Auburn third baseman Kasey Cooper has accomplished just about every possible feat in her four years at Auburn.
Cooper was the SEC Player of the Year in 2016, as well as ESPN women’s athlete of the year. She played internationally for Team USA and has been named to back-to-back First Team All-American teams.
She even finished with a cumulative GPA of 3.98 in mechanical engineering, making just one B in her four years on the Plains. That one B came in the fall semester of her junior year, in a class called “Heat Transfer.”
“My mom told me I was more hirable because they don’t want someone to fail the first time when you work at a nuclear plant,” Cooper said about her only B. “It was a hard semester.”
Among all the accolades and honors, Cooper has struggled compared to her standards during her senior season.
The Dothan, Alabama native has totaled a career-low in all three major hitting categories. She is hitting .301 with 9 home runs and 42 RBI as the seventh-ranked Tigers begin play Thursday in the SEC Tournament.
However, her accolades and her numbers this season do not matter to her. The SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year is chasing the one goal she has yet to accomplish: a national championship.
The Tigers were eliminated in the national semifinals two seasons ago, and fell one game short last season in Oklahoma City. As Auburn enters postseason play, she has turned her full attention to the diamond.
“For once, you have two weeks, three weeks, where we can just have fun and play softball,” Cooper said. “This is the (most fun) moment for me because we get to wake up and get to go workout, then take a break and come to practice. We finally can be 100 percent all softball. It’s so great.”
Auburn head coach Casey Myers knows how special of a player and person Cooper is, and is soaking up every last moment he has with her on the diamond.
“Coop has played many times hurt. Many times, she’s had something most people would have had to sit for,” Myers said. “She’s tough, she loves the game, she expects to be on the field, she wants to be on the field, those are the kind of kids you like.”
Myers’ team is among the hottest in the country entering postseason play, as the Tigers have won six of its last seven games and 11 of its last 13.
“We are peaking at the right time,” Cooper said. “We have a very strong chemistry. It took something to make it happen, to make this glue what it is. We’re starting to peak. We’re starting to find confidence. We’re starting to trust.”
Auburn, the No. 2 seed, will face No. 7 seed Kentucky at 4 p.m. CST Thursday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. The Tigers are looking for their third straight SEC Tournament title, a feat that has never been accomplished. However, Cooper and the Tigers have one larger goal in mind.
“(Cooper) is chasing the one thing she hasn’t been able to accomplish. That’s a national championship,” Myers said. “Only a few special people get that honor. That’s what everybody is driving for. To walk off the field saying I won the last game is a huge accomplishment. That really means a lot to Coop right now.”
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