Friday, November 14, 2008
Behrend coaching legend set to retire
A journey of 39 years has finally come
to an end for one of the area's track and
field legends: Coach Dave Cooper. A
high school coach for 31 years. and eight
years at Penn State Erie, the Behrend
College, Cooper will retire at the end of
this season as the driving force behind
the track and field and cross country pro
grams.
As a coach at Union City High School,
Cooper led the cross country program
for 28 years, and served six years as the
head coach of the track team. He created
the girl's cross country program at the
high school, and according to the Penn
State Behrend website, captured ten con
ference crowns. He won the Boys' State
Cross Country Championship title in
1996 and 1997, as well as runner-up in
1990, and also took 19 league titles,
according to the Penn State Behrend
website.
Cooper's son. Greg. will be taking
over for his father after having him as a
coach at Union City. "He developed me
into a better athlete, - recalls Greg
Cooper. "It wasn't just that, though - he
gave me an example of what it meant to
be a great coach. -
Greg, who went to Penn State Behrend
for four years and excelled in the pro
gram. set the 400 and 8(X) meter records
for the school. He had the interesting
perspective of being in the program
Le . ft: Coach Cooper poses for a picture during practice Right: Coach Cooper stands with his 1996 State Championship team
ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR
ATHLETE OF THE
Krystal Kovach
Diving
Sophomore
TRACK AND FIELD, CROSS COUNTRY COACH DAVE COOPER
IN HIS LAST YEAR AS A COACH FOR PENN STATE
without his father as a coach; the year
after Greg graduated, his father stepped
into the head coach position. "Before he
came, there were a lot of great individu
als, and it was still fun," he says. "But
there wasn't much of a team element."
Brian Streeter. the Director of
Athletics at Penn State Behrend,
explained that when the position opened
for Cooper to step in, both the track and
cross country programs were relatively
young. "Our numbers were still small,"
says Streeter, "and both programs were
only in their first five years."
Cooper's arrival at Penn State Behrend
shook up both programs immediately,
said Streeter. "His success in high school
definitely paid off here. His demeanor
and communication with students made
them very comfortable. So, we were able
to reach out to more and more students
every year.
The efforts of the new coach resulted
kAMA
"His best attribute is that
he is a teacher."
Brian Streeter, Director of Athletics
CROSS COUNTRY
SPORTS
By Connor Sattely
managing editor
cisso6o@psu.edu
in skyrocketing numbers of athletes.
Streeter estimates 24 students participat
ed in cross country regularly when
Cooper arrived. That number has since
risen to over 60, he says. The track and
field numbers have also nearly doubled
from their original number of 14 ath
letes, according to Streeter.
Staci Rock, an athlete at Penn State
Behrend from 2002 to 2006, was one of
the first athletes to experience Dave
Cooper as a head coach for four years.
"When I look back on my high school
and college experience," she says. "track
and field was one thing I was so glad that
I did, and it was because of him as a
coach."
Rock, the current record holder in long
jump, high jump, and triple jump for
Behrend, said that the best quality of her
coach was his sheer determination to
help students succeed. "If there's one
quality that makes him great," she says,
Athlete Spotlight:
This week's ENTERPRISE
RENT-A-CAR Athlete of the
Week is Behrend sophomore
Krystal Kovach.
Krystal Kovach played a
major role for the diving team
this past week.
Kovach was perfect through
the week, winning in each of
her four events against Buffalo
State and St. Vincent, earning
her the AMCC Diver of the
Week.
Versus Buffalo State, she
scored 230.10 points on the 1-
meter, a mere 5.5 points ahead
of the Bengal competitor. Then
on the 3-meter she crushed the
competition by 40 points, scor
ing a 262.10 to break both the
team and pool records in the
process.
"It was really exciting to
experience breaking those
records," said Kovach
She again had stellar per
formances in the two 1-meter
competitions against St.
Vincent, winning both with
scores of 179.2 and 254.15.
Kovach is from Scott
Township, which is in the
~~.. ',
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Krystal Kovach
Pittsburgh area. She didn't orig
inally plan on coming to
Behrend when deciding on
where to go for a college educa
tion.
"I got accepted to
Washington and Jefferson first,
but I really liked the campus, so
I came here [Penn State
Behrend]," said Kovach. What
solid and really
Krystal Kovach, Sophomore
is even more unbelievable is
how Kovach began her diving
"I didn't decided to start div
ing until I got here," said
Kovach. "My freshman year of
college was my first year of
diving."
"it's just how much he cares about stu
dents. It's one big family on that team,
and Coach [Dave] Cooper always puts
students first, and himself second. They
really bring the best out in all of the stu
dents."
Perhaps the most significant change
Cooper made to Behrend was his strate
gy of bringing in coaches that special
ized in different track and field events.
Cooper began to transition to a "retire
ment track" option, switching to an
assistant coach role in spring of 2007.
Before then, he led the women's team to
two conference titles, and displayed him
self as one of the school's best coaches.
Phil Stuczynski, an athlete at Penn
State Behrend since January of 2006,
says that Cooper's ability to be a mentor
set him apart. "He has an amazing abili
ty to be a teacher," said Stuczynski, "he
never comes down on you hard. If you
do your best, go to your classes, try
hard... he supports you, he keeps it fun."
Streeter agrees that his mentor attitude
is what makes him a legend at the
school. "This guy goes to coaches' clin
ics, reads medical journals," said
Streeter. "His best attribute is that he is a
teacher. He taught the sports of cross
country and track. He never took a day
off."
Never?
"Well, except hunting day."
In Cooper's eight year career at Penn
State Behrend, to the best of Streeter's
memory, he missed eight days of work:
the opening days of hunting season.
An avid hunter, Cooper decided to
retire to primarily spend more time in the
woods. While that will likely include
hunting, he says that it is the simple out
door things that he looks forward to the
most.
"I want to cut firewood," says the
coaching legend. "You can't do that
much as a head coach. I just want to be
in the woods, enjoy nature."
Cooper owns several hundred acres of
land by Conneaut Lake, and, strangely,
his own putt-putt golf course. "Greg and
I really liked putt-putt golf," he says. "I
decided it would be a cool thing to oper-
ate in retirement."
His resignation as coach, though,
By Nick Blake
sports editor
npbso4l@psu.edu
It was a fun experience for
Kovach learning how to dive.
"Well, I was starting from
scratch, but it was exciting,"
she said.
Kovach was very successful
her freshman year, especially
for an athlete who was new to
the sport. She earned an AMCC
Championship in her first year.
"I was really
confident."
Which became her favorite
experience of her young career.
"I practiced the same dives
all the time," said Kovach. "I
was really solid and really con
fident. I knew I would do well."
Kovach sticks to a very
demanding training regiment
The Behrend Beacon I 9
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
comes for reasons aside from golf.
"Being a coach for 39 years wears you
down," he says. "You spend sixty to sev
enty hours a week working as a head
coach in this sport."
He attributes the success he's accom
plished in the program to his faith, and
the students who have come through the
school. "I've been blessed with some
outstanding athletes. The students really
deserve all of the credit."
Streeter, who watched Cooper develop
both the track and cross country pro
grams into the success stories that they
are today, knows that Cooper is a once
in-a-lifetime coach. That title, says
Streeter, doesn't do the man justice in the
job that he does.
"He's not just a coach he's more of a
professor. Most teachers will aim for get
ting their students to perform well on
tests, but the good ones will make sure
students understand a concept and can
apply it to real life," said Streeter.
"That's what Dave Cooper does for his
athletes; instead of saying, 'run hard and
jump,' he teaches you strategies and
techniques. He teaches you the craft, and
brings the best out of every one of the
students that he's coached."
that keeps her in top form for
competition.
The team practices two times
a day, in the morning and in the
evening.
"In the morning I usually do
my lifting and cardio," said
Kovach. "The evening sessions
are strictly diving."
Kovach is still somewhat
undecided when it comes to her
education
"My major is biology, for
now," said Kovach. Her plans
may change before the end of
her college career. Being that
she is still a freshman, she has
no plans for when she gradu
ates.
Krystal has had a very suc
cessful career so far on
Behrend's diving team. She is
only in the second year of her
career and she has already
locked down a championship. It
is only certain that she will con
tinue diving well for the
Behrend Lions.