Cook enters his fourth season as the head women's basketballcoach at Gallaudet University for the 2010-2011 season. He hascompiled a 23-52 record at the helm for the Bison. Cook brings awide variety of coaching experience to Kendall Green from coachingprofessionally in the WNBA to the NCAA Division I level tointernational experience with the Nigeria national team.
Last season, Cook guided the Bison to their best record in adecade as GU posted a 14-12 record and advanced to the CapitalAthletic Conference (CAC) tournament for the first time since the2006-07 season. The Bison had a 7-9 conference mark, the bestrecord in over 10 years. Cook coached CAC Player of the Year andeventual Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) andD3hoops.com All-American Easter Faafiti. The junior center went onto capture over a dozen different awards from all-conference firstteam honors to all-region first team honors and Atlantic RegionPlayer of the Year.
Cook was also honored in 2010 with the prestigious Carol EckmanAward presented by the WBCA. He became the 25th recipient of theaward that is presented annually to an active WBCA coach whoexemplifies Eckman's spirit, integrity and character throughsportsmanship, commitment to the student-athlete, honesty, ethicalbehavior, courage and dedication to purpose. The award is named inhonor of the late Carol Eckman, the former West Chester StateCollege coach who is considered the "Mother of the Women'sCollegiate Basketball Championship." Eckman organized thefirst women's basketball championship at West Chester in 1969 andcontinued to garner recognition and support for the women's gameuntil her death from cancer in 1985. Cook was the first DivisionIII coach to be honored since the award's inception in 1986 whenLaura Mapp from Bridgewater (Va.) College was selected as the firsthonoree of the Carol Eckman Award.
Cook and the Bison were featured on ESPN.com and the front coverof the sports section of The Washington Post last season. Cook hasalso been profiled several times by newspapers in his native Ohioincluding the Dayton Daily News and the Fremont News-Messenger.
Cook doubled the amount of wins from his first season (2007-08)to his second season (2008-09) as the Bison went 6-19 overall. Inthree seasons in the CAC he coached one Player of the Year (EasterFaafiti, 2009-10), one Rookie of the Year (Nukeitra Hayes, 2007-08)and one all-conference first team selection (Faafiti, 2009-10).
"I love the student-athletes at Gallaudet," says Cook. "This isa fun place to coach! I enjoy building this program up. Everyday weexpect to get better and better. I believe in player developmentbecause if the players get better the team will improve."
This year the team has two goals according Cook. "We have set ateam grade-point average goal we want to meet. This is veryimportant to me. Also, we will compete much better this year. Wewill be better than last year. How much better we play depends onhow consistent the team works everyday in practice."
Cook arrived in Washington, D.C., after he served as anassistant coach with the Houston Comets for 11 years where he waspart of four WNBA championships. He also served as a coach on fourdifferent WNBA All-Star teams. Prior to coaching in the WNBA, Cookserved as an assistant coach with the University of Kansas from1984-93. Cook was part of four Big 8 championship teams that madefour trips to the NCAA tournament. In between his stints withHouston and Kansas, Cook coached two years at Garden City CommunityCollege where he led the program to a No. 12 national juniorcollege ranking.
Cook's international experience is vast, as he has served as theNigeria women's basketball national team head coach for the pastseveral years. He guided Nigeria in the 2006 World Championships inSao Paulo, Brazil. The following year he coached Nigeria in the2007 All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria where Nigeria posted a7-1 record and won the silver medal. In the past five years he hasvisited six African countries where he has hosted basketballfundamental clinics for coaches and players. He also served as acoach of several traveling teams, including teams that havetraveled to Brazil and Russia, and coached a traveling team thatdefeated the University of Connecticut in 2001.
Cook is well regarded for his ability to develop talent at alllevels of the game. LSU Head Coach Van Chancellor, an Olympic andHall of Famer, coached with Cook in Houston for 10 years says; "Ihave been able to watch him teach men and women in high school,college, and the pros. As far as player development, there isnobody better than Kevin Cook!"
"Basketball is basketball," says Cook. "It's the same in theWNBA. The same in Nigeria. The same at Gallaudet. The skill levelis different everywhere, but the game is the same. I'm glad to beat Gallaudet!"
The Fremont, Ohio, native is a proud graduate of UrbanaUniversity (Ohio) where he graduated with a bachelor's degree insocial science in 1983. He received his master's degree fromGallaudet University in May 2010. He also runs the Kevin CookBasketball Academy - www.cookbball.com.
