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Leaving the nest
Canfield’s AD Greg Cooper retires; life-saving surgery recovery continues
By Brian Dzenis
CANFIELD
Every step of Greg Cooper’s career was a success — from a wrestling state champion at Boardman to a two-time NCAA Tournament-qualifying cadet for the U.S. Naval Academy to a captain in the Navy to a long career as the athletic director at Canfield High School.
Through it all, his philosophy on leadership was constant.
“When you’re in a position of authority or responsibility, you’re going to have people that work for you, but you have to remember that you work for them,” Cooper said. “There can’t be a timer or limit on what you’re going to do.
“You have to invest the time to show people you care and see what’s going on and see what needs done.
“[When something needs done] be sure that it gets done — even if you have to do it yourself,” Cooper said. “That’s the biggest thing, do whatever it takes to do things the way you think it should be done.
“That can require some long days and late nights, but so many people have contributed to my success that I wanted to pass that along to the student athletes at Canfield. Hopefully, we could be a positive influence for the young men and women at Canfield.”
Cooper, who was Canfield’s AD since 2006, has retired.
Mike Cochran will step into Cooper’s role in August.
Years of service plus his ongoing recovery from a liver transplant last fall contributed to his decision to step away, Cooper said.
Last year, Cooper was dealing with nonalcoholic end-stage fatty liver disease-cirrhosis. Dave Crawford, Canfield assistant wrestling coach, donated 65 percent of his liver to Cooper.
“Right now, I’m doing about as well as can be hoped for,” Cooper said. “I’m on a relatively long leash with the Cleveland Clinic where I get tested every two weeks to see if all the numbers are OK.
“I do what they tell me to do and it’s all positive so far.”
Cooper arrived at Canfield coming off a 30-year career with the Navy. He accrued 5,700 flight hours and 517 arrested landings aboard eight different aircraft carriers.
His final assignment was serving as the Naval Academy’s Deputy Director of Athletics and was its head of the Physical Education Department.
“I had family in the area and I wondered if I could get the [Canfield AD] job,” Cooper said. “It was remarkable that for going from an intercollegiate athletic department to a high school one, there’s a lot of similarities.
“Certainly it’s a bigger scope in college, but you do a lot of the same things in high school, just with less people.”
Cooper returned to the Mahoning Valley where he was a standout athlete. He won the 185-pound state wrestling title in 1973. For 34 years, he was the Spartans’ only wrestling champion.
In 1976 and 1977, Cooper made the NCAA wrestling tournament for the Naval Academy. In both of his trips, he made the second round.
Stephen Pitts, Canfield wrestling coach, said that even with Cooper’s wrestling background, he gave Pitts and predecessor Dean Conley a lot of leeway to run their team.
“Greg had a lot of trust in us,” said Pitts who had a hand in five individual state titles while working for Cooper. “He knew we were there for the right reasons and he just let us go.
“I’m grateful for that,” Pitts said. “He would give his input when he saw there was a need, but he did a really good job of letting coaches coach, trusting his coaches to do the right thing and it really worked on the wrestling side.”
Cooper presided over a combined three team state titles and eight individual state champions.
“He was great boss. He allowed you the freedom to run your program as you see fit,” said Mike Pavlansky, Canfield football coach. “He was always there with guidance and support and whatever we needed to help that season to be successful.”
Cooper will spend time with his family and newborn granddaughter, Caroline. It’s a well-deserved respite after a career that has three lifetime’s worth of achievements and he gave back as much as he got.
“I very much enjoyed all the opportunities I had and the way things all worked out,” Cooper said. “I always wanted to make sure I returned the favor, because I know how much I enjoyed what I got out of being in athletics in high school.”