There is no pithy prose necessary to introduce Bri Strecker, whose telling, compelling accomplishments are unparalleled in this corner of the world.

Strecker, a member of Liz Sutman’s first state championship softball team at Waterford High (2009), recently became the 113th woman in the history of our country to become an Army Ranger, the country’s elite Special Operations force and premier infantry force, trained for close combat and conducting raids and assault missions deep inside enemy territory.

Here is Strecker’s story, told mostly in the voice of a woman who, peerlessly and fearlessly, has become a leader of men and women and protector of our country.

It began with what Strecker called her “dream job,” the head softball coach at Army. Strecker had successful assistant coaching stints at Bridgewater State (her alma mater) and Tufts, where the Jumbos won a Division III national title.

“But the second I stepped on campus at West Point, I fell in love with entire thing,” she said earlier this week by phone. “I was in awe. The only place I wanted to be.”

Except that Strecker felt a tug from something beyond the rhythms of softball.

“I spent three years flying all over recruiting athletes to go to West Point explaining what it meant to be an Army officer,” she said. “I applied to OCS (Officers’ Candidate School), probably the hardest decision I ever had to make because I loved coaching. But I had to know whether it was for me or not.”

And then there she was, the head coach going to basic training in 2019.

Strecker won a physical fitness award there and was later told she belonged in the infantry.

“If I went to the infantry I knew I’d go to Ranger school,” she said, alluding to how females were not allowed to become Rangers until 2016. “I knew I had to shave my head. That’s the only thing I was thinking about. But I really wanted to do it. I didn’t join the Army to do a job I could do in the civilian world. I wanted to be carrying heavy stuff and be around guns and the front lines.”

Ah, but it’s here Strecker learned how deeply prophetic are the words “be careful what you wish for.”

“Well,” she said, “my next stop was airborne school. Jumping out of planes. I don’t like heights. For the first time, I started to think, ‘what decisions am I making in my life?’”

Turns out that based on the upcoming perils, jumping out of a plane was the equivalent of rolling out of bed in the morning. Next came the 19-week, infantry basic officer leadership course at Fort Benning in Georgia. Fourteen of those weeks were spent in the woods.

In the next few paragraphs, Bri Strecker describes what her life had become:

“The first week, you have to pass the fitness test,” she said. “You don’t sleep the first night you take the fitness test. It’s 49 perfect pushups in two minutes, 59 perfect situps, a 5-mile run in under 40 minutes and then six perfect pullups. If you don’t complete them, you are dropped from the course immediately.

“Next was CWSA — Combat Water Swim Assessment. This was the worst part. Climb to the top of 40-foot beam and walk across it, above the water (like a balance beam). Get to the other side and grab on to a rope, pulling yourself across the water. Then do pullups on the rope before you drop 40 feet into the water and swim yourself out.

“Land navigation was next. All we had was a map and compass. We had to find five different points in the woods. Get to them and write down on a sheet of paper what’s written on the points (to prove she reached them). In four hours. Walking miles and miles.

“Then we had to disassemble and reassemble a weapon system before the Ruck March (the ruck is a heavy backpack in which candidates carry their equipment). It weighs about 45 pounds. They give you a packing list — and they can throw you out if you don’t pack everything correctly. You have to go 12 miles in three hours.”

Strecker did it all. She still had to complete three phases of Ranger school.

“Once you complete the (19-week) course, it’s a huge sense of relief,” she said. “You’re actually in the course now.”

Strecker completed her last phase last week. She’s an Army Ranger.

“You’re so focused on the next 25 meters of whatever you’re doing, you don’t really think about anything else,” she said. “Just trying to get to the next point. It was just the next task. You’re trying to survive.”

Strecker was offered the opportunity to make a public service announcement about how much competing in sports her whole life helped her become an Army elite.

“A huge factor. Huge,” she said. “Ranger school is largely about how well you work with other people. Your teammates decide whether you get (to advance) or not. If you don’t show up for other people, they won’t show up for you. It’s a team environment. Responsibility, accountability, dependability and being disciplined isn’t just for yourself. It’s for your team. Those are all qualities I learned through athletics.”

Soon, Strecker will return to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to be a platoon leader, “training to deploy at any point.” She stays in contact with many friends from her Waterford days, including Kate (Flanagan) Livingston, her former teammate.

“I make sure Kate knows the answer to ‘Where in the world is Bri?’ right now,” Strecker said. “I never wanted to live a life where I didn’t go after something that intrigued me. It keeps me sane.”

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro