything that happened last spring, we were trying to get Brittany through school, keeping her focused in the classroom, keeping her head on straight, keeping her focused on life, trying to get her through the trauma, so there wasn't a lot of coaching last spring. We were just trying to keep the stress off her shoulders. We spent a lot of time with her this fall and continuing now, and she's been super present and performing up to where we thought she would be."
Read had come to Louisville a semester late last school year after taking a summer class through the NCAA to get her grades high enough to qualify.
Her school work understandably had slipped after Don's first brain hemorrhage in January 2013 during Read's junior year at East Regional High School in New Jersey. The hemorrhage – a complete surprise late one night – paralyzed him on his entire left side, and he was unable to open his eyes, chew or speak at first.
Many people in his condition don't survive, but Don somehow made a recovery in three months, just in time to see Read's first game that season. Through rehab, he regained his ability to walk and function normally, but his ability to make and hold new memories was affected and his personality had changed, Read said.
"He was very uptight about all the little things in life, from the way I put my cup down on the table to the way I opened the front door, which was very hard for me because my dad was my best friend before," Read said. "It was very hard to get used to."
Don tried to go back to the industrial grout and tile cleaning job he had always worked hard at, but it didn't work out, and he quickly became frustrated with the inability to contribute to the household. After months of sitting home alone while Denise supported the seven people living in their home at the time, the Reads decided he could live more independently if he returned to his native England, where he still had lots of family and could get around by train more easily.
He planned to come back eventually, but died two days before Denise was going to surprise him with a plane ticket home.
"Once you have one brain bleed, it's probably going to happen again and you are most likely going to die from the next one, and we knew that," Read said. "A month before he died, we just had this feeling. He wasn't doing too good.
"It was very emotional when he died. As much as we knew it was going to happen at some point, it was still very unexpected. He was texting me that morning, and it all seemed normal."
Denise had received word on the evening of April 1, 2015, that Don was in the hospital with another brain bleed and probably wouldn't make it through the night. Unable to reach her daughter, she contacted Young, who showed up at Read's door along with her two assistants and another player on the team.
Read knew immediately there was bad news and called her mom. It was during their conversation Denise got word from England that Don had passed away.
"That was the roughest phone call I've ever had to make," Denise Read said of the call back to her daughter after their initial conversation was interrupted. "I was totally amazed by the support she's received from Louisville. Coach Kellie told me, 'We're a family. We're going to support her,' and even up to the athletic director, they've done so much for her, in so many ways. They surrounded her with their love and support, and they also asked how I was feeling. I think that's a big statement about the program."
Denise, of course, has always been supporting Read and was the "rock" she counted on most.
It was her mother who taught her how to persevere, especially while working day and night shifts at Jan-Pro Cleaning to help ensure Read could play on high-level club teams growing up and later supporting a whole household by herself.
"Through all the negative things that you could say have happened to her, seeing her still wake up every day and still have a drive to go to work day and night and provide for a whole family even though she probably has lots of reasons she may not want to, that motivates me to keep working hard," Read said, noting her mom still finds ways to attend some games, including Saturday's game in Chapel Hill, N.C. "She embedded it in me that nothing is ever bad enough in life to give up. You can't put your head down. I don't know how to put my head down and stop. For me, it's normal to keep your head up and keep going."
That's why four days after her dad's death, Read was out on the field for the team's next game – an 18-5 loss to North Carolina, in which she played 12 minutes behind now-departed Ashley Peacock.
The team held a moment of silence in Don's memory, and the coaches got red ribbons for the players to wear on their shoelaces. Some of Read's teammates even joined her in writing an RIP on themselves to show their support – something Read appreciated.
To her, missing the game wasn't an option. And, she knew her dad wouldn't want her to miss it, so her family arranged the funeral around the Cardinals' schedule.
"Lacrosse is definitely my getaway and thing I love the most and enjoy doing," Read said. "When I was on the field, it was my time to have fun and forget everything, so that's helped me a lot. Everything bad that has happened in a negative way, those uncontrollable things like death, I let it motivate me in the things I can control. Like with my dad, I let it motivate me in lacrosse because I can control that. I can't control being sad from it, but I can control it affecting me, so I'm not going to let it affect me. I'm going to let it be a positive thing."
Young has been amazed at how strong Read has been through it all. Whereas some might crumble in life situations like hers, Read has thrived to help Louisville surge this season, following a 10-8 finish last year.
She has become a goalkeeper the Cardinals can count on in any pressure situation, like the one coming up Saturday against the Tar Heels, who will have reigning National Goalie of the Year Caylee Waters in the opposite cage.
"The keeper is such an emotional position," Young said. "We know as coaches the ball has had to go through 11 players to get to even getting a shot off, but some keepers can crumble a little when the shots are coming or when goals are getting scored.
"What we've seen from Brittany is player who keeps bouncing back and is coachable in the middle of a game. That's so key. She's our one keeper right now, so there's not an option to not be strong and resilient, but I think in general, this is who she is, and it means we don't have to worry if there's a three-goal run from an opponent that it's going to her head. We know she's going to bounce back, and she's going to track the next shot."
If all else fails for Read, she'll be looking for a sign of encouragement from her dad.
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The cardinal on the Louisville women's lacrosse jerseys is more than just a school mascot for Brittany Read.
It is a reminder that the sophomore goalkeeper's dad is always watching her.
The bright red bird is widely considered to be a sign of an angel or a messenger in a time of grief or need, and Read finds comfort always being surrounded by Cardinals.
Her father, Don, died of a brain hemorrhage one year ago this week, just over two years after his first one caused temporary paralysis and life-altering changes to his emotions and memory. Two days after his death, Read's mother, Denise, had been praying for a sign from Don that he was OK, and she found his response with the flutter of a cardinal seemingly trying to get her attention. He always did enjoy watching the birds fly around the yard, Read recalled with a memory of him holding up a set of binoculars at the window.
"Whenever my mom is upset, she seems to see a cardinal now, and I'm a Cardinal, so it's like a sign he's always here with me," Read said. "He really wanted to come see a game and sadly didn't get that chance, but I know he always gets to see me now."
Her father would be proud to see that his daughter has persevered through personal grief to become one of the nation's top goalkeepers this season.
As a first-year starter, Read ranks third nationally with a .541 save percentage while also owning the fifth lowest goals against average (6.49) to help No. 12 Louisville (12-1) to a red-hot start with three wins over ranked opponents heading into Saturday's ACC tilt at No. 3 North Carolina.
Among the highlights of her season so far was an incredible last-second save to send the game against Notre Dame to a second overtime, where the Cardinals prevailed, 10-9. Immediately after the save, the sun peaked out of the clouds, and Read saw it as another sign of her dad's encouragement.
It took a year of pushing through some personal clouds of sadness for Read to get to this point, but you'd hardly know it from talking to her or watching her play. She still appeared in nine games last year as a backup and has always kept a positive outlook, while garnering support from her team and especially her mom.
"She's the keeper we recruited, very present on gameday," Louisville coach Kellie Young said. "Obviously with everything that happened last spring, we were trying to get Brittany through school, keeping her focused in the classroom, keeping her head on straight, keeping her focused on life, trying to get her through the trauma, so there wasn't a lot of coaching last spring. We were just trying to keep the stress off her shoulders. We spent a lot of time with her this fall and continuing now, and she's been super present and performing up to where we thought she would be."
Read had come to Louisville a semester late last school year after taking a summer class through the NCAA to get her grades high enough to qualify.
Her school work understandably had slipped after Don's first brain hemorrhage in January 2013 during Read's junior year at East Regional High School in New Jersey. The hemorrhage – a complete surprise late one night – paralyzed him on his entire left side, and he was unable to open his eyes, chew or speak at first.
Many people in his condition don't survive, but Don somehow made a recovery in three months, just in time to see Read's first game that season. Through rehab, he regained his ability to walk and function normally, but his ability to make and hold new memories was affected and his personality had changed, Read said.
"He was very uptight about all the little things in life, from the way I put my cup down on the table to the way I opened the front door, which was very hard for me because my dad was my best friend before," Read said. "It was very hard to get used to."
Don tried to go back to the industrial grout and tile cleaning job he had always worked hard at, but it didn't work out, and he quickly became frustrated with the inability to contribute to the household. After months of sitting home alone while Denise supported the seven people living in their home at the time, the Reads decided he could live more independently if he returned to his native England, where he still had lots of family and could get around by train more easily.
He planned to come back eventually, but died two days before Denise was going to surprise him with a plane ticket home.
"Once you have one brain bleed, it's probably going to happen again and you are most likely going to die from the next one, and we knew that," Read said. "A month before he died, we just had this feeling. He wasn't doing too good.
"It was very emotional when he died. As much as we knew it was going to happen at some point, it was still very unexpected. He was texting me that morning, and it all seemed normal."
Denise had received word on the evening of April 1, 2015, that Don was in the hospital with another brain bleed and probably wouldn't make it through the night. Unable to reach her daughter, she contacted Young, who showed up at Read's door along with her two assistants and another player on the team.
Read knew immediately there was bad news and called her mom. It was during their conversation Denise got word from England that Don had passed away.
"That was the roughest phone call I've ever had to make," Denise Read said of the call back to her daughter after their initial conversation was interrupted. "I was totally amazed by the support she's received from Louisville. Coach Kellie told me, 'We're a family. We're going to support her,' and even up to the athletic director, they've done so much for her, in so many ways. They surrounded her with their love and support, and they also asked how I was feeling. I think that's a big statement about the program."
Denise, of course, has always been supporting Read and was the "rock" she counted on most.
It was her mother who taught her how to persevere, especially while working day and night shifts at Jan-Pro Cleaning to help ensure Read could play on high-level club teams growing up and later supporting a whole household by herself.
"Through all the negative things that you could say have happened to her, seeing her still wake up every day and still have a drive to go to work day and night and provide for a whole family even though she probably has lots of reasons she may not want to, that motivates me to keep working hard," Read said, noting her mom still finds ways to attend some games, including Saturday's game in Chapel Hill, N.C. "She embedded it in me that nothing is ever bad enough in life to give up. You can't put your head down. I don't know how to put my head down and stop. For me, it's normal to keep your head up and keep going."
That's why four days after her dad's death, Read was out on the field for the team's next game – an 18-5 loss to North Carolina, in which she played 12 minutes behind now-departed Ashley Peacock.
The team held a moment of silence in Don's memory, and the coaches got red ribbons for the players to wear on their shoelaces. Some of Read's teammates even joined her in writing an RIP on themselves to show their support – something Read appreciated.
To her, missing the game wasn't an option. And, she knew her dad wouldn't want her to miss it, so her family arranged the funeral around the Cardinals' schedule.
"Lacrosse is definitely my getaway and thing I love the most and enjoy doing," Read said. "When I was on the field, it was my time to have fun and forget everything, so that's helped me a lot. Everything bad that has happened in a negative way, those uncontrollable things like death, I let it motivate me in the things I can control. Like with my dad, I let it motivate me in lacrosse because I can control that. I can't control being sad from it, but I can control it affecting me, so I'm not going to let it affect me. I'm going to let it be a positive thing."
Young has been amazed at how strong Read has been through it all. Whereas some might crumble in life situations like hers, Read has thrived to help Louisville surge this season, following a 10-8 finish last year.
She has become a goalkeeper the Cardinals can count on in any pressure situation, like the one coming up Saturday against the Tar Heels, who will have reigning National Goalie of the Year Caylee Waters in the opposite cage.
"The keeper is such an emotional position," Young said. "We know as coaches the ball has had to go through 11 players to get to even getting a shot off, but some keepers can crumble a little when the shots are coming or when goals are getting scored.
"What we've seen from Brittany is player who keeps bouncing back and is coachable in the middle of a game. That's so key. She's our one keeper right now, so there's not an option to not be strong and resilient, but I think in general, this is who she is, and it means we don't have to worry if there's a three-goal run from an opponent that it's going to her head. We know she's going to bounce back, and she's going to track the next shot."
If all else fails for Read, she'll be looking for a sign of encouragement from her dad.
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GK
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GK
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