Head Coach | Kenneth Cooper

Kenneth Cooper enters his second season as head coach of the Park University women's basketball team.

Cooper helped the Pirates to an 18-11 overall and 9-7 AMC record in 2010-11 and finished the AMC regular season in fourth-place. In just his first season as head coach, Cooper led the Pirates to the third most wins in a season in program history.

Cooper spent three years as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at NCAA Division I Mercer University in Macon, Ga., from 2007-2010, and was instrumental in assisting head coach Janell Jones reinvigorate the Bears’ program. A proven winner, Cooper’s work at MU was another successful stint in his coaching career.

Cooper was a part of a staff that inherited a 5-25 team and then had to endure a 4-26 record its first season with the Bears. However, the 2008-09 season, in which the Bears went 17-14, proved to be the greatest turnaround in the country that year, according to CollegeRPI.com, by making a 153 point swing (315 to 162) in the RPI from that inaugural campaign with Mercer. The team was picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic Sun Conference by both media and coaches pre-season polls, but proved the experts wrong with a fourth place showing and advanced all the way to the A-Sun semifinals.

The 2009-10 Bears – despite an injury-plagued season – managed a second-straight trip to the A-Sun tournament and posted a record of 14-16, on a team with just two seniors on the entire roster. The 31 wins amassed by MU in the past two seasons are the most in any back-to-back seasons by Bears’ teams since 1995-97.

Along with his duties as assistant coach at Mercer, Cooper has excelled as the recruiting coordinator for the Bears in each of his seasons. In those three seasons, student-athletes recruited by Cooper have earned a first-team All A-Sun award, three second-team all-conference honors, an A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year, eight A-Sun Player of the Week awards and 18 academic all-conference selections.

Statistically, MU has had a top-five scorer in the A-Sun in each of his years. This season, the team had the No. 2 and No. 7 scorers in the league, as well as the steals leader.

As a part of Mercer’s 2010-11 recruiting class, Cooper brought in three players that were ranked in the top 50 by ESPN in the southeast Region.

Prior to joining the Bears, Cooper spent three seasons as an assistant with Seminole State College, helping the team reach the Bi-State Conference Tournament each year during his tenure. Cooper compiled a 51-40 (.560) record during his three-year stint as an assistant coach with Seminole State.

The team improved each season, going from 10-21 in 2004-05 to 16-13 in 2005-06 to 25-6 in 2006-07.

The Belles won the Bi-State West Conference championship last season with a 14-0 mark at home. Seminole State also finished third at the 2007 NJCAA Region II Tournament.

Also serving as recruiting coordinator for Seminole, Cooper brought in and coached numerous players that received accolades. He tutored six all-conference nominees, three first team all-region performers, a regional Player of the Year and a second team All-NJCAA member.

Prior to his arrival at Seminole State, Cooper played at the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Ala. After redshirting his freshman year, Cooper helped the Falcons win a Gulf South Conference Tournament title during his senior season when he served as team captain. Montevallo also reached the NCAA Division II South Regional finals as the Falcons finished with a 23-10 record in 2004. He received the University of Montevallo Sportsmanship Award in 2004.

A native of Fayetteville, Ga., Cooper starred at Fayette County High School before his collegiate playing career at Montevallo. At Fayette County, he served as team captain his junior and senior seasons while earning four varsity letters.

Cooper graduated from Montevallo in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. Cooper and his wife Erin, reside in Kansas City, Mo.

Assistant Coach | Tyler Price

Tyler Price enters his first year as the Assistant Women's Basketball coach at Park University and fourth as Assistant Sports Information Director.

Price will join Coach Cooper's staff and help with the day-to-day operations of the program as well as assist at the team's practices and travel with the team on gameday.

Price is the primary contact for both men’s soccer and cross country in the fall, women’s basketball and men’s volleyball in the winter, as well as softball and track and field in the spring.

Price joins SID Steve Wilson as the primary liaison between Park’s athletics programs and the public. The two are responsible for serving the needs of not only the media, but also coaches, student-athletes, supporters and fans.

For the second straight men’s volleyball season, Price will work as the Mid-America Men’s Volleyball Intercollegiate Conference (MAMVIC) Sports Information Director.

In that capacity Price will work closely with all 18 institutions and will continue to monitor the conference’s new website and work with institutional media relations personnel. Price will coordinate the NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Player’s of the Week along with the NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Top 10 Poll.

Price is a proud member of NAIA-SIDA as well as CoSIDA. Price and Wilson produce 10 media guide publications each year for the Park University athletic department and Price has been awarded with five NAIA-SIDA Top 10 in the Nation awards for his publications, including a second-place finish for his 2011 Men’s Volleyball Media Guide.

A 2008 graduate of Kansas State University, Price spent three years in the Sports Information Department from 2005-08 as a Student Assistant. Along with assisting in the promotion of all 12 varsity sports at K-State, Price’s main responsibility was serving as the primary contact for the women’s equestrian program.

After graduation, Price joined the Sports Information staff at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). After a few months promoting the NAIA, Price made the trek a few miles north to Parkville.

The Overland Park, Kan., native also worked in sports broadcasting early in his career, spending two summers working at NBC KSHB-TV in Kansas City as an Associate Sports Producer for the 38 Sports Spot television program and all evening KSHB-TV newscasts.

Price is an avid Kansas City sports fan and enjoys watching all Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals and Kansas State athletic events.

Price and his wife, Jenny, also a graduate of K-State, reside in Overland Park, Kan., with their daughter Maria.