Bearlights
Amy
"Whitey" Hockenbrock
Position:
Defender
Grad Year:
2000
Major:
Molecular and Cell Biology
Favorite Berkeley Eats:
La Burrita & Yogurt Park
Favorite Study Spot at Cal:
Moffitt Library...finding a random buclicle somewhere and studying
Favorite Watering Hole While at Cal:
Favorite: Kingfish
Most Frequented: Kips
Favorite Cal Soccer Memory:
Beating Stanford in overtime with Reggie's (Holen) goal.....or the fight against USD.
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“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” C.G. Jung
Whitey is an amazing teammate and she always has been. She was consistently one of the hardest working, focused and smartest players on the team. She possesses natural leadership qualities that have always been a part of who she is. People want to be around her because she’s kind, thoughtful, intelligent, talented, funny and so much more. She brings energy when the team needs to be hyped up; she brings calmness when the team needs composure. And she brings all of these qualities to all the different roles she plays in her current life – mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and CAL Sports Medicine doctor.
Whitey led her high school team to 4 league championships and 3 section championships, where she was named captain of her high school team her senior year. Whitey also experienced success with her youth club teams where she won 2 National Championships in 1995 and 1996. Her leadership, strong defensive skills, strong work ethic and her intelligence were some of the ways she contributed to her teams’ championships.
In the Fall of 1996, Whitey began her time as a student-athlete at CAL not knowing exactly what career she wanted. She wanted to major in Molecular and Cell Biology because the name was long and impressive and she was thinking of earning her doctorate. Whitey knew she wanted to eventually earn her PhD and took it upon herself to get 3 articles published in journals before she graduated from CAL. She excelled as a student and still found the time and energy to put in countless hours of work to earn time on the field. Her work ethic and determination were unparalleled. She was a solid defender, ruthless in the air and would throw her body in front of anybody or the ball to prevent goals from being scored on her team. She began perfecting her ability to be extremely efficient with her academic and athletic responsibilities while being a student-athlete. She also began realizing her talents as an amazing multi-tasker, which are all skills/abilities she has mastered and uses in her everyday life today.
The summer before her sophomore year, she endured her first major injury. She tore her ACL while playing in a semi-professional summer league game which caused her to red-shirt her sophomore season at CAL. She wasn’t about to let that stop her from getting back onto the field in her CAL uniform. She earned her spot back on the field and had a stellar junior year, but unfortunately endured a second ACL tear while playing Stanfurd. These injuries would turn out to be life changing for Whitey because she learned that she would have to work harder than she ever thought she did in order to get what she wanted. Her experience through the injuries, the surgeries and the recoveries inspired her to want to help other student-athletes. It was these knee injuries that eventually led her to her profession of being a Sports Medicine doctor. Whitey’s grit, determination, strong will and work ethic brought her back to the field in her CAL uniform once again. Whitey was named captain of the women’s soccer team her junior and senior seasons. She led her team to the NCAA tournament both seasons she captained our blue and gold.
Whitey graduated from CAL in December 2000. A couple of months after graduating, she went to Madison, Wisconsin where she took a job driving the Boca Burgermobile around the United States of America. She worked as a Boca Buddy for 12 months, traveled around the country talking on radio and TV shows about Boca products. She’s been to every state….except Vermont!.
After her stint as a Boca Buddy, life took her to Los Angeles where she worked for Big Sky Financial, where she met and fell in love with her future husband, Jeff. She took some time to live her life with less of a schedule and not having every day planned out minute by minute. Once her free spirit had fulfilled its desire for spontaneity, things fell into place and she moved back to Berkeley to begin her journey to become a Sports Medicine doctor; she was a Research Assistant for UC Berkeley and then ventured off to medical school in Chicago, where she earned her Masters in Physiology and then her Doctorate in Medicine. She moved back to the west coast for her residency at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose.