Jump Start

Just one day after being named the new head coach of the Routt boys’ basketball team, Billy Cooper was already at work.

Cooper, who served as Routt’s assistant varsity and head junior varsity coach last year, was hired as head coach at the Routt school board meeting Monday night. On Tuesday, he was on his way to coach the team in the Waverly Summer League.

“I’m thrilled, to be honest,” Cooper said. “I have such a good time coaching these kids. It’s a great group, and I look forward to it.”

Cooper replaces Mike Rigoni, who resigned in April after his teaching position was eliminated. Cooper served twice as an assistant to Rigoni, who is now the head boys’ basketball coach at Carlinville High School.

Rigoni posted a record of 51-31 in three years at Routt.

“I want to continue what Mike has got going here and just keep going with it,” Cooper said.

While the new job is Cooper’s first head coaching job in boys’ basketball, he has been a head coach before. Cooper was Routt’s girls’ track and field coach in 2006 and was the head softball coach at MacMurray for two seasons before that.

He also served as Routt’s freshman boys’ basketball coach during the 2005-06 season, so when the season starts next fall, it’s likely Cooper will have already coached most, if not all, of Routt’s players at some point during their careers.

“It’s a really smart group. They all really play hard. There’s a lot of good players. We may be 10 or 11 deep on the bench this year,” Cooper said. “I think last year, at times, we tried to make adjustments during the game, and the kids didn’t respond to it, but I don’t think I’m going to have that problem with this group.”

Cooper was a four-sport athlete at Georgetown-Ridge Farm High School, graduating in 1998. He later went on to play football at MacMurray College.

Cooper lives in Springfield but commutes to Jacksonville for his teaching job at Washington Elementary School.

He’s already looking forward to the basketball season. In addition to the Waverly Summer League, Routt will participate in the Pepsi/Passavant Team Rehab Shootout at Illinois College later this month.

“I’ve basically been with the same kids my whole time at Routt,” Cooper said. “It’s been neat to see them grow and get to see them go from kids to young men.”