Bryant woman encourages mental-health awareness

Brooke Plack, owner of Empire Cheerleading in Bryant, is an advocate for mental-health awareness after losing her mom to suicide in 2013.
Brooke Plack, owner of Empire Cheerleading in Bryant, is an advocate for mental-health awareness after losing her mom to suicide in 2013.

— During her first year as a teacher in Bryant, Brooke Plack was in the teacher’s lounge when she overheard another teacher talking about one of her athletes whose dad had attempted suicide, and the student had found him.

“I didn’t know her, but I called her into my office, and I said, ‘My name is Brooke, and I have a story to tell you,’” Plack said.

Plack told the student how her mom, Gracie Owens, on Christmas morning, had attempted suicide in 2010 by jumping off the Arkansas River bridge.

“I told her, ‘I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you have been through, but I know what you are going through is not fair,’” Plack said. “Her dad ended up committing suicide within a couple of years, as did my mom.”

But Plack said if she had never been in that situation, that student might not have known if there was anybody else in her life “that could have made that connection with her.”

“And I said, you are going to be OK, but you have to go to school; you have to make something of yourself,” Plack said.

Owens was at Plack’s half-sister’s house spending the holiday with her in Yell County when Plack got the frantic call.

“My mom said, ‘I’m leaving,’” Plack said. “My sister had taken her keys, but apparently she had found them while she and the kids were outside playing with their new toys.

“My sister called the police, and it led to a high-speed chase. [My mom] parked her car out on the bridge, got out and jumped.”

Owens was then medflighted to a hospital, where she recovered physically. She later died in September 2013 by suicide.

“I like to think that in a healthy state of mind, that is not something she would have done,”

Plack said. “Going through the holidays for anyone who lost a parent or a very close family member is always different.

“That’s why I try to have Friendsgiving every year, where I cook her recipes and maintain her traditions, and my sister does that as well.

“We try to keep her spirit alive and focused on the positive, because [the memories] weren’t all bad.”

Plack, who owns Empire Cheerleading in Bryant, said that eventually, she would like to start a memorial fundraiser in memory of her mom in hope of raising awareness for suicide prevention, specifically focused on children.

Plack graduated from Bryant High School in 2003 and received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas, where she cheered, in 2007. She earned a master’s degree in education from Harding University in Searcy in 2011 and received an Educational Specialist degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 2014.

Plack taught at Cabot High School for four years and at Bryant High School for three and started coaching in 2008. She opened Empire in 2014.

“For me, the work that we do here is so important because we are the stable constant in a kid’s life, and they want to see their coach because it is a stability feature in a kid’s life …,” Plack said. “We serve 850 kids a week here, and the families we serve see the heart and soul that we have.”

In the beginning, Plack coached every class the business had, and it wasn’t until she had shoulder surgery in July of last year that she had to step aside and let her coaches handle more of the load.

“It was an invasive surgery,” Plack said. “They had to repair my rotator cuff, my labrum and my bicep.

“They basically cut my bicep out of my shoulder and screwed it into my bone.”

She said if her physical therapist hadn’t caught the injury, she might have lost her arm altogether.

“That’s why as you age, it is super important to take care of your health,” Plack said.

Health safety has always been a concern for Plack. When she was 18 months old, she was diagnosed with a heart murmur.

“When you are born with a heart murmur, they don’t think much of it,” Plack said. “But if one comes later, then they will monitor you your whole life.

“So my entire adolescent life, I was at a pediatric clinic just to get everything checked.”

At 19, Plack was at Razorback cheerleader practice when her heart starting racing up to 220 beats per minute. She said she was taken straight to the trainer’s room, and within a couple of minutes, the racing stopped.

“But from that time to December of 2014, it would happen off and on, typically lasting five minutes,” Plack said. “But that Christmas, it raced and didn’t come down for 45 minutes.

“So at that point, my dad put me in the car and drove me straight to the heart hospital.”

Plack met with a cardiac electrophysiologist named Monica Low, and she informed Plack that she had an extra circuit in her heart.

“Basically, [the heart] believes you don’t have enough blood in your heart, so it pumps really fast,” Plack said. “So they went up and had to burn off the side of [my] heart.

“It was not real invasive, but it did hit me by surprise. I am super thankful they found it.”

Plack said her maternal grandfather and grandmother both died of massive heart attacks.

“So I am also thankful that I didn’t keep it as I get older because people can have heart attacks in their 50s and 60s because of those things — because their heart is weaker,” Plack said.

Brooke’s dad, Rodney Plack, serves on the board for the Bryant Boys & Girls Club. When Brooke moved back to Bryant in 2010, she immediately jumped in and got involved with the club.

“I am so grateful for the school environment that I grew up in,” Brooke said. “Bryant is an amazing place to get an education, and those kids are the future.

“And if I want them to be aware of mental illness, or if I want them to learn how to be thankful, we have to do that. We have to teach that to them.”

Plack also serves on the Bryant Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is the secretary for the chamber’s executive board. She is also the board liaison for the Saline County Young Professionals Network, a group she helped start. She is involved with the iRefer Business Networking Group and the Saline County Executive Association and is an alumna of Leadership Saline County.

“Everybody is battling something, and until you know their story and know what they are going through, you can’t encourage them or put yourself in their shoes,” Plack said. “That’s why I think it is so important for us to share our story.

“Being a more connected society is key, and not just on social media.”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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