AylaBrown.com - Forum

BC's Ayla Brown eager to start singing career
THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 (Updated 11:07 am)
By GERALD WITT

GREENSBORO — Sorry fellas, Ayla Brown isn't seeking suitors through Facebook.

That's not her style.

"It's flattering," said the senior guard for Boston College, here with her team for the ACC women's tournament. "That's not how I'm going to meet a guy."

Her dad, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, recently said that his daughters were "available" after winning the seat that Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy left open after his recent death.

On Tuesday she had 140 unread Facebook messages and more than 1,000 friend requests.

Not that she needed much more attention. Brown gained fame as a 2005 semifinalist on "American Idol."

She also has a recording deal and performs regularly around New England.

Aside from all that, basketball still takes up most of her life.

"I'm hoping for an ACC championship," she said, "and something I've always wanted as a basketball player, to go to the NCAA tournament."

She's one of the many stories coming through town for the 2010 ACC Women's Basketball Tournament.

Brown is also one of the many seniors who will experience Tournament Town from behind the scenes for the final time.

"It's sad, I'm not going to lie," she said after the team's practice Wednesday at the arena. "You end up loving the game."

For her, the love was built over a lifetime.

"You have to remember, this is a kid that started playing basketball when she was old enough to walk," said her mother, Gail Huff, who is also a reporter for ABC affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.

"Her life has been, for the most part, devoted to basketball," Huff said.

And while plenty of the spotlight is on Brown's budding singing career and television appearances — she recently appeared for "The Early Show" on CBS — she passes basketball credit toward her teammates.

"Carolyn Swords, she's the best post player in the conference, if not, the whole country," Brown said. "She's really taught me how to lead."

Swords leads NCAA Division I women in field-goal percentage and leads Boston College in scoring (14.4 points) and rebounding (9.7 per game).

And while Brown will make moves to the basket this week, she'll soon move on to television and singing.

She plans to work with a network morning show, though can't confirm publicly which show or what she would do.

Whether television, singing or basketball, her mother sees in Brown a lot of the dogged determination of her father's political drive.

"They play to win, in an athletic sense and in a life sense," Huff said. "When they get involved in something, they do it to be their best at it."