Curtain closing on Cusumano's stellar career

For nearly four years now, senior Brooke Cusumano has quietly put together a career that can rival the successes of any other women's golfer in the program's history and perhaps in the history of Saluki Athletics.

Since her freshman year in 2013, Cusumano has won three tournaments, the second most in program history, and finished as the runner-up four times. She's finished inside of the top-10 23 times while helping the Salukis to 13 team tournament wins. The St. Louis native is the all-time leader at SIU in rounds played, is second all-time in rounds scored in the 70's and her round of 68 at the Jan Weaver MSU Invitational last season is the second lowest score carded in program history.

If the season ended today, Cusumano would set a program record for lowest scoring average in school history and she would be second all-time at SIU in career scoring average. She's won and astounding six Missouri Valley Conference Golfer of the Week awards; more than any golfer in program history.

Despite all of her accolades, Cusumano was an un-touted and overlooked prospect out of high school even though she won two Missouri State High School Championships.

"I played basketball in high school for four years. In the summer I played on two AAU teams. I was playing two sports all year," Cusumano said. "I didn't even pick up a golf club throughout basketball season … When I talked to coaches they didn't understand that I'd be a lot better when I was done playing basketball."

The teams in the Missouri Valley Conference were always on Cusumano's radar. She reached out to many MVC schools, but all of the coaches told Cusumano that she was not talented enough to play for their programs. SIU wasn't even on her radar, Cusumano thought she would be rejected by the Salukis like the rest of the Missouri Valley Conference schools.

That was until head coach Alexis Mihelich saw Cusumano play at an American Junior Golf Association event in high school. Mihelich emailed Cusumano and Southern leaped to the top of Cusumano's list. She took a visit to SIU and saw it as a place where she could reach her potential as a golfer.

At SIU, Mihelich worked heavily with Cusumano on her putting to help her become one of the top golfers in the Valley. Cusumano said that many of the coaches who turned her down as a high schooler have apologized to her for underrating her abilities.

Cusumano, who has been playing golf since she was five, has put in countless hours on the practice greens throughout her life. In high school, she would get up at 6:30 a.m. to go practice by herself before school. After practice was over, Cusumano would stay to practice more. On days when the Salukis don't meet to practice as a team, Cusumano still goes to the course to put in work; she feels guilty if she doesn't. She relates her work ethic to something her father, Frank Cusumano told her when she was young.

"He gave us a great analogy. It's like when you go to a bank. Every time you work and practice and put your best effort in, it's like putting money into the bank. Later you get to cash out on that money," Cusumano said. "I feel like this year, I've been cashing out ... I try to do everything right because I know it will pay off. I've seen it happen before."

Frank Cusumano has been a sports broadcaster in St. Louis for more than 20 years. He is the sports anchor for KSDK, a St. Louis news station where he was won 14 Emmy Awards for his work. He also hosts a daily radio show on a local station in St. Louis.

Frank is well connected in the St. Louis sports scene which has given the Cusumano kids the opportunity to grow up around high profile athletes. Monique Cusumano, Brooke's mother is a nurse. She worked long hours when Brooke was a child so she and her brothers tagged along with their dad while he did interviews. She recalls meeting Magic Johnson when she was four and sitting quietly in the corner while her dad interviewed Larry Bird.

Cusumano attended St. Louis's Westminster Christian Academy, a high school where the children of a lot of St. Louis Cardinals, Rams and Blues players attended. Some of the parents of Cusumano's classmates were people like St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and former Cardinals pitcher Andy Benes. At her home in St. Louis, her neighbors are Scott Rolen and Matt Holiday, two more former Cardinals.

Spending time with some of the elites of the St. Louis sports scene was normal for Cusumano. She assumed that all kids got to spend time with celebrities. What she didn't realize was that spending her childhood around these people taught her a lesson in competitiveness that she has carried through her golf career.

"You see them accomplish these great things and think, I can do that. It's totally obtainable," Cusumano said. "When you're around successful people you want to imitate them … When you see people do great things it makes you want to be great. You have to realize what it takes to be great and what you have to work at … You need to work hard. It doesn't just get handed to you."

The curtain is closing on Cusumano's career. If Southern fails to win the Missouri Valley Conference Championship next weekend, it will be Cusumano's final collegiate tournament. That's not a reality she is ready for though. Cusumano said the last thing she feels like she needs to accomplish is a conference championship, but it would be the perfect capstone to a stellar college career.

According to Cusumano, this is Southern's year to win the championship. The stars have aligned perfectly for the Salukis. Southern's team is full of upperclassmen; it has six counting Cusumano. The Championship tournament is at Southern's home away from home, Dalhousie Golf Club and she said the course will be setup in a way that Southern is comfortable playing. Cusumano said Southern can beat every team in the MVC this year.

Despite her high hopes she refuses to get ahead of herself. She plans to take the tournament one shot at a time. In fact, she's already thinking about her first shot on the first hole at Dalhousie - a straight drive down the right side of the fairway to set up her second shot.

Regardless of what happens at the MVC Championships, when the Salukis play their last tournament this season, it will be Cusumano's last as well. She has no plans to pursue a professional career in golf and looks forward to stepping back from the daily grind of practice. An adult league could be in her future at a local course though.

She plans to put her focus into accounting and talked about approaching it with the same competitiveness that she's had as one of the most successful golfers in program history. Her goal is to work for one of the 'big-four accounting firms'.

"I want to work for a firm and I want to move up in it. I think playing golf and sports will help me do that," Cusumano said. "I know what it takes to put in that extra step to be above your peers. In my next stage of life, I think I'll do well because I've learned so much."

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