Sept. 26 marked the Big West Conference opener for the Cal Poly Women’s Volleyball team, and while they beat CSUN in straight sets to extend their match winning streak to seven, the creation of the Childhood Cancer Awareness night was what took center stage.
The event was designed to shed light on a disease that receives insufficient funding and affects many young individuals, including Cal Poly Volleyball’s Brooklyn Burns.
Burns was just 17 years old when she was first diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma.
“When I was first diagnosed, I was too scared to tell the coaches,” Burns said. “I didn’t tell them for a really long time, and when I finally told them, they told me ‘no matter what, if I could play volleyball again or not, that I’d still be in this program.”
Head coach Caroline Walters recalls practices during Burns’ freshman year, and the work she was putting in to prepare for her first collegiate volleyball season.
“She was not even six months clear from treatments, and she was still showing up every day in this gym, working despite how she felt,” Walters said.
That season, Burns earned a spot in the lineup as a true freshman, rotating in as a serving specialist.
Her freshman season was also when she first met Claire Noland, a young girl from San Luis Obispo who was fighting pediatric cancer.
“I was super emotional because I had just finished treatment, and to see a kid that was going through treatment at the time was really, really inspiring,” Burns said.
Over the course of her first three years as a Mustang, Burns played in 105 sets and had 24 service aces until having to medically retire before her senior season this year.
Her medical retirement was not the end of her involvement within Cal Poly Women’s Volleyball, as she made it her mission to continue to make an impact off the court, including the Childhood Cancer Awareness night.
“[Burns] was the catalyst for getting this started,” Walters said. “And I think that speaks volumes of who she is. She is thinking about a purpose greater than herself, and that purpose is bringing awareness to a terrible thing that doesn’t receive enough funding, and something that she has been through.”
At the match, Tigers Fight Cancer, a California non-profit dedicated to supporting individuals in the San Luis Obispo High School community affected by cancer, had set up a table with students from the SLO High School TFC club. Noland and her older sister Katherine were both in attendance.
“It’s about bringing awareness to people that this is a really important situation, and it makes me feel good that people are noticing what I went through,” Noland said.
During the first conference match of what would be Burns’ senior season, she and Noland were both honored with flowers in the pregame celebration.
It was a full circle moment for the two to be recognized together on the same court they met at just four years prior, both of them viewing the other as an inspiration.
For Walters, the impact that Burns created has stemmed from one thing: vulnerability.
“If you can be vulnerable with people, there are lasting relationships that you can gain, and especially through coaching which I don’t think many coaches take advantage of, and I am very grateful that we have that,” Walters said.
In her first year since retirement, Burns looks back on her time with Cal Poly Volleyball with gratitude.
“This program means everything to me, and it always will, from the coaches, to the team, to the staff that doesn’t get enough recognition behind the scenes,” Burns said. “Everyone has become my chosen family.”
Walters is planning on making the event an annual one for a match every September, to ensure Burns’ story and the fight against pediatric cancer is not forgotten.