Ryan Cooper is the new basketball coach at Valley Christian, Cooper said this afternoon.
The Piedmont Hills High grad (Class of 2004) replaces veteran Warriors coach Marcus Martinez. The Warriors went 1-13 in the WCAL last season (9-20 overall) but made the section title game in D-III, losing a close game with Aragon, 61-55.
"It's a good opportunity," Cooper said. "It will be a challenge to turn things around and compete. But the chance to coach in the WCAL at age 27 is just too good to turn down at this point in my career."
Cooper is coming off a successful season at Oak Grove -- his only -- with the Eagles. Oak Grove went 9-5 in league in the BVAL-Mt. Hamilton, but earned an emotional 52-46 victory over Piedmont Hills in the league playoff title game at Independence High.
"He's a great young coach and this is a good opportunity for him," Leigh coach Patrick Judge said of Cooper. "Ryan will bring discipline to that program and you can go to the bank with it that they'll be well-schooled and they'll play hard on defense. He's passionate and I think the kids at Valley will respond well to him."
Cooper moved over to Oak Grove after coaching for five seasons at Del Mar. That's a lot of quality experience for such a young coach.
Cooper will not be teaching at Valley Christian, at least not initially. He is an adaptive P.E. specialist in Fremont Unified of San Jose and will remain there for at least the time being.
Following his playing career at Piedmont Hills, Cooper played college basketball at Division II Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont where he was a point guard.
"We'll be heavy on guards next season, which fits me," Cooper said.
The 2013-2014 Valley Christian team has no statistics posted on MaxPreps.com, but its roster shows the Warriors with 10 players logically returning next season, including five freshmen and one sophomore. That bodes well for the future for Valley.
Also, the frosh Warriors went 11-3 to tie for the league title with Mitty, another good sign for Cooper and Warrior fans.
