Keith Cooper

Coach Cooper has been the Head Coach at Saint Martin’s since 2003. Cooper is no stranger to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference having spent a season as Jeff Hironaka’s top assistant at Seattle Pacific and the two previous seasons in the same capacity at Central Washington.  Cooper, who has over 24 years coaching experience, started out as an assistant coach at Juanita High School under former Central Washington Head Coach Gil Coleman.  Cooper was then assistant at Shoreline Community College for two seasons.  From there he went on to Pacific Lutheran University, where he served as assistant coach to Bruce Haroldson for four years. 

Cooper got his first head-coaching job at Decatur High School in 1995.  In five seasons as their head coach he guided the Gators to five post-season appearances, finishing with a 75-54 overall record.  Decatur appeared in three 4A state tournaments under Cooper, finishing second in state in 1996.  Also in 1996 Decatur won the West Central District Championship.  Cooper was named “All Area” Coach of the year in 1999.  He played college basketball at College of the Siskiyous and Tacoma CC.

Since coming to SMU Coach Cooper has guided the Saints to Back-to-Back winning seasons for the first time in 18 years. In the past 5 years the Saints are 73-67 under Cooper which is 5th in the GNAC for the past 5 years. In addition to winning on the court, under Cooper the Saints have done a great job in the classroom. In 2011 the Saints posted a 3.12 team GPA, the 4th time in the past 5 years that they have been above a 3.0 team GPA. It also marks the 6th straigh year all seniors have graduated. The graduation rate under Coach Cooper is now 91% (20-22). They won the conference men’s basketball academic title in 2006-07. 

In addition to his coaching duties Coach Cooper is the NABC West Region representative for the National Coaches Poll. In addition to speaking at several coaching clinics, he has also had numerous coaching articles published and is a member of the editorial advisory board of Winning Hoops Magazine. 

Cooper graduated from Morton High School in 1982, where he was a four-year letterman and three time All Conference basketball player.  He earned his AA degree from Tacoma CC, a Social Studies Education degree from Seattle Pacific and a Masters in Athletic Administration from Pacific Lutheran in 1993.  He and his wife Linda (an All American basketball player at Seattle Pacific) have been married since August 1989.  They are the proud parents of one son, Keith Owen, who was born May 24, 2001 and his best friend, a chocolate lab named Eddie Bow Wow.