Basketball, Soccer
Favorite athlete: Jimmy Butler
Favorite team: 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: In soccer, when I scored the game-tying goal against our league rivals, played interim goalie, got a nosebleed all in one game.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I airballed a three against our league rival, and the whole student section chanted airball every time I touched the ball.
Music on playlist: John Legend – “Never Break” Gladys Knight and the Pips – “Midnight Train to Georgia”
Future plans: Go to a four-year university and study psychology and media studies.
Words to live by: “You get what you work for not what you wish for.”
One goal before turning 30: Go to Australia.
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m a skilled knitter.
By Mary Jane Souder
Gabby Cooper - a talented athlete and top-flight student – has enough activities to fill every hour of the day.
Give the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior some spare time, and chances are she’ll settle in for some good television.
“I just love TV so much,” Cooper said. “I know that’s a cliché, but I could literally sit and watch TV the whole day – TV and movies, either one.
“I like action and drama, that soapy drama, but I think what draws me in is really when you’re so enthralled with the story that you feel like you actually know the characters and people.”
Cooper’s interest in television goes beyond just watching a good show. A gifted writer, the PW senior could well see her name in the credits of a television show one day.
“I think – as of now – I’m majoring in psychology and something relating to creative writing,” she said. “My end goal would be writing for a show like Grey’s Anatomy or The Blacklist.”
According to her coach, those aspirations are not far-fetched.
“She could absolutely do it,” PW basketball coach Dan Dougherty said. “She’s so talented. She’s one of these kids that has so many doors open to her.”
Cooper is a Writing Fellow at PW’s Writing Center, the first and only student-run Writing Center in the Greater Philadelphia Area.
“I help students with their writing, I help them improve their writing abilities and their pieces,” she said.
Cooper, who is in the top 10 percent of her class, has not selected a college, but is considering a list that includes Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia.
“Academically, she can go anywhere she wants,” Dougherty said. “She could go to the Ivy League if she wanted to. Maybe she’ll go to one of the small elite academic schools or maybe she’ll go to a big school. She has options. When you’re that good of a student, you have a lot of options.”
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Cooper is part of an outstanding senior class that has taken the basketball program to new heights. She and Anna McTamney have the rare distinction of being three-year captains.
“There were only a couple of upperclassmen when we were sophomores,” Cooper said. “The mutual respect of the team – everyone wants to just help us win in any way.
“I think everyone kind of has that captain role and is a leader in their own sense, so just having the label obviously means I’m supposed to help everyone else out, but everyone works together in such a great way.”
And that pretty much sums up who Gabby Cooper is - a team player to her very core. She came to the basketball program as a freshman and, by her own admission, wasn’t completely invested.
“It was definitely interesting,” Cooper said. “Starting on jayvee, I was still developing. I wasn’t playing AAU or anything, so I wouldn’t say I was the most committed.
“But once I got moved up to varsity sophomore year – I was kind of a role player. I was there for my defense, but I realized I needed to step up for my team, so I started training a lot more, practicing every day and just expanding my offensive ability too. I want to do anything I can to help us win and improve our chances of winning.”
Cooper caught the eye of her coaches the moment she stepped onto the court as a freshman.
“Her freshman year she came in and is just an incredibly gifted athlete, not necessarily a basketball player, but she has always loved basketball,” Dougherty said. “She has this love for basketball and this love to compete.
“About halfway through her freshman year, we really started to see something in her. She just gave us so much in practice. Sure enough, the next year she comes back as a sophomore and she grew from 5-7 to 5-10 but was still so fast.”
Midway through the season, Cooper was inserted into the starting lineup for a squad that earned a state berth.
“There were a couple of upperclassmen we were starting, but it got to the point halfway through the year – this kid is just too good not to be able to start,” Dougherty said. “We’ve never looked back. She’s started every game since.”
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Cooper grew up in a sports family. Her brother Danny played for the 2018 Plymouth Whitemarsh team that advanced to the District One 6A title game, and Gabby followed in his footsteps. Basketball and soccer were her sports of choice, and she was never really able to pick a favorite – choosing whatever season she happened to be in when asked.
“We actually have a basketball half court in our backyard, so we would play all the time,” Cooper said. “He would always encourage me and say, ‘Let’s go train.’
“I was kind of reluctant, but once I got to ninth grade I caved – ‘Okay, we can go outside.’ Especially during COVID, he’s a trainer so he’s actually helped me a lot improve my game in different ways.”
Cooper has been playing travel basketball and soccer with many of her teammates since she was 12 years old.
“That’s made it all worth it,” she said. “Everything I do is for the team. When I’m working out, I push myself harder so I can be faster to help the team more.
“The team culture – everyone cares so much. From the first player to the last player on the bench, everyone just wants to contribute any way they can. It’s just like playing alongside your best friends. It’s not something I’ll ever experience again, so I really want to cherish it while I can.”
On a PW squad loaded with talent, Cooper is assigned the task of defending the opponent’s best offensive player.
“She will memorize the other team’s plays, she knows everybody else’s responsibility,” Dougherty said. “She just has this intense fire and competitiveness to her that a coach just loves.
“She’s a legit 6-foot tall, almost 6-1, and her wingspan has to be close to 6-5. It’s really impressive. She puts her hands out, moves her feet, and she’s disciplined.”
“I love that role,” Cooper said of being a defensive stopper. “I’m kind of a defense generates offense type player. Knowing you’re guarding the best player on the other team is such a confidence booster.
“It’s just amazing to see the talent of these other players. I know personally I’m not the most skilled offensively, but when I get on the defensive end, I really feel comfortable, I’m in my groove, and that’s how I generate my offense.
It’s the same story on the soccer pitch.
“What I like best about Gabby is she is so versatile,” PW coach Ryan Zehren said. “She can do a number of different things. She’s athletic, so she can play defense, she can guard the other team’s best player and shut them down.
“We put her against D-1 prospects, and she took them out of the game. She does the same thing in basketball. You can put her up against the other team’s best player, and she won’t back down. She’ll never back down from a challenge whatever is asked of her, and she has the ability to do that, so she’s confident in that. She’s got such a confidence about her.”
“I think soccer has definitely helped translate into basketball,” Cooper said. “Just preparing for the soccer season, learning different aspects – defending for soccer and basketball and integrating them together and using that to improve my defensive game has been really helpful.”
Cooper was also a captain of her soccer squad and credits sports for teaching her leadership skills.
“I’ve learned to work with all different types of people and kind of just learned how I lead best and how I communicate best,” she said. “Personally, I’ve realized that I love to lead by example so I don’t necessarily have to say something to lead. I’ll just do it and people will follow.”
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This year’s senior class has paid a high price for the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a profound impact on recruiting since college athletes have been awarded an extra year of eligibility.
“It’s a tough thing, but you have to roll with it,” Dougherty said. “Colleges that are recruiting kids thought they had five scholarships now might not have any.
“What it means is that more kids when they go to college will have to sit for a year or two. Freshmen will have to sit and hit the weight room.”
Cooper acknowledged that she was strongly considering playing collegiate basketball.
“Because of the COVID year, it’s been challenging with scholarships and what not,” she said. “I was looking into it, but it didn’t pan out. I’m certainly going to try and get involved with a team in any way possible. – probably do intramural and manage the team or something along those lines.”
Away from sports, Cooper is a member of the National Honor Society and has been on the distinguished honor roll for seven semesters. She is passionate about her involvement in Best Buddies.
“You form bonds with kids with disabilities, going to after-school events to just becoming friends with them,” she said. ‘To create this whole other community is super awesome and rewarding.”
These days, Cooper is keeping busy as a key member of a PW basketball team with its sights set high. Last year, their successful season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic after the Colonials – the SOL American Conference champions – advanced to PIAA 6A state quarterfinals.
“It was extremely difficult,” Cooper said. “We really thought we could make it all the way to the end. We were ready to play in the state title game and just having the season end like that – it was really hard at first, but it fueled our fire for this year, our redemption year.
“I know personally I tried to work out every day. No matter if it was cold, I would take a run or just work out in my backyard improving my skills. I definitely think the COVID off period was beneficial in some ways. We would FaceTime, and we had multiple Zooms so that was definitely good helping us with our morale through the whole pandemic which has been crazy for everyone.”
The Colonials are currently undefeated, and in her team’s recent 44-43 win over Abington, Cooper sank 1-of-2 foul shots with 1.6 seconds remaining in regulation, breaking a tie and propelling the Colonials to the dramatic win. It’s a memorable moment for an athlete who, according to her coaches, gets it right.
“She’s one of my favorite athletes ever to coach because she’s just so coachable,” Zehren said. “She’s extremely coachable.”
“Her teammates love her,” Dougherty said. “She has quite a personality, and it will be so sad to see her go because she’s a kid you love to coach and be around.”
