University of Tennessee Athletics
Cooper Honored as Thirty Under 30 Recipient
February 24, 2012 | Volleyball
Feb. 24, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - University of Tennessee volleyball assistant coach Rachel Cooper, who just completed her first season with the Lady Vols, was selected as an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Thirty Under 30 recipient.
Originally created in 2009, the award honors up-and-coming coaching talent at all levels of the sport.
"I'm excited about Rachel's recognition in the Thirty Under 30 AVCA Award," Tennessee head volleyball coach Rob Patrick said. "She has really put in a tremendous amount of time and energy into this profession, working for five years at ETSU before coming over to Tennessee and working with us in many different facets of our program."
Hired in May of 2011, Cooper arrived at Rocky Top after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at East Tennessee State after two years as a graduate assistant with the Buccaneers. Before coaching, the Roscoe, Ill., product was four-year letter winner at Mississippi State, starting at outside hitter for the Bulldogs. She was tabbed the MSU team captain twice, while also earning MVP honors.
In her first year at Tennessee, Cooper and the Lady Vols captured the programs first outright Southeastern Conference championship, while four members of the team were named AVCA All-Americans. The Big Orange also finished the season with a No. 19 national ranking and its record of 28-4 was the most wins since UT went 32-3 in 2004.
"She did a wonderful job of handling a lot of the ball control parts of our game, which really had a huge effect on us being SEC champions this season," Patrick said. "She has been somebody that puts a lot of energy into everything she does and has a tremendous work ethic that allows her to be successful in all the different facets that she's involved with here at Tennessee."
The Lady Vol offense ranked in the top 10 in the country in both kills and hitting percentage, as its average of 14.53 kills per set was the seventh-best and its hitting clip of .273 rated eighth.
"I love this award!" AVCA Executive Director, Kathy DeBoer said. "And even more, I love how our membership has embraced this award. The number of nominees now ranks in the hundreds, and they are coming from all parts of our membership, bright, hard-working, passionate, talented young volleyball coaches!"
Of the 30 recipients, 19 are head coaches and 11 are assistant coaches. Ten are NCAA Division I women's coaches, four coach NAIA squads, four are NCAA Division III and another four for high school. There are also three NCAA Division II recipients along with three Club coaches and two Two-Year College coaches.
