Teddy in ‘da house

Drew Scalet
February 16, 2010
Filed under Profiles

Andrew Scalet

While pumping up his sneakers and lacing up his pants, Theodore Cooper gets ready to command the basketball team. It is Cooper’s first year to manage the boy’s basketball team.

“Basketball is cool, and I am cool, so it’s a good fit,” Cooper said.

Cooper has been watching basketball his whole life and playing for some of it. He played basketball throughout middle school and has always loved the game of basketball.

“I was good at basketball, I was the sharpshooter for four years on the Monte Cassino Saints basketball team,” Cooper said. “Mr. Hudgen’s is probably my role model, he has the greatest hair, and he shaved his legs which kept him really aerodynamic on the basketball court, also Tracy Moore because I was living vicariously through him and his NBA career.”

Last summer, Cooper took on the job of being the next manager of the boys basketball team. He has always wanted to be the manager of the basketball team ever since he was little; it takes on a great amount of responsibility to do this job.

“I hold the clipboard, it’s really hard, and I also lock the doors and open them and occasionally take down the basketball goals,” Cooper said. “Sometimes I don’t have to do anything”.

It is mandatory for Cooper to go to every practice and game. Basketball practices are everyday after school until 5:00 p.m., so Cooper spends most of his time in the gym with the team, and sometimes running and working out with the team.

“Well, during practices I get the gym ready and I put down all the goals so the team can play for the day. Also, I get the basketballs for the team on rare occasions,” Cooper said.

Some of Cooper’s best friends are on the team, but Cooper doesn’t give them special treatment. In Cooper’s mind all the players on the team are good but he says some are better than others.

“Samuel Hinson is a great part of this team, he has the best heart and a willingness to dive for the loose ball and dunk the basketball which pumps up the team,” Cooper said.

Cooper may not think he is very important to the team, but Coach D thinks otherwise.

“His job is to help get the gym ready for practices and games, his main job is handing the marker board to Coach Limes during games which are a lot more stressful than you can imagine,” D said. “He is a great manager; he does a lot of the smaller tasks that always help the players play and the coaches’ coach.”

Junior Ned Dowdell and many other players think that Cooper does a great job managing the team.

“Ted is always there for the team when we are down, we need him, when we are thirsty on the

bench he gets us water, his job allows us to play the game of basketball,” Dowdell said.

The coaches and players hope that Cooper will manage the team next year.

“I am going for managing every team next year so I can have a lot of free blocks,” Cooper said.