Photo Credit: Troy Athletics
TROY, Ala. – Even Captain America struggles.
Just like in the superhero movies, there’s always an origin story. Brooks Bryan’s freshman season at Troy was kind of forgettable to the outside world. But for him and those inside the program, it served as the foundation for what he would become. But more on Captain America later.
First, we need to understand how the 6-foot-2, 222-pound junior became one of the top catching prospects in the country, currently the 38th-rated college prospect for the 2025 draft and the fourth highest-rated catcher.
People see the Team USA catcher, the hitter who racked up 85 RBIs and 18 home runs in 2024, both team highs, and see how easy he makes it look. And how he does it with a humble manner often atypical of a star player.
Bryan wasn’t always the star. The Opelika, Ala., native didn’t play much his freshman season at Troy, appearing in 23 games with only 14 starts. He finished with a .217/304/.433 slash with four home runs and 12 RBIs. Heading into his sophomore season, Bryan wasn’t an opening day starter behind the dish.
How did Bryan handle the lack of success for the first time in his career?
“I don’t stress too much about,” Bryan said. “I just stay loose. My dad (Bo Bryan) is a stressful person, and my mom (Christi Bryan) is not. I’m more like my mom. I’m glad I got it from my mom. When I was young, my dad sometimes wished I was a little meaner. But now that I’m at the stage I’m in now, he’s glad I’m more like my mom, stress-free, easy going.”
Let’s not confuse that laid-back nature for a lack of competitiveness. Bryan has worked hard to become a better player, and he’s a tough at-bat in the box. His even demeanor allowed him to accept coaching in a way some players struggle with.
“I feel like I was really pushed hard by this staff when I was younger,” Bryan said. “And looking back, that really helped me more than anything. I would mess practices up with dropped balls. That would always get in my head. Going through that made me so much stronger.”
Troy head coach Skyler Meade chuckled when he heard how Bryan felt about the tough coaching style.
“We were a little mean sometimes with how we used to get on him,” Meade admitted. “The thing with him when you are that good of a kid and you’d been raised so well, he knew we were only trying to hone his mentals better. We are on him, hard. But it’s all with love. There’s just not a better kid. You know, I’ve seen this with other players, and it happened with him. He had this moment when he realized 'why you are getting on me. Me being really bad in a Monday and Wednesday practice is not acceptable. So maybe I’ll stop.'”
Bryan did make a big stride early in his sophomore season and went from a backup to a guy generating buzz.
“It’s funny when kids like him come back later after the light switch comes on and say, ‘I must have annoyed you’,” said Meade. “But for him, his practice habits got so much better. He’s done a lot of work physically. He made the alterations. Stylistically, you and everyone else have seen how different he is from 2023 to 2024 to today.”
“I had a few big weekends early in the season," said Bryan. “Then when we started off conference play against Coastal Carolina and Louisiana back-to-back, I played really good those couple of series. That’s when I started to know I was really good. I just used that for confidence. I’m not really cocky. I try to be as humble as I can.”
“I think Brooks has been so steady,” said Meade. “It’s a lot of things he has experienced in the last 13 months. He’s a guy who wasn’t in the opening day lineup last season.”
The opening day backup finished the season All-Sun Belt First Team and ABCA/Rawlings All-Southeast Region First Team and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy. How did Bryan improve so quickly?
“It makes you realize how important the mental game is,” said Bryan. “I went from someone who when people said mental, mental, I was like, ‘OK, it’s just a baseball game. Go out there and play.’ I had always been a physical kid. Then I really struggled my freshman fall. I was really bad at catching. Hitting was so-so. I’d hit a ball hard and then strike out a few times. I had to understand that to take a stride, you have to utilize the mental game.”
“The mental game was a big part of it,” said Meade. “Obviously, he changed his body. He used to have high, flat hands. He used to have a stiff lower body. With our technology, we found some things with the way his body moves. He opened up his back foot and relaxed his hands. We found that in our measurables, he needed to do some things to make his body work better. It makes the coach look smart when that happens. The reality is he found something he believed in and rolled with it.”
That belief allowed Bryan to balance his competitive nature with his ability to stay levelheaded in pressure moments.
“On the baseball side I made a few adjustments with my swing and with my catching that helped,” Bryan explained. “I also improved the mental part of the game. I understood what I was getting into and that helped me the most.”
Bryan led the Trojans in home runs (18), RBIs (85), and slugging percentage (.589). His 85 RBIs were a new school record, led the Sun Belt Conference, and ranked fifth nationally. That performance gained national attention and led to another opportunity he had never seen coming.
“I went to talk to Coach Meade to talk about summer ball in general and he told me that me playing for Team USA was a real thing. It was possible. I knew what Team USA was, but I never really thought about it being possible. I was just going out and playing. It was surreal when he announced (Bryan’s Team USA invitation) before one of our games.”
Bryan got to Team USA and looked around to find some of the best players in college baseball there. The biggest stars of the 2025 season, players like Florida State’s Jamie Arnold, Texas A&M’s Jace LaViolette, and Alabama’s Justin Lebron were his teammates.
“It was weird because you look around and this dude is coming back from the College World Series and this other dude’s team hosted a regional,” Bryan said. “You always watch these guys’ highlights. You see them everywhere and now I’m his teammate. That’s when I realized I really do belong. I played well and hit in the middle of the lineup for that team the whole summer. I made me understand as long as I keep working hard and doing things the right way what I can do.”
“He’s a guy who starts to get known for his RBIs,” said Meade, who served as an assistant coach for Team USA. “Then he becomes a Team USA player and has a lot of acclaim. He’s never changed. He’s still the same dude. The guys who knew him on the ’23 team come back and say, he’s the best kid ever. He’s the same kid. That means he stays hungry. He works. His catching has got better. His footwork, too. You know what has happened offensively, his numbers speak for themselves there. He’s a well-rounded player. He’s versatile with a big lefthanded bat. He can play four positions: left, right, catch, first.”
This season, the Trojans are off to a 13-4 start and ranked 21st in this week’s top 25. Heading into Tuesday’s game at Jacksonville State, Bryan was batting .339/.447/.629 with four home runs, six doubles, and a team-high 28 RBIs.
Troy has a potent lineup with Stephen Meier (.441/.580/.763/8 doubles, 3 HRs, 14 RBIs, 11 SBs), Sean Darnell (.328/.456/.547/3 HRs, 21 RBI) and and Blake Cavill (.339/.447/.629/6 doubles, 2 HRs, 22 RBIs, 22 BBs) serving as a scary top four hitters in the Trojan batting order.
After an early-season run-rule victory over Penn, some teammates were asked what kind of teammate Bryan was.
“Brooks Bryan,” said first baseman Blake Cavill, “Oh you mean Captain America. Truly. Every day he comes to the ballpark with a smile. We love seeing Brooksie — he hits for power, he hits for contact. Whatever we need him to do, behind the dish even when he looks a little sketchy out there in left field at times. We still trust him fully. He’s a good guy.”
“He gets messed with a good bit because he’s Captain America,” said outfielder Steven Meier. “He’s a big-time player and a big-time personality. He’s every friend you want to have. He’s every teammate you want him to be. He does everything the right way. From 1-through-9, the guys on the bench, we all see him no different.”
For some players, all the attention might change them. For Bryan, he’s still the same person who struggled to find playing time as a freshman.
Except for on the field, where Bryan’s push to improve has opened a brave new world for Captain America.
