Student-Athlete Profile
Courtney Brown - Women’s Soccer
As a freshman on the Utah women’s soccer team in 2019, Courtney Brown helped lead the Utes to the first round of the NCAA Tournament. A lot has happened in her life since then. She navigated the COVID-19 era as a student- athlete, went through a coaching change, got married, and earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting. That’s a pretty good list of accomplishments to check off. However, Brown has two more goals she wants to achieve before she leaves campus in five months: Earn her master’s degree in accounting and get the Utes back to the post-season. “We expect to be a very good team this year,” Brown said. “We only loose a couple of players who started for us last year and we added a lot of very talented freshmen. We have talked a lot about getting to the NCAA Tournament. But we have our sights set on more than that. We want to the be the best team Utah’s ever had. The Utes had a run to the Sweet 16 in 2016 and that’s the best our program has ever done. That’s where we want to get and maybe beyond this year.” A Utah native who grew up in West Haven, the former Courtney Talbot was very familiar with Utah’s program
Courtney Brown has been a starter since her freshman year in 2018 when Utah reached the NCAA Tournament.
when she was looking into colleges. Her father, who earned his doctorate in veterinary medicine from Colorado State, went to BYU for his undergraduate degree. Courtney was planning to do the same. However, she changed her mind as she neared the end of the recruiting process. “All along through high school, my plan was to go to BYU. But when I went to the campus for my last visit it just didn’t feel right,” Brown recalled. “I just felt so much more at ease at Utah. Rich Manning was the head coach. Scott Halaz, who is still with us as assistant coach, was on the staff then as well. It just clicked for me with the
coaches. I loved the feel of the campus. So, I decided to come here.” The midfielder earned a major role with the team in year one as Brown started 17 games and logged the most minutes of any freshman on the team. The Utes won eight games with four draws and earned the opportunity to play No. 12 Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. With a 2020 fall season that was moved to the spring of 2021 due to COVID-19 and a downward turn in the program that led to a coaching change, things were a bit tumultuous for Brown during that stretch. But she quickly embraced what
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CRIMSON CLUB MAGAZINE AUGUST 2023
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