Photo Courtesy: Jay Ruzicka
Caitlin Cooper, also known as “Coop” is a student athlete here on campus. She is a junior exercise science major hoping to be a physical therapist after she graduates. Coop states, “I want to be able to help people overcome obstacles and injuries by improving their physical health.” Not only is she working hard in her classes, but she also works even harder on the volleyball court.
Coop was raised in a small town in New Hampshire. She played volleyball, basketball, and ran track in high school. She was a natural athlete winning many awards throughout her four years there. For track, she received two awards, the “Outstanding Freshman Award” and “Outstanding Senior Award.” She also received “Most Impactful Player” in her junior year basketball season and “Most Valuable Player” during her senior season of volleyball.
Athletics had always been part of her life, so she knew she wanted to continue playing in college, but the question was, where? Coop's first interest in playing sports in college was originally at Keene State for track but ultimately decided Dean College was a better fit because she could play both volleyball and basketball.
In the season opener of her freshman year Coop played in her very first collegiate volleyball match. She started as one of the middle blockers on the team alongside Sari Albury. Coop played all five sets of the long match racking up seven kills with only one error, giving her a hitting percentage of 0.462%. In her first-ever collegiate volleyball game, she walked away with the highest hitting percentage of the night from the team. She worked hard the remainder of the season ending with 90 kills total after 29 games played. This is an outstanding performance for a first-year athlete.
Following volleyball Coop began to train for the upcoming basketball season. With nearly no break between the end of volleyball season and the start of basketball season, it was a fast transition. She continued to train in the gym now shifting her priorities. After a long draining basketball season ended Coop realized she didn’t have a love for the sport anymore. The season didn’t quite go as planned for both the players and the coaches and it took a toll on those athletes. Coop decided for the following years to focus her time and energy on volleyball instead of wearing herself out mentally and physically.
After a bit of a tougher sophomore volleyball season, Coop gained another 65 kills on the season. She stated, “Like a lot of other college athletes I struggled with confidence on the court and having a strong mindset. Volleyball is a big mental game so being mentally tough was something I tried to work on throughout my sophomore season.”
As of now, Coop has 96 kills on the season with six regular season games still to go. She is pushing the mark to record over 100 kills in just one season. She is setting new personal best records and surpassing all of her stats from years prior. In her most recent two games Coop had eight and six kills respectively with zero errors. Her best hitting percentage of her career was recorded against Elms College, with six kills, and zero errors, on nine attempts, giving her a .667 hitting percentage.
With a handful of games left in the season, the Dean Bulldogs look to make their first-ever GNAC conference play appearance on November 11th, 2024.
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