By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

The recruiting process is over for Addi Brownfield, and now she can concentrate on her senior season of basketball.

It sounds like something you would hear about a high school athlete but no, Brownfield is a senior on Western Illinois University’s women’s basketball team.

She has found her next school, though — Brownfield has been accepted into the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine through the school’s Early Decision program.

“It was just the best news ever, just a huge dream of mine for several years now, and then getting to kind of set that aside for now and focusing on my last season of basketball. It all kind of feels like it’s falling into place right now,” Brownfield said.

Brownfield, a biology major with minors in chemistry and psychology, earned admission with a 513 MCAT score and a 3.98 cumulative grade point average. She’ll be staying close to home — she grew up in Boonville, Missouri, which is less than 30 miles from the university campus.

“Mizzou was my No. 1 choice because of that,” said Brownfield, who also looked at medical schools at Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “Maybe live at home for a year and save some money.”

Figuring out where she would be going next is something that has eased Brownfield’s mind.

“That’s why I applied,” she said. “Mizzou has the Early Decision program, so I’d know by October at the latest, compared to April or something like that at other schools. So, yeah, I’m really glad I did that. I can just kind of push that to the side for now and truly focus on basketball and this team.”

Brownfield’s mother, Mona, is a family practice physician in Boonville, and Brownfield is considering doing the same thing.

“I’m definitely going to do some more shadowing this summer with different specialties to figure that out,” she said. “But right now, I’d say family practice is probably No. 1, because honestly, that’s what’s needed in the world right now. We definitely don’t have enough family practice physicians. It’s what my mom actually does, so I’ve kind of grown up around it, and, like I said, it’s something that’s needed, so it’s something that would be an honor to do.”

Brownfield was sleeping when she got a call from someone at Missouri letting her know she had been accepted.

“It was 9:15 a.m. and we didn’t have anything that morning, so I was sleeping in a little bit,” Brownfield said, smiling. “I got the phone call, and my voice was a little (sleepy), ‘Hello?’

“It was surreal, I couldn’t believe I actually did it. Because there were definitely days where I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I don’t have all this other clinical experience that all these other students might have.”

Brownfield has completed more than 100 hours of physician shadowing. She has worked as a home health aide and contributed to undergraduate research in the psychology department at Western Illinois, and has been a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters and served on the university’s student-athlete advisory committee.

“Honestly, I get that question a lot, ‘How do you manage all that? How do you do that?’” Brownfield said. “And I was just talking to my teammates the other day about it, and I was like, honestly, my answer is, you just do it. Just be disciplined.

“I think discipline at times was more important than motivation, because there’s days where you didn’t want to do that assignment, you didn’t want to study for this exam, but having that discipline really got me through this, and it’s definitely something that will push me through medical school and a career in medicine.”

More than 3,000 applicants applied for the Early Program last year, so Brownfield knew the competitiveness of the process.

“The application was a lot to fill out,” she said. “There were so many different sections, and I wanted to be as perfect and as detailed as possible, because, I mean, there’s 3,000-4,000 other applicants. Then I had to get all of the volunteering, the hours shadowing, hours of clinical experience, that I could.

“The hardest part, I think, was just making sure not to compare myself to other people who might have done more things than I did, but knowing that I could bring my athletic experience to the table on top of everything else.”

Brownfield said there were some similarities to the basketball recruiting process she went through before she chose Western Illinois.

“The interviews kind of related to talking to all the basketball coaches,” she said. “So the recruiting process definitely helped me learn to be more personable and how to handle those slightly more difficult conversations.”

Brownfield has started 63 games in the last two seasons for the Leathernecks, averaging 8.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists last season. She needs just 130 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career.

“It’s a huge stress off her back,” said Western Illinois coach JD Gravina. “I can already see the difference in her game, not having to worry about knowing what her future is, I think it really helps her. She’s definitely driven to win and not as much worried about knowing what the next step is going to be. That pressure is kind of off her now.”

Gravina said Brownfield’s acceptance reflects positively on his program and the university.

“I try to tell recruits, you can be whatever you want here,” he said. “We do a great job of preparing kids for medical school, graduate school, law school. We do a really good job of preparing kids, and that’s something we can tell recruits — you can achieve your academic goals here.”

Brownfield isn’t quite ready for her basketball career to end yet.

“I’ve been here four years at Western and I have loved every single year,” she said. “I wish I had more years. I know these girls are so great. I just told (assistant coach Alexa Tovella) the other day. I was like, when we’re all graduated and done, we need to move back to the same town — I don’t know how I’m going to live without my teammates. I’m just so grateful for them, and they’ve supported me through it all.”

The next four years of medical school are ahead.

“That’s OK,” Brownfield said, smiling. “I’m not ready for the real world yet.”

Photo: Western Illinois guard Addi Brownfield has been accepted into the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine beginning next year. (Photo courtesy of WIU Athletic Communications)