Volleyball
Favorite athlete: Nick Foles
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Team nap in the gym after school before an away game.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Having to chase after the volleyball after it bounced off my foot right before serving in a game.
Music on mobile device: Khalid & Post Malone
Future plans: Major in exercise science at college
Word to live by: “We’re here for a good time, not a long time.”
One goal before turning 30: To be financially stable
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m good at remembering what cars my friends and family drive
By Mary Jane Souder
Every team needs an Emily Cooper.
At least that’s the way Scott Coles tells it, and listening the to North Penn volleyball coach explain why players like Cooper are a ‘must have,’ it’s impossible to argue his point.
“When you think about athletes you want on your team, you always want an Emily Cooper,” the Knights’ second-year coach said. “There’s no drama, you don’t worry about them, they’re happy to play, they’re happy to be on the bench and cheer, they’re happy to come to practice, they always have a good attitude, and (they’re) really just ideal all the way around.”
There’s no mistaking that Cooper turned out to be a perfect fit as the setter for Coles' volleyball team, and her story is an interesting one.
Cooper – affectionately known as Coop - was a newcomer to the volleyball team and the school as a sophomore transfer from Lansdale Catholic, and she’s a walking advertisement for the value of participating in sports when you’re the new kid on the block.
“I was very nervous because I didn’t know anyone,” Cooper said. “Especially coming from LC, I grew up with all those people, and I already had my friend group. I went to Catholic school from first to (ninth grade), so I knew mostly everyone there.
“We had 200 kids in my grade and now there’s almost 1200 kids in my grade. I was definitely worried, but I was lucky volleyball was a fall sport because I got to go even before school started, so I got to get used to the school and I made my friends. Basically, my friend group is my volleyball friends.”
As a sophomore, Cooper earned a spot on the jayvee team and the following year was the starting setter for the varsity, a job she held for all of one point in the Knights’ season opener at Abington.
“First set I broke my finger,” Cooper said. “One of the girls passed the ball, and I went to dump it over while jumping and I hurt my pointer finger.
“I knew right away it was not good because I heard something. I was sitting on the bench and I was thinking, ‘Okay, I could go back in, I could go back in,’ but I was like, ‘No, I can’t go back in.’ It was terrible. I was so upset.”
Coles – in his first year at the helm and the program’s fourth coach in four years - remembers it all too well.
“I saw the play and I saw her face,” the Knights’ coach said. “I could tell something was wrong. Here I am subbing her out, and it’s like – ‘Coach, why are you subbing out our setter?’ It was such a fluke thing.”
A visit to Patient First that night confirmed the finger was broken, and Cooper was sidelined after just one set.
“If I was a passer or a hitter, I could still do some things, but I really couldn’t do anything,” Cooper said.
Although she might not have been able to do anything on the court, Cooper was still very much a part of the team.
“It was very difficult but it was also nice because I still went to every practice and every game, and sitting on the bench, I could see different things I didn’t see when I was in the game,” she said. “There were points in the game where I was like, ‘I would dump it over,’ or ‘I would set this person.’ I also learned a lot more about a fire hitter – whoever is hot at the time. It did help me a lot.
“It also helped me serving-wise. It was my left finger, so I could still serve, so that’s when I worked on serving spots. That’s how I learned to perfect my short serve.”
Cooper was able to return for the Knights’ final matches but spent the majority of the season watching from the sidelines.
“She missed so much of that year, but exactly as you would hope, she sat next to me on the bench every match, she came to every practice, she was doing stuff with the team,” Coles said. “It was so valuable for me to have her there. I was finally able to get her back in at the end of the season.”
Needless to say, Cooper was excited to get back on the court for her final high school season.
“We actually had a whole lineup figured out, and it just worked really well,” she said. “We didn’t have to figure out a new coach or anything.”
Despite missing the majority of her junior season, Cooper was elected a captain.
“I didn’t know how much I missed her junior year until she came back as a senior – she’s so good,” Coles said. “Some sports you can just be an athlete and do things and some you have to have a brain. That’s volleyball.
“There are ways to play this sport other than just being a pure athlete. She is so smart. Maybe some of it had to do with sitting next to me on the bench last year, I don’t know, but she’s the one that makes that play when nobody’s looking. She’ll make the crazy play that wins a point and gets the team going.
“More than that, just her presence on the court is what I love about her. She has the pulse of the team. I ask her a question, and she gives me a straight answer. Literally, you see her after a match or after a practice, the girls are around her. You look in the gym and you see – ‘Coop, where are you going after practice?’ ‘Coop, can you give me a ride?’ It’s Coop this, Coop that. She’s always smiling, always knows exactly what’s happening.”
*****
Cooper got her first taste of competitive sports on the soccer pitch. She began playing when she was in kindergarten, and as a student at Mater Dei Catholic School, she played CYO soccer. In fifth grade, at the encouragement of her friends, Cooper began playing volleyball.
“I remember going from my soccer games right to volleyball,” she said. “I realized how much I like volleyball and I just wanted to stick with volleyball.”
In eighth grade, Cooper joined club circuit, and one year later, she tried out for LC’s team.
“The LC volleyball team was really good, so I was really nervous about that,” she said. “I was trying to do as much as I could before that to prepare, to try and make the team. I ended up making the team, and I really enjoyed it.”
One year later, Cooper found herself in an entirely new setting. Despite some initial concerns, it turned out to be a seamless transition, thanks in no small part to volleyball.
“She’s literally the perfect example of an athlete who doesn’t let the moment be too big for them and gets it,” Coles said. “She’s so smart. Her serving – you can be an athlete and just whale the ball, but she puts the ball in places where it makes the other team make mistakes, and that’s part of the reason why she’s so good.
“As a setter, she’s somebody who’s touching the ball all the time – you want her touching the ball all the time because she’s going to do good things with it.”
Cooper is also one of the managers of the boys’ volleyball team. Away from volleyball, she is involved in student government as a member of the senate. She also is part of the club that is planning Mini-THON.
Cooper has applied to West Chester, East Stroudsburg, Delaware, Temple and Penn State. She will major in exercise science and plans to continue playing volleyball at either the intramural or club level.
As for a possible career choice, Cooper is keeping her options wide open.
“Maybe athletic training or physical therapy or even a gym teacher or coaching,” she said.
For now, Cooper is making the most of her final year of high school.
“Being part of a big school, it’s easy to get swallowed up in the school,” she said. “I feel like being part of one of the programs in the school has helped me make friends and look at different things in the school.
“Some people will say how much they don’t like school or something, and I just realize how much I love North Penn.”
