AMARILLO – Alongside his daughter, former Wayland Baptist basketball player, coach and athletics director Rick Cooper recently was inducted into the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame here.
Cooper was inductee No. 198 in the PSHOF’s 65th annual ceremony held Sunday, while inductee No. 199 was Rick and former WBU Flying Queen Janie Denton Cooper’s daughter Kori Clements Cooper, a former volleyball standout at Amarillo High and Nebraska who later coached high school volleyball and now serves as a speech pathologist at Canyon ISD while pursuing a doctorate.
Rick Cooper most recently served as Wayland’s athletics director from 2014-2021 and was named Sooner Athletic Conference Athletic Director of the Year in 2018. That followed his time as a player, assistant coach and head coach in the Pioneer basketball program.
Cooper also spent 20 years as head coach at West Texas A&M University and two years as chief of staff for men’s basketball at Texas Tech.
Cooper, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Wayland in 1981 and a graduate degree in 1985, received the Harley Redin Coach’s Award in 2002, was enshrined in the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor in 2012, and earlier this year was recognized as one of WBU’s 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award winners.
source: wbuathletics.com