Coaching While Black
This occasional series will highlight Black coaches at all levels of sport. This week: Oral Roberts WBB Coach Cophie Anderson.
Cophie Anderson, when asked, will admit that her journey from college player to the 12th head coach in Oral Roberts University women’s basketball history was not planned because she never set out to be a head coach.
“I just remember my senior year was very much drama-filled and almost soap opera-ish,” recalled Anderson (then Cophie Moore), a guard/forward at Fresno State (2001-05), a three-time Western Athletic Conference All-Academic. Basketball, she noted, “was definitely not anything I wanted to be a part of any longer.
“It was a lot. So, I just wanted to be done, but God has different plans,” said Anderson, now a wife and mother of three children, and now in her first HC position at ORU.
Anderson began coaching as an assistant at Division II Southwestern Oklahoma State in 2009, where she helped the program make the NCAA DII tournament seven times and four conference tournaments, including a national title game appearance in 2014. She joined former coach Kelsi Musick at ORU three years ago and was promoted to associate head coach.
After this season Musick left to take the Arkansas HC job, and Anderson was promoted as her successor in March. She talked to the MSR earlier this month.
“It was just a long week, a long process,” said Anderson on the interviewing process, which
also included the school president. “You just never know what questions are going to be asked.”
The final interview session was with Dr. William Wilson. “He just wanted to know the vision that I had for our student athletes and the women that I would be around every single day,” she said. “Being the last person that I needed to talk to before the decision was made was just nerve wracking all in itself, but such a great conversation.
“When I left that office, you could see your love of Christ through the president’s eyes. I couldn’t be more happy to be a part of something big here, and much bigger than basketball,” says Anderson, who becomes the fourth Black female HC in the Summit League.
Along with three Black MBB head coaches in the conference, the Summit League has more Black coaches total than the Big Ten (Coquese Washington at Rutgers).
Now in the first seat, Anderson said it’s a matter of faith and ability.
“I pray about everything and that’s the only way to get through it,” she stressed. “Your faith is the only way to get through it. I pray for our student athletes, I pray for people that are involved in our program, and I pray for the young ladies that I’m going to impact daily.
“We’re around these young ladies 10 months out of the year…so I take my responsibility very seriously. I wouldn’t do it any other way, and that’s how I’ve done it as an assistant, and that’s how I live my life. It’s just who I am.”
More importantly, being a Black female head coach is a serious responsibility, says Anderson. “I’m up for a challenge every single day, and what an opportunity I’ve been given.
“I pray that it’s for young women that look like me, or for young women in general of any color that if you have a dream and you continue to work at it, there’s an opportunity for you. And if God is willing to open that door, you walk in like a model.
“I’ve earned this not just because I’m Black. I earned this because I worked hard for it. I just pray that I am a good example for young people…and that I’m as good a role model as I could be.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.