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The timing might not have been perfect for Cooper when the Shawnee Braves girls basketball position opened up. But the job was.
Cooper takes over for Blake Garberich, who led Shawnee to a 17-7 record this past season and 10-3 in the Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail Division. The 17 wins were second most in program history and the Braves gave Tecumseh a run for the division title before finishing second.
Garberich, who has daughters ages 10, 7, 5 and 1, said he stepped down to spend more time with his family but plans to return to coaching in the future.
Cooper, whose son was born on May 20, weighed the same concerns about family time, too.
“Is it ideal because I just had a baby on May 20? Probably not. That kind of put a wrinkle in the summer a little bit,” Cooper said. “Being at Shawnee, for me, it was the right thing to go for. I hadn’t really actively looked otherwise. … The job came open and I thought maybe this is right.”
Cooper, a 2000 Southeastern graduate, coached five seasons at Northeastern from 2006-2011. She guided the Jets to a 50-57 record. The Jets went 17-5 in 2009-10, the most wins in a season since 1998. The Jets’ tournament win was the program’s first since 1988 and helped Kitchen win the Ohio Division III co-coach of the year from the Associated Press. The following season Cooper guided the Jets to their first sectional final appearance since the 1985-86 season.
Cooper coached Southeastern from 2013-2015 and led the Trojans to a 37-12 record. The Trojans reached the Division IV district title game in 2015. In 2014 the team lost in quadruple overtime in the sectional final.
Cooper takes over a Shawnee team that graduated five seniors including their top four leading scorers and three of their top five leading rebounders.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity we have,” Cooper said. “We’ve had some open gyms and I’ve seen a lot of good things. I’m very excited about coaching in the CBC.”
“They seemed excited. I think you could tell there was a carryover from last year, which was really nice. It’s a group of kids eager and excited to be successful. We have some practices coming up and they’re looking forward to them. Our open gyms have been pretty positive.”
Cooper, a three-time Clark County Coach of the Year, said the Braves will play an aggressive man-to-man defense. Offensively, she’s still learning the strengths of her team and will go from there as she gets a better feel for her team.
“That was one of the things I was struggling with,” Cooper said of attempting to balance a new baby and returning to coaching. “Summers are so important. All summers are important, but your first summer when you’re changing coaches is super important because you get time together and time to learn a new system. I’ve been a little bit worried about that. But after last week with some of the open gyms we’ve had I’m feeling better because of the time we’ve had some time together.”
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