Cookeville volleyball coach Karen Brooks retires – High School Volleyball news
As all things come to an end and so has the career of Karen Brooks, the volleyball coach of Cookeville Volleyball team. Brooks has officially stepped down from her post this Monday, May 30.
Brooks has a long history with the school as her career grew with the student body. Her professional stay at Cookeville spans a period of 31 years. During this time, Brook has given her heart and soul to Cookeville.
Brooks stepped down from her coaching position during the annual banquet held at the school. She made the following comments about what was going through her mind at having to let go as coach: "I haven't turned in any keys in 31 years. As a coach and teacher
coming back, you don't turn those in. That was a little emotional. And some people that have been real dear to me over the years, that was tough."
Volleyball is not the only sport that Brooks had involved herself with. She has been coaching basketball, softball, track and tennis as well. In her diversification, Brooks did not limit herself to becoming the coach of the girls teams, the boys have also
had the opportunity to come under her guidance.
Brooks started off her career in an assistant position. She coached as an assistant to coach Bill Davidson for the boys basketball team. She had just graduated from Tennessee Tech at that time and after gaining some professional experience in coaching, Brooks
went off to Tech again to pursue her master’s degree.
After resuming her coaching career when Brooks was done with her master’s, she got the chance to become head coach for the softball team at Cookeville. However, it was not until 1986 did Brooks get a chance to prove her mettle in volleyball. Before her transition
into volleyball, Brooks got involved in girls track for some time. She made the decision to leave the sport as there were some safety issues that Brooks was not comfortable with.
Once she got into the volleyball program, she put in a lot of effort to develop and upgrade it. According to Brooks, there were times when about a 150 aspiring young candidates would come for tryouts and Brooks would shortlist the amount to a handful of
30. Interestingly, she stuck with that number all through her career as Brooks thinks that at such a developing age, harnessing the potential of the young athletes is the best thing to do.
Now with Brooks no longer officially the coach of Cookeville volleyball team, the torch has passed on to Jackie Cox, who had been coaching the team as an assistant.
When asked about her retirement plans, Brooks did not say anything definitive except to work on a project with her husband, Danny.
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