Each month, Eagle Radio in Great Bend is recognizing groups or individuals that make a big impact on our community. This Appreciation Month is highlighting coaches.
By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
If anyone could be called a coaching legend at Hoisington High School, it would be girls golf coach Bruce Cooper. He took over the girls' golf program in 1980. Six years later he was named the Kansas Coach of the Year. In 2017, he was chosen as the top girls' golf coach in the nation.
Cooper went to Fort Hays State University (FHSU) in the early 1970s to become a biology and science teacher.
âTeaching was first,â Cooper recounts. âI didnât really have aspirations to coach. I just wanted to teach.â
When the time came for him to find a student teaching position in 1974, Hoisington wasnât his first choice. He and a friend decided they wanted to student teach together. In those days, they were allowed to apply to three high schools.
âWe both put down Russell for our number one pick,â Cooper said. âWe both put down Colby second because Iâm from Hoxie. We could have lived at my momâs house and driven to Colby every day. Then he brought up Hoisington. I said âWhy do you want to put Hoisington for our third place to student teach?â He says âI donât know. We donât know anybody there and it would be a good place to go, not knowing anybody. So we did that. Well, he gets Colby, and he student teaches there. I get Hoisington and I student taught here.â
A student teaching position at Hoisington High had one big advantage that year. The high school principal, Harlan Boye, told Cooper he would only be accepted as a student teacher if he agreed to stay on full-time after he graduated from FHSU. Cooper liked the idea and has been teaching at Hoisington High ever since.
It didnât take long before Cooper ended up on the sidelines as a Hoisington coach. Boye and Hoisington Schools Superintendent Walt Smith needed an assistant boysâ basketball coach in 1974.
âThey said weâll pay you $400 to be assistant boysâ basketball coach. And I was so naĂŻve and green, I asked âIs that $400 a month?â They said âNo, thatâs $400 a year.â I was embarrassed. I didnât know any better. I thought âI donât know what you pay coaches. Obviously not very much. $400 a year.â And I took it.â
Cooper stayed with the boysâ basketball program until 2004, serving as head coach for two of those years. However, he didnât leave basketball behind. In 2006, he was asked to be an assistant coach for the girlsâ basketball team, a position he still holds. But Cooper has made his biggest mark in the Hoisington sports world as a golf coach.
Not many children in western Kansas get the opportunity to play much golf. Cooper, however, was raised on a farm near Hoxie, Kansas that was next to a golf course.
âI think the number nine hole was right by our pasture when I grew up as a kid,â Cooper recalled. âSo we actually made some wooden clubs and went out there as youngsters and hit a rubber ball. We didnât even have a real golf ball. Then as we got a little older, I had two brothers, so all three of us ordered a set of golf clubs to share. Then we got to playing all the time out there.â
That experience came in handy when Hoisington High needed help with its golf programs.
âIn 1980, both golf coaches quit, girls and boys,â Cooper said. âThe AD [Athletic Director] came up to me and said âWould you coach girls golf?â and I said âYeah, Iâll do it,â because I liked it. And then he said âhow about boys golf?â And I said âwell, I can do both of them. They probably ought to be the same guy.â So I took both the girlsâ golf program in the fall and the boysâ golf program in the spring.â
Since then, Hoisingtonâs girlsâ golf teams have won four state titles, finished 2nd twice and come in 3rd five times.
However, it was a 4th place finish in 2017 that Cooper canât get out of his mind. He believed his team that year had an excellent chance to win a state title. But it didnât work out that way.
âIâm still now just getting over it,â Cooper commented. âI keep track of my averages on all the years that we went to state and we had the best average ever.â
There were other good teams in the state tournament that year, but Cooper hoped for the best.
âSyracuse ended up winning it, but we should have gotten second. We didnât. We tied, so you go to the next girl to break the tie. We go to the fifth girl and weâre still tied.â
It was the sixth girl on the Hoisington team that came up short by one stroke.
âSo we missed taking a trophy,â Cooper lamented. âOf all the years, one of the best teams Iâve ever had, and we ended up taking fourth.â
What came after that was as surprising to Cooper as anyone else. He was named the Kansas Coach of the Year for girls' golf for the second time in his career. But thatâs not the most surprising part of the story. As Kansas Coach of the Year, Cooper was eligible to be considered National Coach of the Year.
A computer glitch almost put a stop to Cooperâs chances of achieving that honor.
âThey give you this opportunity to fill out online a whole bunch of stuff to enter National Coach of the Year,â Cooper explained. âSo Iâm online during my âplan periodâ typing this stuff up. They wanted to know some of your community services, some of your background, how you got started. They wanted to know your philosophy. It was long. I got maybe three-fourths done and my âplan periodâ was over. I had to teach. I forgot to save it.â
When Cooper got back to his computer later that day, everything had been erased.
âSo I did it again, and this time I saved it,â Cooper said. âWell, that didnât work. Save didnât work. I went home to my wife [Jerree] and I said âIâm not going to register or give my background in coaching because Iâll never get national coach of the year. You kidding me? Thatâs all 50 states. Iâm wasting my time.
âShe said, 'You're making it way too hard. Just go in there and keep it simple and fill it out.ââ
âWell, thatâs the third time I did it. I know I typed different stuff, out of order, probably didnât make sense. But I did mention my wife really helped me in coaching because she kept telling me, âNot everybodyâs addicted to this sport like you are. Donât expect your athletes to love it as much as you do and put that much work into it.ââ
âAnd I put that in my letter to the national committee,â Cooper said. âAnd then I found out later in January of 2018 I won National Coach of the Year.â
The honor was commemorated by a plaque presented to him by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
As the Hoisington girlsâ golf season gets underway this fall, youâll still be able to find Cooper leading team practices at the Lake Barton Golf Club. He is optimistic about his team of six girls.
âWeâre pretty good,â Cooper commented. âI have four very experienced girls coming back.â
After 47 years as a high school coach, Cooper describes how coaching has helped him be a mentor to hundreds of Hoisington High School students.
âYou get to know the kids really well,â Cooper said. âYou get to know them on a level that nobody else gets to know them, not even a teacher. You get to know them when theyâre stressed. You get to know them when theyâre excited.â
From student teacher to National Coach of the Year and beyond, Cooper is satisfied with the way things turned out for him.
âHoisington has been tremendous for me,â Cooper said. âI told my wife there are a lot of things that you donât have control over, but I was sure lucky to meet her and come here to Hoisington and teach. Itâs been really good. They've been good to me. They still are. I guess one of these days itâs going to be over and Iâll just have memories, but I enjoy the kids coming back. Itâs still exciting.â
Read the previous Appreciation Month stories by clicking HERE.