Bucknell University Athletics
Jeremy Cook Named Head Field Hockey Coach at Bucknell
7/15/2008 8:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
July 15, 2008
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Jeremy Cook, a former member of the United States national field hockey team who was most recently an assistant coach at Indiana University, has been named head field hockey coach at Bucknell, director of athletics and recreation John Hardt announced on Tuesday.
Among his extensive international field hockey experience, Cook has served as a technical assistant with the U.S. men's and women's national teams. He assisted the men's team at the Olympic qualifying tournament, and the 2008 Olympics-bound women's squad at the Pan Am Games, the Champions Challenge, the Chile 4-Nation tournament and the team's Holland tour. He has also served as an assistant coach and administrative director at the Elite Performance Training Center in either the Pennsylvania/New Jersey or the Midwest Region each summer since 2005, and he has more than six years of experience coaching the U.S. Futures program in the Washington, D.C., area and at developmental camps across the country.
Hired as an assistant coach at Indiana in February 2007, Cook has also had assistant coaching stints at Penn (2005-06), Drexel (2000-01), American (1999) and Cornell (1997-98).
"Jeremy Cook brings a wealth of field hockey coaching experience at the collegiate and international levels, and I am excited that he will be sharing his expertise with our student-athletes at Bucknell," said Hardt. "Jeremy's player-development background is top-notch, and he has done it at a number of elite academic institutions, including those from the Ivy League and Patriot League. Most important, he is a quality individual who impressed everyone throughout the interview process, and I think he will be an excellent 'fit' for Bucknell."
Cook, who graduated summa cum laude from Drexel in 2002, enjoyed a stellar playing career. From 1997-2000 he was a member of Team USA. He competed in the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg and was a member of three gold medal-winning teams at the U.S. Olympic Festival. He also played on three Indoor Pan American Cup teams and on the 2003 Indoor World Cup team that competed in Leipzig, Germany. From 1995-97, Cook played on the first team with Hockey Club Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
"This is a dream job for me," said Cook, who becomes the eighth head field hockey coach in Bucknell history. "I have always enjoyed coaching at high-end academic schools, because the academic and athletic combination really lends itself to our sport. It is a thinking game, and tactical knowledge in field hockey is as vital as any other sport. Coming to Bucknell is an opportunity to recruit the best and the brightest student-athletes, and that is all any motivated coach could ever want. Everyone has been so welcoming, and my wife and I can't wait to become part of the Bucknell and Lewisburg communities."
At Bucknell, Cook takes over a program that finished 8-9 overall and 1-4 in the Patriot League in 2007. With only four seniors on last year's roster, the team returns five of its top six scorers, including the top two point-producers in Amanda Faust and Megan Krebs. In May, that duo, along with returning starters Stef Graf and Corinne Raczek, were named to the Pennsylvania High Performance Squad. Faust, who played for Cook with the X-Calibur club team before coming to Bucknell, and Krebs were both First Team All-Patriot League picks last season, while Graf was a second team selection.
"Everything that I have heard about this team has been positive," said Cook. "All of the players come from good hockey backgrounds. Having four HP players is big. It shows that there is talent in the program, and everyone associated with it should feel like we have a realistic chance to win the league. Graham Field is one of the best hockey facilities around, and it shows a real commitment to the program from the university.
"I am very excited to get the season going. It is going to be a building process. We will set up a solid foundation at the start and build to the point where the players' decision-making will become natural. It will be a risk-versus-reward system, where we want to minimize the risk coming out of the back and maximize the reward up front. We will train at the fastest possible tempo, with an emphasis on fitness."
Cook's first game as head coach will be on Aug. 31, when the Bison host Longwood at Graham Field at 11:30 a.m.
