It was with pride I watched my illustrator, Brenda Welch-Nichols, be inducted into the Sam Houston State University Athletic Hall of Honor this past Friday night for her work as a basketball player on the court in the late 1980's. Her determination to succeed despite numerous obstacles is indeed inspiring and worthy of celebration. Basketball was her refuge from so many troubles she faced, which I won't detail today, and her natural athletic talent she inherited from her father has always been a source of pride and joy for her.
Brenda suffered from learning disabilities while in school. She was told she would never go to college or be successful as an adult. Boy, did she prove those people wrong! A strength of hers is facing any obstacle or challenge and meeting it head on. She often has said she would break through brick walls for her coaches, and she has broken through may "brick walls" in her life to become the success she is today. She holds three degrees, including a Masters degree and is a highly successful Division One Women's Basketball Coach, respected across the U.S.
I am thankful for those days she was considered to be struggling with her academic subjects. She honed her artistic interests and had the ambition in her younger years to be a sidewalk artist in New Orleans where she was born. Ha! Irony at its best. Her first published book as an artist was drawing pictures of New Orleans in Beauregard Le'Moose is Loose in New Orleans.
She came to good old SHSU as a student pursuing an art degree. Coach told her that would not work with her basketball schedule so she switched to a degree in Health and Physical Education. She returned to good old SHSU twenty years later as the Head Women's Basketball Coach and ended up becoming an artist! A perfect "Cinderella story" to this author, if you ask me! Thank you, Brenda, for being a role model to so many in pursuit of their own dreams.
Stay JOYful and Write On!
