Editor's note: To date, there are as many as 21 Eastern athletic alumni currently serving as head coaches at four-year colleges in seven states located as far south as Florida and as far west as Missouri in ten different sports ranging from field hockey and cross country to baseball and men's soccer (see complete list below). Ironically, three of the newest coaches on that list have set up shop within a stone's throw (less than five miles) of one another in the shoreline city of New London, with two of them literally within shouting distance as colleagues with offices under the roof of the Yarnall Athletic Center. Former softball teammates Erin Miller '15 of Waterford and Arielle Cooper '13 of Mystic and women's lacrosse letterwinner Devyne Doran '17 of South Kingstown, RI are all newly-minted college head coaches after standout four-year careers at Eastern. Miller is a former Little East Conference Pitcher-of-the-Year, Cooper a two-time NFCA All-America third baseman and Doran a two-time LEC Defensive Player-of-the-Year and a senior selection to the prestigious IWLCA Farewell Lacrosse Festival national all-star game. Miller and Doran recently completed their second seasons at Mitchell College (first full, discounting the COVID season of 2020), while Cooper was named interim head coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy prior to the 2021 season. Prior to being named interim head coach at Coast Guard, Cooper led her high school alma mater (Fitch of Groton) to two state titles before replacing Miller – an Eastern Connecticut Conference rival in high school – as a CGA assistant when the latter left Coast Guard to accept a graduate assistantship at Smith College. Miller was profiled in this space nine days ago. Cooper is being profiled today and Doran's story will appear in early August.


WILLIMANTIC, Conn. -- For former Eastern Connecticut State University softball All-America Arielle Cooper, it took leaving one comfort zone to find a second.
 
Soon after earning first-team NFCA All-America softball recognition as a senior at Eastern in the spring of 2013, Cooper retreated to her hometown of Mystic, where she joined the softball coaching staff of her alma mater -- Fitch High School in Groton.
 
First as a player and later as a coach at Fitch, Cooper was part of three state championship teams. As a senior in 2009 -- before moving on to a celebrated career at Eastern --  Cooper was the starting third baseman on a 24-3 team which upset Masuk High and All-America pitcher Rachele Fico in the Class "LL" title game.
 
After returning to Fitch in 2013 following the completion of her Eastern career, she then proceeded to win state championships in her first two seasons as head coach of the Falcons.
 
Inserted as interim head coach in 2014 when Kate Prpich was away on maternity leave, Cooper punctuated a one-loss season with the Class "L" championship (a team which included current Eastern All-America Cassie Woods), earning honors as New Haven Register Coach-of-the-Year in the process
 
Upon Prpich's return in 2015, Cooper remained on as an assistant coach when Fitch reached another state final, losing to East Haven this time.

 

Named as the permanent head coach in 2016 when Prpich opted not to return, Cooper made it 2-for-2 as head coach with another Class "L" championship, this time amassing a perfect 27-0 record with the No.-1 ranked Falcons en route to CIAC Coach-of-the-Year honors.
 
Fully entrenched at her alma mater after winning championships as both a player and coach before the age of 26, Cooper had settled in for a long, successful – and yes, comfortable --  coaching tenure in Groton.
 
Or so it seemed.
 
While at Fitch, Cooper had developed a professional relationship with Donna Koczajowski, the veteran head softball coach at the neighboring U.S. Coast Guard Academy, located on the west side of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge which connects Groton and New London.
 
With Cooper playing her high school softball on the east side of the Thames River, Coach K was able to keep tabs on her scholastic career in the local papers. When Cooper moved on to Eastern, Coach K had a first-hand look at Cooper when the Bears and Warriors met twice in the 2012 NCAA New England Regionals – where  Cooper was riding a program-record 33-game winning streak -- and again in the 2013 regular season. With Cooper in the midst of her second straight All-America season in 2013, Coach K showed her the ultimate respect by choosing to walk the national slugging leader seven times in a doubleheader at Coast Guard's Nitchman Field.
 
For years -- with no luck -- Coach K had talked to Cooper about joining her coaching staff. After the 2017 season, a position re-opened on the Coast Guard staff when Erin Miller -- Cooper's former Eastern teammate -- resigned as the team's pitcher coach in order to accept a graduate assistant position at Smith College.
 
Soon after leading Fitch to the semifinals of the 2017 state tournament -- and completing her graduate degree in applied behavior analysis -- Cooper made the difficult choice of leaving the comfortable and familiar environment of Fitch High and accepted Coach K's offer to join the Coast Guard staff.

 

"After Erin [Miller] left, Donna reached out to me again and I said 'you know what, there must be a reason [that I should take it]'. I told myself that I should just take the leap and do it, that I should get out of my comfort zone and just do it."
 
Under Coach K's guidance as an assistant coach, Cooper submerged herself in the unique culture, philosophy, and rules and regulations of the academy. At the academy, athletics and physical conditioning play a vital role as each cadet needs to earn two sports credits each semester.
 
A productive, but not always comfortable, environment.
 
"We only have a certain allotted time for sports." says Cooper, "Between 1600 and 1900 [4 and 7 p.m.] is our sports period because [the cadets] are on such a regimented schedule. Softball is [the players'] downtime, but it's also competitive, and they get to have fun. Sports is a breath of fresh air from being in a calculus class or being in an engineering class. It's a time for them to unwind."
 
Following a COVID-shortened 2020 season which spoiled an encouraging 9-1 start, Coach K stepped down after 23 seasons that had produced over 500 victories, transitioning to an administrative role as associate director of athletics. Cooper will not go as far as to say that Coach K had an eye on program's future when she brought Cooper aboard, saying only that "a timeline [for Coach K's departure] was never discussed, but she knew that the program would be in good hands."
 
A leading candidate for the interim head coaching position on the strength of her three seasons as Coach K's assistant, Cooper survived two interviews and was eventually named to her first head coaching position prior to last spring.

"I was lucky to have the experience of having been here," she says. "It's definitely a learning curve, because there are so many logistics that you have to be aware of. You have to know the outside expectations that have nothing to do with athletics. As a coach there, you have to be prepared for [these expectations] and work within them. It's a whole different world that any college coach or player would know nothing about unless they're actually involved in it."
 
Last spring, the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) – sans several schools which chose not to participate due to the pandemic – conducted its games on Saturdays throughout the season. Coast Guard players were tested for COVID twice each week, then had to wait until Friday night for confirmation that its opponent for the next day's scheduled was also negative. Cooper says that no Coast Guard player tested positive all season.
 
 Playing only conference games, the Bears won their first four contests of the season but after splitting the next four, managed only one run in losing their final six. On May 8, fourth-seeded Coast Guard was swept by top-seeded Babson College in the best-of-three semifinals and finished 6-8.

 

The morning after the semifinals -- win or lose -- over half of the team's players were scheduled to catch planes to destinations throughout the U.S. to begin their six-week summer assignments.  It is a requirement that is non-negotiable, regardless of a team's post-season status.
 
While the restrictions placed upon the student-athletes can be a challenge as a coach attempts to build a competitive program within the highly-competitive NEWMAC, Cooper has only respect for the special athletes under her care who have commited themselves to the service of their country.
 
"These kids are very mature," she says. "I have 18-year-olds doing [their assigned] search-and-rescue in the water all summer. Typical 18-year-olds would not be able to handle that. They are often up all night studying for tests. You definitely see that fatigue, but also, having those types of kids, it helps in the athletic arena. They can push themselves. There's a whole different side to the typical athletic career at the Coast Guard Academy."
 
As a two-time All-America as a player at Eastern, Cooper enjoyed a career unparalleled by any other position player in program history.  Before she was done, she had established career records (which remain today) for hits, runs, batting and slugging average, home runs, total bases and extra bases. Her senior season in 2013 is looked upon as the single-greatest offensive one in program history when she set a slew of season marks for batting (.538), slugging (1.076), hits (71), runs (61), home runs (16), extra-base hits (34), and total bases (142), breaking many of the records which she had set as a junior.
 
At Eastern, Cooper was joined by some of the most accomplished players in program history, among them four-time All-America pitcher/DP Molly Rathbun, Priscilla Alicea, Sam Rossetti, Kelly Paterson, and Cooper's former Eastern Connecticut Conference high school rivals Miller, Alyssa Hancock and Mattie Brett of Waterford.
 
With that nucleus between 2010 and 2013, Eastern compiled an overall record of 146-30 (51-5 in the Little East Conference regular season) won two regional championships and four LEC regular-season and three LEC tournament championships, and advanced to consecutive national tournaments.
 
More than the championships and the gaudy individual numbers, however, Cooper looks back at her time at Eastern as a tremendous learning experience from which, in retrospect, she learned valuable lessons that have benefitted in her coaching journey.
 
"Diana [Pepin] is someone who I have tried to replicate my coaching style after," admits Cooper of her former head coach at Eastern, now in her 21^st season. "I got to learn from the best. I had a wonderful softball career under her and I think she really groomed me to have that mental toughness and to work through the hard moments and to appreciate the game. Those are the big things that I like to keep with me as I go through my coaching adventures. There's also a perspective that what you give to the game will give back to you."
 
Like Miller, a two-year teammate at Eastern and now a cross-town head coaching colleague at Mitchell College, Cooper majored in sport and leisure management but had no clear-cut vision for her future following graduation. At Coast Guard, however, she has found a true calling as a mentor and confidant to her athletes as they navigate their college careers.
 
Cooper is among a number of candidates who have applied for the permanent fulltime head softball coaching position at the academy. The official announcement is expected later this summer. With four full seasons of experience in the program and one year as the head coach, Cooper feels only that she is a viable candidate for a position.
 
"I had so many [career) ideas [after graduating], but nothing ever felt 100 percent right," she says. "Until now. When you are very passionate about something and you enjoy going to work every day, it really changes your input and output. I wake up every day and I'm just thankful that I've had this opportunity. I would love to make a long-term career out of coaching at the Coast Guard Academy, and really build a foundation for a program of my own," she admits. "I just truly enjoy being in this position at the academy."
 
Throughout her playing and high school coaching career, Cooper has expected and accepted winning, but a dose of perspective over the last several years has allowed her to channel her energy in the right direction.
 
"I think that I've changed my coaching style a little – how I perceive things – and sometimes that is a good thing. You can sit back and realize the things that are important and the things that are not. I am definitely more appreciative of these kids [at the Coast Guard] because they are going so far above and behind the typical collegiate athlete. [I tell my players that] I'm a mentor, but I'm also here for you as a person, not only to just help you in a softball game."
 
For her players, a very comforting thought, indeed.
 
  EASTERN ATHLETIC ALUMNI CURRENTLY SERVING AS HEAD COLLEGE COACHES
 

Alumnus	Sports played at Eastern	Current Institution
Erin Calkins	Women's lacrosse	Farmingdale State
Allison Coleman	Women's basketball	The Sage Colleges
Arielle Cooper	Softball	U.S. Coast Guard*
Devyne Doran	Women's lacrosse	Mitchell College
Matt Esposito	Men's soccer	The Sage Colleges
Tyler Hundley	Men's basketball	Worcester State U.
Brittany Hutchinson	Women's basketball	Endicott College
Kevin Jaskiewicz	Baseball	U.S. Coast Guard (men's basketball)
Brian Leighton	Baseball	Albertus Magnus College
Erin Miller	Softball	Mitchell College
John Natale	Men's soccer	U. of Hartford (women's soccer)
Dave Nicholson	Men's track & field	Lindenwood U.
Nick Noheimer	Men's XC/track & field	U. of New Haven (XC)
Diana Pepin	Softball	Eastern Conn.
Erika Profenno	Field hockey	Keuka College
Molly Rathbun	Softball	Trinity College
Jody Rogers	Women's volleyball	Virginia Commonwealth U.
Carrie Seymour	Women's basketball	Pace U.
Ed Silva	Men's basketball	U. of New England
Steve Trimper	Baseball	Stetson U.
Chris Wojick	Baseball	Eastern Conn. (men's golf)

*-Interim appointment