Rocket Spotlight on Jessica Cook

Jessica Cook is a senior forward on the Toledo women's basketball team. An adolescent and young adult education major, she has served as a student teacher in area schools while playing for the Rockets. Cook has played in 118 games and started 78 times for the Rockets, scoring 775 points, grabbing 483 rebounds and shooting 52.4% from the field in her career. She is a three-time Academic All-MAC and two-time Academic All-District selection.

On growing up and her start in basketball
I started playing basketball in second grade. I had been insecure about my height and my mom wanted me to embrace it a little bit. She brought me to a basketball game for my local high school and there was this really good basketball player who was getting a lot of looks from different colleges. This player turned out to be Breanna Stewart, so seeing her play got me involved in the second grade. I was in the Optimistic League, then worked my way up to AAU. I got my first (scholarship) offer right around eighth grade.

On other sports she played growing up
I played about every sport up until around fifth grade. I played soccer, did gymnastics and cheerleading, even field hockey, but never really stuck with anything. I also tried volleyball in seventh grade when I couldn't make the basketball team I wanted to play for. However, from seventh grade on I just stuck with basketball. I started varsity in eighth grade and there became no room for anything else.

On being recruited to Toledo
I got my first offer in eighth grade from Xavier. Mark Stephens, who used to be an assistant with (Former Rocket Head Coach Tricia) Cullop, told her about me. She came to one of my tournaments, and the one game she saw me she saw me get a black eye and got called for the foul all in the same play. I got punched it the face and the ref gave me the foul! She told me, "I just had to have you and you seem like a tough kid." When I came on my visit, I had already committed somewhere else in my mind and was not interested in looking at any more schools. But the minute I stepped on Toledo's campus I knew I had found my home. I even told my mom I didn't mean to like this place as much as I did, and committed to Toledo about a year later.

On what drew her to Toledo
The campus feel was great. The coaches and the team made it a perfect fit. The atmosphere is really what drew me. I ended up playing a game with a couple of girls on the team and it genuinely felt like I'd been friends with them forever. I fit right in and felt at home with all of them. I had a great time playing this silly little game, and it's the same atmosphere you see around here now so it's never changed.

On the family environment among teammates and coaching staff
I grew up as an only child, so a lot of the time I'd rely on teammates and friends. Being a basketball player, you don't get a ton of chances to just go around and make friends around town. College is really a matter of trying to find a family with whom you spend your time. I had to have built-in friends because there was nowhere else I would go. Loving my teammates was easy because they're all sweet, funny and you can easily talk to them. Between my teammates and the fan support, I always felt like someone has been looking out for me, someone who has my best interests at heart. Coach Cullop always wanted what was best for us, on and off the court, allowing us to pursue majors such as nursing and education; that felt like family pushing us ahead. Coach B (Head Coach Ginny Boggess) has continued doing the exact same thing. She and the coaches always ask, "How's teaching, how's this, how's that." It's the exact same as my family so it feels the same.

On her family and their connections to her high school
My mom worked for my school district but she wasn't a teacher. She'd take pictures for the school district. She writes emails, memos, letters and creates the school calendar. I always got to hang out with her when she was doing her work and she's the one who gave me my love of reading and writing. My dad also went to my high school and my mom worked at the high school, and I enjoyed being part of the environment. It felt like everyone there made a community. Ultimately, I had multiple teachers that really made me want to go into the education field, even though I didn't have any teachers in my immediate family.

On her love for reading and writing
When I was in high school, I didn't lean so much into poetry, but I found a knack for it once I was in college during a creative writing class. I always thought poetry had to be strict with verse and lines and making sure everything rhymed, but that's really not true. I wrote a poem for my father as a gift one Christmas and it actually wound up making him cry, though that's not hard to do. It was very sweet and I realized the gift I have with words. It's very rewarding actually. With literature, I love stories that take you out of wherever you are. I know a lot of people like non-fiction or learning about other people in history books and it's interesting to a point, but I'll never get sucked into a world the way I would from a fantasy or even a fiction storybook. It's easy for me to just escape, and a lot of the time that's what I do when I read. I want to just take myself out of whatever's happening.

On how creative freedom applies to the basketball court
There's a connection between using things as an escape from the mundane from everyone's life, and the spots where people are dragging a little bit -- finding those outlets. Basketball was always mine and its sad to say it's coming to an end. I enjoy teaching and I still enjoy school, so when my basketball chapter ends, I'll still have those escapes that I can lean into. Eventually, I would also love to go into coaching.

On Choosing Adolescent and Young Adult Education as her major
One thing I will say is that everyone thinks I'm crazy because I want to work in a high school. I feel like I can talk to the kids. We're closer in age now than when I ultimately do become a teacher. However, I think there's a better chance to connect and get through to high school kids than younger kids. I think I can make those connections, and I value those bonds where students are willing to work with you. It's the same with coaching. If you have a kid who really doesn't vibe with you, you're not going to get through to them or know how to motivate them. So, I think being able to connect more deeply with my students is one of my better qualities. They come to me with what's going on in their lives. They come and ask me for advice. We do free-writes where they will just pour their hearts out to me. Sometimes, it's just very moving that they have that trust and respect for me this early on in my career.

On her student teaching experience
I have been at two schools primarily and I did observation hours at Scott High School for 10 hours per week my sophomore year. I've mostly been at Toledo Public Schools. I've done my last two semesters at Whitmer High School and in the previous year I was also doing my first two practicums at Jones Leadership Academy of Business. Toledo Public Schools and Washington Local Schools are different in themselves, and I've seen and experienced different environments and worked with both male and female teachers. In my current classroom, we have an inclusion teacher which helps special students with IEPs and working them into the classroom. I've been able to work with a lot of different students, how they learn and how they process information differently. Whether it's audio, visual or tactile, differentiating lessons and making those accommodations are very important skills I've learned.

On what going into education has taught about basketball
Going into education has taught me patience, and I think that has shown on the court. Being able to slow down and figure out what's not working, and readjusting on the fly is a really big piece of education. You might have a lesson plan going into something, but if it's not working, you have to adjust like on the basketball court. If I was told to sit behind someone and push them out of the paint and it's not working, then I have to adjust. I think patience and readjustment are a really big part of what I have brought from education into basketball.

On what basketball has taught her about being an educator
Basketball has taught me how to interact with anyone. You meet so many people through basketball. And I absolutely love everyone with whom I've been able to work. Basketball has taught me how to be assertive, how to be a leader and how to talk to people. No amount of practice and prep, or doing only student teaching would have otherwise prepared me. I feel like I've always been on a stage my entire life. Obviously, in basketball, people are always watching, from fans to news reporters. I've always felt comfortable talking in front of people. That's one thing my advisors always told me my biggest strength was. They knew I was never going to feel uncomfortable or anxious talking to all my kids. Getting over fear and anxiety is one thing that basketball has given me.

On what she has enjoyed about this season
This season I have enjoyed getting to work with the freshmen. We've never had a freshman class as big as this one since I've been here. Even though we've had transfers, they were still very experienced. But I got to feel like a freshman again and I think all of my teammates feel the same. I got a new coach in my senior year of high school, so I was already used to changing coaches on the same team, and I was ready to jump into this season. Getting to relearn a game that I've already been learning for three years was new, but I think it was exciting to start over with a new plan. Having a new coach was similar to coming in as a freshman and has been a valuable experience.

On being the 'big sister' as a senior
We have our 'big sister, little sister' program but I think it's definitely spanned across everyone. Everyone's been adopted by an upperclassmen at one point or another but I don't think we've been super exclusive to just our little sister. My little sisters are Courtney and Heidi Smith. They come to us and can lean on any upperclassman on the team. Nan is super knowledgeable about everything, Hannah is seeing the game from a different perspective with her injury, and Sammi and Khera are both super experienced. Sammi just hit 1,000 rebounds so she's doing something right. Everyone on the team is willing to help and give advice. No one's just in it for themselves and everyone's family in this relationship.

On women's basketball and how Toledo continues to grow with it
It's amazing to see how women's basketball has changed. I grew up going to women's basketball games at Syracuse in a stadium that can seat 30,000, and you would get small crowds for the women while the men would sell out. Getting packed crowds for women's games is a large part of why I committed here. I wanted people to come up to watch our games. I've also had people come up to me that have been exposed to the sport by Caitlin Clark and then found out about our program. People are finally recognizing the women that are dedicating their lives to the sport and I think this will open doors for the WNBA to expand and for women to get opportunities that they haven't had in the past. Players like Caitlin Clark are doing a lot for their sport and women's sports in general.

On her favorite piece of literature
I'm reading The Great Gatsby for the third time with my students and I think that book shows so much humanness within the characters. Many people don't like the characters, but they each like real people throughout the novel. The story of the author is what drew me to the book, as he actually stole the idea from his wife, which is awful. It's coming up on its 100th anniversary from being published too. Ultimately it's a great book for many reasons. My students actually wanted to watch the movie first, so I adjusted to chapter quizzes, so we could get to the movie faster.

On having a different name among her students
Coach Keane actually ran into one of my students at the mall and he got really excited, and he asked, "Do you know Miss Cook!?" I think its funny when my student call me Miss Cook out in public because I'm so used to being "Jess" or "#34." Having a couple of different titles became interesting for me.

Players Mentioned

Jessica Cook

Heidi Smith

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