Rob Cooper

Rob Cooper
Sport(s) Baseball
Current position
Title Head coach
Team Penn State
Conference Big Ten
Record 18-32
Playing career
1990–1991
1992–1993
Sacramento City College
Miami (FL)
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1994–1995
1996
1997–1998
1999–2003
2004
2005–2013
2014–Present
Miami (FL) (Asst.)
Wake Forest (Asst.)
Tulane (Asst.)
Sacramento City College (Asst.)
Oral Roberts (Asst.)
Wright State
Penn State
Head coaching record
Overall 304–262

Rob Cooper is an American college baseball coach, currently serving as the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions baseball program. He was named to that position prior to the start of the 2014 season.[1][2]

Early life

Cooper played baseball at Sacramento City College for two years before transferring to the University of Miami for his final two years. He served as a student assistant coach at Miami in 1994 while finishing his degree. From 1990–1992, Cooper worked as a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers.[1][3]

Coaching career

Cooper earned a graduate assistant coach position at Miami for the 1995 season before moving to Wake Forest for the 1996 season. He then coached for two seasons at Tulane, where he helped lead the Green Wave to a conference regular season crown in 1997 and an NCAA berth in 1998. He then returned to Sacramento City College, serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for five seasons.[4] Cooper then served one season as an assistant at Oral Roberts before being named head coach at Wright State. In nine seasons, Cooper led the Raiders to seven 30-win seasons, two Horizon League and three Horizon League Baseball Tournament championships, and three NCAA Division I Baseball Championship appearances.[1] Prior to his arrival, the Raiders had finished six of the previous seven seasons with losing records.[4] In August 2013, Cooper was named head coach at Penn State, a similar rebuilding job to what he faced at Wright State.

Head coaching record

This table shows Cooper's record as a head coach at the Division I level.[1]

Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Wright State Raiders (Horizon League) (2005–2013)
2005 Wright State 26–33 11–9 4th
2006 Wright State 32–27 17–13 3rd Corvallis Regional
2007 Wright State 36–22 21–9 2nd
2008 Wright State 30–23 16–6 2nd
2009 Wright State 33–30 14–12 3rd Forth Worth Regional
2010 Wright State 31–25 17–6 1st
2011 Wright State 36–19 16–7 T-1st College Station Regional
2012 Wright State 37–21 20–10 2nd
2013 Wright State 25–30 9–12 4th
Wright State: 286–230 141–84
Penn State (Big Ten) (2014–present)
2014 Penn State 18–32 5–18 11th
Penn State: 18–32 5-18
Total: 304–262

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Rob Cooper Biography". Wright State Raiders. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  2. Travis Johnson (August 9, 2013). "Penn State baseball: Rob Cooper hired to lead Nittany Lions, excited about future". Centre Daily Times. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  3. "Wright State's Rob Cooper Named 2013 18U National Team Manager". Horizon League. January 6, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Brian Foley (August 9, 2013). "Penn State names Rob Cooper as head coach". College Baseball Daily. Retrieved September 6, 2013.