Head Coach Rob Cooper COACHING TIMELINE Spring 1994 & 1995: Cooper's first coaching job is as an assistant at the University of Miami, starting with the 1993 season. That Hurricanes team reached the NCAA Regionals before making back-to-back trips to the College World Series the next two seasons. May 17, 1998: Following a regular-season Conference USA Championship in his first year on staff the previous season, Cooper helps guide Tulane to a Conference USA Tournament Championship and NCAA Regional berth. 1999-2003: Sacramento City College wins league championships in all five years Cooper serves as an assistant coach. Spring 2004: Oral Roberts sets a program record for wins in a season with Cooper on staff as an assistant coach. July 14, 2004: Wright State announces Cooper as the program’s fourth head coach. May 28, 2006: Cooper’s Raiders defeat Butler in the Horizon League Championship game to earn a trip to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 1994. April 15, 2008: Cooper wins his 100th career game in a 5-1 victory over Xavier. May 24, 2009: Wright State defeats UIC in the Horizon League Tournament Championship game 6-2 to punch an NCAA Regional ticket to Fort Worth, Texas. May 25, 2010: Cooper is selected as the Horizon League Coach of the Year after leading the Raiders to their first regular-season championship since 1997. March 26, 2011: Cooper records career win number 200 with an 8-2 victory over Youngstown State. Spring 2011: The Raiders win their second-straight Horizon League regular-season title with a 16-7 record, claim the league tournament crown by winning three-straight games and advance to the NCAA Regionals in College Station, Texas. August 9, 2013: Cooper accepts Penn State’s offer to become the 14th head coach in program history. September 8, 2013: The 18U U.S. National Team, led by Cooper, wins the 2013 IBAF ‘AAA’/18U World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan with a 3-2 victory over Japan in the championship game. October 29, 2013: Cooper is honored by USA Baseball as the Rod Dedeaux USA Baseball Coach of the Year. November 21-29, 2015: Penn State tours Cuba and posts a 1-3 record against teams from Cuba’s top league, the National Series, becoming the first U.S. team to play multiple teams from the league and the first to earn a victory. May 20, 2016: Cooper clinches his 350th career head coaching win when Penn State earns a 12-inning, walk-off win over Iowa in the season finale to clinch its first winning season since 2012.
Penn State baseball’s trip to Cuba prior to the 2016 season is perhaps the best example of Cooper’s commitment to the first part of the “student-athlete” term. The Nittany Lions attended academic lectures and toured Havana, becoming the first NCAA Division I team to compete against a Cuban National Series team, the first U.S. team at any level to defeat a Cuban National Series team, the first U.S. baseball team to play in Cuba since restoration of diplomatic ties with Cuba, the second NCAA team to play in Cuba since restoration of diplomatic ties (Coastal Carolina men's basketball, August 2015) and the fifth NCAA Division I baseball team to compete in post-revolutionary Cuba. The harmony between academics and athletics was on full display, as multiple Penn State professors and a group of journalism students also joined the travel party. The rare, once-in-a-lifetime experience helped bring a young Penn State team together, and the Lions went on to earn their first winning record (overall and in conference) since 2012. The starting lineup included at least three freshmen in all but six games and five to six freshmen in 19 games, and took on nine eventual NCAA tournament teams, including a three-game series at home against College World Series participant TCU. The Lions’ 28 wins were a 10-win improvement over the previous season, and its 12 Big Ten wins doubled the 2015 total and was one more than the previous two seasons combined. The season ended with a 12-inning, walk6
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off victory. Haley and Anderson were the first drafted out of Penn State since 2012, and Anderson and senior outfielder Greg Guers became the program’s first All-Big Ten picks also since 2012. Pitcher Justin Hagenman became Penn State’s first Louisville Slugger AllAmerican since 1997. With four completed seasons at Penn State, his student-athletes have earned Academic All-Big Ten honors 39 times, including Anderson, who in 2016 became the first Nittany Lion in six years to be named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team. As a military history buff, Cooper’s speeches to the team often include historical references. He even arranged to have the team visit the headquarters of the Navy SEAL Team VI headquarters and speak with a pair of Navy SEALs – one a Penn State alum – during a travel day on the team’s 2015 spring break trip. The Lions started making gains during his second season in Happy Valley in 2015. Penn State totaled 18 wins against a schedule ranking in the bottom third nationally during his inaugural campaign in 2014, but rose to the challenge the following season, matching the previous season’s 18 wins despite playing a schedule that ranked in the upper third in difficulty and involved 10 games against top25 opponents. The Nittany Lions rallied from a 7-0 deficit against No. 21 Indiana for their first win over a ranked opponent in three seasons and gave eighth-ranked Illinois its biggest scare during its record winning streak, battling for 15 innings. Penn State ultimately