Coach Jon Cook
Hi and welcome to Basketball and Life: With Coach Jon Cook! I am your host, Jon Cook. I began a lifelong love affair with basketball while growing up on my family farm in rural northwest Ohio, near the tiny town of Alger.
Having an identical twin brother and in living in a somewhat basketball crazy area of the Buckeye state allowed me almost constant opportunity to play the game both formally and informally. However, growing up with a mild form of cerebral palsy caused by complications of a significantly premature birth, also made playing the game that I was coming to love almost irrationally, a very difficult task. It was clear relatively early in my life that I was never going to have the dexterity and athleticism to play the game at any significant level. In fact, I played very, very sparingly on junior high teams that lost a total of one game in two years. I was first cut from a team in the 9th grade, and this came following the summer in which I felt for the first time that coaching basketball is my calling in life.
My largely unsuccessful struggle to play this game that I was falling more and more in love with every day, coupled with a new found passion for the art of coaching, brought my first personal experience with the often-contentious relationship between Basketball and Life. I had no idea at the age of approximately 14 just where this relationship might lead me. After being cut again as a sophomore and a junior in high school, I made the decision before my senior year of high school that getting an early start on my coaching career was probably my best option for making my developing dream a reality.
I had actually spent part of my junior year coaching youth basketball at the YMCA in Lima, and tagging along with our high school coach learning to scout opponents. I began working youth camps and my senior year of high school I assisted with our high school girls’ team. I was hooked! When college began, I was blessed to have some help from my first mentor, Dave Eyl, who was the coach at Allen East High School. He helped connect me with the coaching staff at Ohio Northern University, and I became a student manager for the Polar Bears and coaches Gale Daugherty and the late Joe Campoli. My final year of college, 1994-95 (which was year 5 for those of you who are keeping track), I coached the junior varsity basketball team at Ada High School. After college, in fact just a few months after graduating, I was named the head boys basketball coach at Ada, and believed that my life as a coach was underway. I spent three seasons leading that program and then took the first of many unscripted steps that have created a circuitous route through Basketball and Life that is truly unique.
For various reasons, my journey has been anything but what I would have scripted for myself. However, it has resulted in a deep appreciation and sincere respect for the genuinely unique stories that are the journeys of all who love this wonderful game. In light of that appreciation and respect, it is my joy to share with you as many stories as I can I hope you enjoy our conversations about Basketball and Life. Thanks for listening!
Ohio Northern University:
Student Assistant
Ada High School:
Head Coach
1990-1994
1995-1998
Jackson Center High School:
Head Coach
1999-2001
Bluffton University:
Assistant Coach
2005-2008
Ohio Northern University Women:
Assistant Coach
2014-2016
2018-2019
Ada High School:
Head Coach
2020-2021
1994-1995
1998-1999
2002-2004
2013-2014
2019-2020
Present