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During the spring she went out for track and shot put, and ran the 100-meter for her last meet. She was slow, it was awkward, but she did it.<br>That was the picture when BFS first caught up with Christi five years ago. She was a determined girl fighting the odds, but no one knew if she would make it. Catching up with her now, just beginning her senior year, we re proud to see her spirit still pushing her on the athletic field and to learn she is not only fully recovered from the accident, but stronger for the effort.<br><br>Better Than Ever<br><br>In the summer, only a year after her accident, Christi began running well.  I was doing everything, she says.  If a normal person saw me they couldn t tell anything happened. I was playing volleyball, basketball, track and gymnastics.<br> The doctors actually say my back is stronger because of the bone they took from my hip to fuse my spine. I haveno side effects, none. It s amazing. Sometimes I forget the whole accident happened. <br>Pressed on the subject, she admits to some weakness in the right leg.  I need to compensate with the left, she says,  but I m working on fixing that in the run. It doesn t stop me, but it is a technical point I need to work on. <br>Christi attained her present height and weight of 5-foot-3 and 130 pounds early, and gymnastics gave way to track and the pole vault. She began working at Wichita Extreme Athletics with brothers Randypicks in Orlando Pace and Wayne Gandy in 1998. With Gandy up for a new contract and the Rams not inclined to resign their starting right tackle, the 1999 right tackle job was to be Brooks .<br>But in June of 1999, as Brooks was preparing for his third season with the Rams, tragedy struck. His wife, Jackie, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He decided to put his athletic career on hold for several months to help her through the trauma of chemotherapy. Brooks was subsequently released by the Rams, and he turned down offers from both the Saints, Cowboys and the Jaguars.<br> As his wife s health began to improve, Brooks signed with the Cardinals (over the Jaguars and the Broncos) in the 2000 season and reunited with his offensive line coach from the Rams, George Warhop. Again Brooks made the final roster; and when the starter at left tackle L.J. Shelton became injured, Brooks saw more playing time.  Shelton went down the first play of the first game, so I got to play that whole game, and then the following two games I started. However, at the end of the season the Cardinals decided not to extend players who had missed significant amounts of practice time, as Brooks had in caring for his wife. Brooks was immediately picked up by the Broncos.<br>In February 2001 tragedy struck again, and this time Jackie lost her battle with cancer. There would be no football for Brooks this year.  When Jackie passed away I just really wasn t 100 percent focused on football, says Brooks. When he was eventually able to handle his irreparable loss, Brooks knew he had a lot of work to do if he was to play again. He needed to get back in shape, and he needed to do it quickly.br>The Poliquin Factor<br><br>Through his brother Fletcher, who is now a track and strength coach at Williams College, Brooks learned about Charles Poliquin, co-owner of the Poliquin Performance Center in Tempe, Arizona. Poliquin s pro clients include over 60 NHL and over a dozen NFL players.  I wanted to work with Charles to get my strength levels up to a level where I could really compete on the field, says Brooks. The results were beyond anyone s expectations.<br>Brooks started working with Poliquin on April 12, and continued for the next three months. He trained for one approximate