Timing is everything, and for Paris’s Brailey Forst, that could not be more important to both her team and to her aspirations of playing college basketball.
The Paris Lady Eagles have just completed a regular season that saw the team eclipse their 2021-22 win total by more than double the number of wins than from a year ago. Paris just completed this year’s regular season in third place in their conference and are now competing in post season play. First year Lady Eagles head coach, Jonathan Vire, has done a masterful job in taking a team that did not have a lot of success last year while simultaneously losing to graduation a lot of talent and experience. Vire has brought along a talented sophomore and junior class all season and combined them with two talented seniors who have been hungry for success. The result has been a fun season to watch combined with a team that has the opportunity to play deeper in regional and state tournament play than has been the case for several years.
And as an obligation and sense of duty to our readers, I must once again disclose that I am related to Paris senior Brailey Forst. I am related to her by marriage; she is the daughter of my wife’s daughter, Lauren Trusty. But I believe Brailey is an exceptional person, student, and athlete, and when you run across a story like her’s, it should be shared with our readers.
At the start of this school year, I highlighted her in a story that chronicled her desire to play college basketball. Brailey has exceptional work ethic. She works extremely hard everyday in all phases of her life. She is mature beyond her years, and she has great character. And her senior year has been a showcase for her character. She loves her family and has maintained high academic performance while playing sports, working a part time job, and being there for her younger brother Brantley and her other family members. She is truly remarkable.
Brailey plays the sports of volleyball and basketball, and in a few weeks, will also play high school softball. She just loves to play. But it has not been all fun and games for her as she has battled through injuries since last year. It has been tough at times, but in her true character, she has overcome each setback and is now playing the best basketball of her career.
So, I wanted to sit down with her again and visit with her in an interview and ask her for her sense of perspective on what has happened and what it all means to her now. College coaches are talking to her and she has had an offer to play. She is still looking for the right fit, and she is very hopeful that it may happen soon. For Brailey, it is not just about basketball. In fact, it is about life after basketball. She is very committed to academics and her career after college. So, in her mind, yes, she wants to play college basketball, but more importantly, she knows that she will not play after college to earn a living and academics are the most important aspect of her recruitment.
Approximately six weeks or so ago, she sprained an ankle early in a game at Booneville. It forced her to sit out of practice, getting treatment for the injury, and missing her next game at Hackett. And then, about one week after the injury, she started a home game against Charleston where she was expected to play a few minutes, or, sparingly throughout the game as she eased back from the injury.
But that is not what happened. What did happened turned around her season and placed her on a trajectory of playing the best basketball of her career, just at the right time for her team and for her chances to play college basketball.
The Lady Eagles won a hard-fought conference game that night over Charleston, and Brailey played the entire game. Hobbling on the injured ankle noticeably in the fourth quarter, she not only hung in to play the entire game, but was the game’s high scorer with 32 points. She was a force on both ends of the floor, and her gutty performance inspired everyone. Since that time, she has continued to play extremely well, scoring in double figures each night.
So, I asked her, “What has clicked for you? What do you attribute your success to?” Brailey answered, “It has all come together for me both mentally and physically. After I scored the 32 points against Charleston I gained confidence back. I have battled injuries all season. There has not bee a point this year that I have not been injured.”
In the last story, I detailed how she injured her foot (heel) in the 2021-22 school year and eventually had to have surgery in February of 2022. She elected to have the surgery to allow time for rehab and a return to sports her senior year. She did that, and ended up earning her second All-State Award for the sport of volleyball in 2022. Most recently, she was named by the Arkansas Activities Association to the high school volleyball all-star game this summer.
After the 2022-23 basketball season began, she injured herself the week of Thanksgiving in a non-conference game at Dover. She again worked through that injury only to dislocate a finger in the Bill Frye Invitational Holiday Tournament in late December against Elkins.
But she has persevered through all of that, including the ankle sprain in January at Booneville. And people who watch her play would never know any of this has happened unless they were close to her or had been following her throughout the season. In fact, it is very possible that she could collect her second all-state award in basketball in a few weeks.
Academically, she has never wavered. Brailey carries a 3.80 grade point average and has taken a challenging course load that includes concurrent college credit courses as well as advanced placement (AP) courses. She aspires to a career in the medical profession; medical school, nursing, physical therapy…who knows. But she does know that a solid academic foundation in math and the hard sciences is the key to where she wants to go with her career, and that is what she is looking for in a college and a chance to play college basketball.
As a member of the Lady Eagles basketball team, Brailey gives a lot of the credit to their coach, Jonathan Vire. In speaking of their coach, Brailey said, “We have really improved as a team under Coach Vire. Coach Vire has just done so much with us this year. He has us contributing the way we should and we are all working together as a team. We’re third in the conference and you could just tell over the summer that Coach Vire was watching us and had a plan for us. Jayden (Wells) and I have been the senior leadership of the team, trying to build chemistry for the post season. I think our team has done a heck of a job going from where we were last year to where we are now and what we have the chance to do in the playoffs. It’s just good that we have Coach Vire. He’s a really good coach.”
So, I asked Coach Vire for his comments and response, and the Paris coach responded, “I feel like Brailey is starting to come into her own offensively. She has done phenomenal job at scoring at all three levels and has taken pride in getting to the free throw line where she is shooting 89% for the season. She is really starting to show the leader that she is and is helping the underclassmen throughout this season.”
And now, the team has a chance to go to the regional tournament. At press time for this story, the Lady Eagles had just defeated Cedarville in their final regular season game and were looking forward to the district tournament that will be hosted on their floor in Paris. Paris needed to win one game in the district tournament to advance to the regional tournament.
Brailey continued, “I have been to the regional tournament just one time and that was my freshman year. We lost in the first round. I want to advance past regionals this year; I really want to go to state. I really believe we can win in the regionals and make state. Making the regional tournament is our goal, and going to the state tournament is another of our goals.”
Brailey has been quiet throughout her college recruitment. She is considering a lot of factors, and, by personality, is a quiet person to some extent. She is mature beyond her years and thinks through major decisions. And when the time comes, she will make her choices public to her family and others who follow the Paris basketball program.
Late last fall, Brailey was offered by an NCAA Division 3 school in Longview, Texas. LeTourneau University, after an official visit, offered her a spot in their basketball program along with other considerations. It is an excellent academic school, and it was a hard decision for Brailey. But in true Brailey fashion, she did not mention it to a lot of people, as her mind was not made up. Eventually, she decided that she did not want to play and go to school that far away from home. There are excellent programs and academic colleges and universities in her home state of Arkansas, and that is what she wants.
Others schools have looked at her and have invited her to visit, but she is laser focused on her first choices of where she wants to go to school, and that is kept close to the vest for her. But knowing her like I think I do, she will make a great choice that will be not only a great fit for her academic and basketball careers, but a place that she will be happy and will take great pride in being a small part.
So, the “Brailey Watch” is on in her family as we are all excited for her and the opportunities that may lay ahead for her. She is so deserving of such an opportunity, and, as biased as I am on her behalf, she will make a great contribution to any program college, or university.
And when that time comes, we will be there to bring you the conclusion of this great story and the beginning of the next as she ends a storied high school career and begins the next phase of her life as a college student and perhaps a collegiate basketball player!
