Dryden’s Brotherton to play for Cornell

The Dryden soccer programs have produced several Division I athletes in the past, and current senior Alex Brotherton will be joining that list next year. The 2019 IAC MVP will be staying local and will play for the Cornell University women’s soccer team in the fall.

Being able to stay local was a big factor in Brotherton’s decision, but a personal connection to the team pushed her to make the final decision.

“[Cornell’s] new head coach, Rob Ferguson, I had known him prior through the Western New York Flash Academy out of Buffalo,” Brotherton said. “I play there for club soccer, but I also play locally with Waza, with Maureen [Whitehead], LaMarr [Peters], DJ Roberts and Kelsey Ferguson (Cornell assistant coach and Rob Ferguson’s wife). And then the pandemic happened, and it really threw the recruiting process off course for a lot of players. That was when I decided that Cornell was definitely the best choice for me.”

Living less than 15 minutes from an Ivy League institution is not a familiar situation for most athletes. Attending that same school is even more rare. In fact, only one player on the current women’s soccer roster for Cornell is from New York state. Brotherton discussed the opportunity to play so close to home.

“I love this community,” she said. “I wanted to be near my family, especially during times that are a little unsure. After that all happened, I continued talking to Rob Ferguson and getting to know the girls that are already on the team, and I just fell in love with the soccer program. I’ve been here all my life. I already love Cornell’s campus. I know that they have all these amazing opportunities that they offer students, so I didn’t have to worry about my academics as much because I knew that that was already going to be fulfilled.”

Division I athletes are not very common in this area, and Brotherton talked about using that platform to give back to her community in Dryden.

“I really look to inspire the people around me,” Brotherton said. “That’s also why I wanted to stay local, because I already coach youth soccer in the Dryden recreational Sertoma league. Being able to stay local and play at the DI level was really a movement for me to keep inspiring the younger players around me because I know that there are girls on this team already that have a plan and have the goal to continue playing when they go to college. Just because we’re a small community doesn’t mean that we aren’t able to continue to push ourselves to be like everyone else.”

Now that she’s reached this point in her soccer journey, Brotherton looked back at the moment she first knew she could excel on the field.

“I played varsity in seventh grade,” she said. “I think that’s when I knew because I was playing with Taylor Bennett, who’s also a DI athlete. I think being able to play with her really gave me the confidence that I’d be able to play at the next level. I’m hoping that someday I could do that for the young girls on the team right now too.”

Bennett went on to have a successful college career at Syracuse University before beginning her professional soccer career in Iceland last year.

Cornell’s women’s soccer team, unfortunately, did not get to have a season this year with the Ivy League nixing sports for the entirety of the academic year. With that in mind, it was important for Brotherton that she was able to play for Dryden one more time before moving on to the next level.

“I didn’t expect us to have a season, to be honest,” Brotherton said. “I was really focusing on just bettering myself becoming fitter, better with my touches, a lot of independent stuff because it’s all we could do. Then, realizing that we were going to have a team, there was just a lot of joy and relief because I love playing for Dryden. Being able to play with the girls one last time, that really meant a lot to me.”

So far, the team has looked excellent. The Lions are 3-0 with Brotherton finding the back of the net three times. While it’s unfortunate that there is no postseason for soccer this year, Dryden is making the most out of the opportunity to play.

“What makes this team special is that we don’t rely on one player,” Brotherton said. “This team doesn’t need me. They don’t need any one player. They played this Friday against Trumansburg and won 3-1 without me being there. That’s what makes us so much different than the Dryden team we were years prior, or even other teams right now, because we don’t play through one player. It’s a full team. It’s 11 players giving it everything they have and working together.”

Brotherton is making sure she closes out her high school career on a high note before moving on to play for the Cornell Big Red. This week, the Lions will look to stay undefeated when they play Lansing on Wednesday and Trumansburg on Friday.