St. Thomas Senior Associate AD Amy Olson-Cooper has spent most of her adult life making history. But she quickly admits this wasn’t her original intent after graduating from Minneapolis Washburn High School.
“I took Japanese [in college] — I was an international business major and so I thought I was going to be working in business. But I realized my junior year that business was not for me and that I had to do something that had to do with sports,” Olson-Cooper told the MSR during halftime of a Tommies women’s basketball game on Feb. 5.
Earlier that day at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, Olson-Cooper received the 2025 Wilma Rudolph Courage Award from the Minnesota Coalition of Women in Athletic Leadership for “an individual who courageously overcame physical challenges in their pursuit of sports to help ensure future opportunities for girls and women, regardless of their physical ability” at the annual National Girls and Women in Sports Minnesota Day.
At Washburn, Olson-Cooper was a standout multi-sport athlete, where she earned all-conference, all-metro and all-state honors in soccer; all-conference in swimming and diving; and four-time all-conference selection in track & field. She competed at Howard University, where she was the soccer team’s co-MVP three straight years and twice all-conference as the first HBCU soccer player to do this.
Olson-Cooper also played semi-pro soccer but her career was halted after being diagnosed with lupus, compartment leg syndrome, and Stage 4 arthritis in both knees.
Coaching then became her primary focus. “I would come here in the summers and coach youth [soccer] teams,” she recalled. “I found that the Southwestern Athletic Conference was starting up soccer, and I actually reached out to all the athletic directors in the SWAC asking anyone needing help.
“Prairie View A&M reached back and said I could help as a grad assistant (2002-04),” noted Olson-Cooper, who later was a head coach at South Carolina State (2004-06) and Southwest Minnesota State (2008-11). But she also soon discovered that coaching took a toll on her in many ways.
“I got my first head coaching job at 23. I was too young,” she admitted. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t ready.”
But as she left coaching, athletic administration became her next career move, one that has been very rewarding, said Olson-Cooper. She was hired at Trinity Washington (DC) University in 2012, first as assistant AD then elevated to AD (five years total). Then she was hired at Howard as associate AD and senior women’s administrator (2018-21).
As an administrator, Olson-Cooper championed diversity and inclusion, and equal opportunities for athletes, especially Blacks and other student-athletes of color.
“As a coach, I thought about the soccer team, my student-athletes and our program,” stressed Olson-Cooper. “And when I got into administration, I just realized there’s a lot more going on here than just playing the game. I think that’s where my niche was.
“Now I’m able to utilize my business degree along with my love for sports, and I still get to be around student athletes,” she said.
UST hired Olson-Cooper in 2021, where she oversees the department’s gender equity, finance, administration and compliance. She also advises the university’s Black Student Athlete group and offers support and guidance to underrepresented athletes too. She is the only Black female in senior athletic administration.
“I was really excited when St. Thomas went Division I. I kept looking and hoping that a job would open up that fit my skill set. And then it did,” said Olson-Cooper. “I was on my honeymoon in Maui. I did see the job [posting] and told my husband when we get back, I’m applying for this job.
“It worked out great and I’m just really happy to be here. It’s exciting to be part of history here,” she said. “I feel like in my career, I ended up being the first or making history…
“I appreciate sports in Minnesota, and I’m just really grateful to be back home and a part of progress in Minnesota for women’s sports.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.