Coaching Staff

Casey Cooke, Assistant Coach
Second Year (Southern Utah, 2005)

Former SUU standout Casey Cooke returned to the Thunderbird program as an assistant coach in 2006 and will begin her second year. Cooke’s responsibilities include the fundamental development of the T-Bird backcourt, recruiting, on-floor practice duties, game preparation and fall conditioning workouts.

“I am very honored to work under such a great coach such as Coach Hodson and to work with such talented young ladies that we have here,” Cooke said. “I have learned so much from Coach Hodson the past three years and am very excited to learn even more. Hopefully one day I will be able to take a head coaching position and be half the coach he is and has been.”

Coach Cooke was instrumental in the first full recruiting class during the Hodson era. In 2006-2007 the Thunderbirds signed three high school McDonald’s All-American nominees from the state of Utah, the Southwest Player of the Year in Arizona and one of the top point guards in the state of Nevada.

Coach Cooke rejoined the Thunderbird program after a stellar two-year career at Southern Utah from 2002-04. Cooke was a first team all-Mid-Continent Conference selection in 2003-04, when she helped lead the T-Birds to a school Division I-record 18 wins (18-10). She led the team in scoring (13.8 ppg) and assists (5.03 apg) that season and broke SUU’s single-season steals record with 93 in 28 games. She finished her two-year career averaging 14.29 points a game, which is ranked fourth all-time in school history, and is SUU’s career leader in 3-point percentage (39.49%). Cooke also stands third all-time in career steals (163) and is tied for fifth in career assists (220).

Prior to coming to SUU, she played two seasons at Snow Junior College, where she garnered Scenic West Athletic Conference MVP and second team All-American honors in 2001.

She began her basketball coaching career at Canyon View High School as an assistant to Coach Hodson and served as head coach of the sophomore team.

Coach Cooke, a native of Parowan, Utah, graduated from SUU with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 2005. She is single and currently resides in Cedar City.