Cynthia Cooper NBA Star

Olympic medalist Cynthia Cooper ‘86 signed on as head women’s basketball coach at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas in 2005, she took over a program that had never experienced a winning season in more than two decades of Division I play. And that was fine with her.
“I decided that this would be a perfect situation for me,” Cooper says. “I’d get a chance to stay at home [near Houston]. I’d get a chance to hopefully try and recruit some of the top talent to a historically black university and turn this program around.”
No one knows more about “turning things around” than Cooper, who grew up in Watts, one of eight children. “I had a lot of negative influence around me, constantly showing me the path that I did not want to take,” she says. “The negatives became my inspiration to really help motivate me to get out of the inner city and out of that environment.” A determined Cooper found refuge and opportunity in sports, initially volleyball and track, then later basketball. Her hard work on the court paid off – with a much-appreciated scholarship to USC.
“I tell people I grew up at USC,” says Cooper, a member of the 1983 and 1984 NCAA championship teams that included phenom Cheryl Miller. “It really opened my eyes to a totally different world, a world that you’re somewhat shut off from as an inner-city kid.”

Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper