Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Head Coach Kevin Cooney Enters His 18th Season
8/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Aug. 17, 2004
Boca Raton, FL - What is success? How do we define it? Society defines success in many different ways, mostly by how much money, prestige, power, and influence someone possesses. However, success is not always defined in dictionary definitions. Although head baseball coach, Kevin Cooney possesses many of the successful "qualities" above, he lives his life and coaches his teams according to his own standards, and defines his success in a very refreshing, and unusual way. Read on to find out why he is in his 18th season here at FAU, and why his players and their parents respect him so highly on and off the field.
In the high stakes, high pressure world of college sports, where the public's perception of a winning coach is defined in their win/loss record and not much else, Kevin Cooney is a one of a kind. The first thing one will recognize when talking to him about his "job" is his passion. Passion for making his boys in to all they can be on and off the field. Anyone can look at his statistics and see that Kevin is a winner. This upcoming season he will coach his 1000th FAU baseball game, he's had five appearances in six years at the Regionals, and has coached in Regional games at Division I, II, and III levels, which makes him the only active coach to do this. And these stats are just the tip of the iceberg. But he aspires to do so much more with his players than what his job title entails.
That "refreshing" way that he defines his success comes down to one word, relationships. This is what it is all about to "KC", as many of his players affectionately call him. As he described to me, it is not just about winning, although he obviously knows how to do that. In his own words, he describes the "beauty of this job" to be the fact that he gets to "...take what the parents did for 18 years and help these kids become adults...there is a standard that is voiced... and they will respect me if they know I respect them." He even goes so far as to tell parents that when he is recruiting.
According to him, he does this by using the winning combination of sensitivity, sarcasm and humor, while coaching them the "right way so they can flourish and learn about life, families, and how to be good husbands, and members of the community." He says that a coach's job, in his opinion, is to prepare them for that but not to "hit them over the head with it." His expectations are high. The players must weight train, practice, and go to class; academics are high on his list also. He believes his role is to be a teacher, and mentor, as much as it is to teach them how to win baseball games.
This is proven in the fact that he keeps an online diary to stay connected to his players that have graduated and went on with their lives, as well as anyone else who is interested in reading about what he says is "extremely personal."
FAU baseball is blessed to have a coach with such strong convictions, and he proves that money, prestige, power, and influence can be looked at in a positive light when we see that it comes second to caring, commitment, relationships and humility. Support "KC" and the FAU baseball. To visit the FAU mall visit OTF Mall