CHICAGO — As a 12-year-old, Gabby Cooper transferred the pain of her father's death into her love of basketball.
Her passion for play has continued to her freshman year at Syracuse, where the Morgan Park High School graduate is a starting guard for the No. 11 Orange (3-1).
For the last six-plus years, before every game, Cooper crosses her heart and points to the sky to honor her father, Torrence, who died on Feb. 10, 2011 from the effects of sarcoidosis at age 39. Two years ago, Cooper got a large tattoo on her left shoulder with the years of her father's birth and death, and a baby angel holding a basketball. She said the angel represents how her father protected her while he was alive, and how he watches over her now.
"If he saw me at games now, I think he'd be very proud of me," she said.
Shortly after her dad died, Cooper joined the AAU Hurricanes team that included teammate Kiara Lewis, who is now playing at Ohio State. Cooper and her mom, Benji, said hoops provided a much-needed outlet.
"She was a Daddy's girl," Cooper's mother said. "To lose him at age early age was devastating for her."
Said Cooper: "Basketball was somewhere to use my anger and turn it into positive energy."
Cooper played with the Hurricanes for two years, and then with the Mac Irvin Fire AAU program through high school graduation. Her coach, Mac Irvin III, said Cooper "is the type of player that just loves to play and plays super hard all the time."
Cooper led Morgan Park to the IHSA state semifinals as a senior, and Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman said she has become an "immediate impact player" for the Orange.
"Coming in and starting as a freshman has been a huge lift in our program," Hillsman said. "We really depend on her to come in and shoot the ball, to score from the perimeter, and be a lockdown defender in our press and half-court defense.”
Cooper said playing basketball in Chicago has prepared her for the college game.
"Playing basketball in Chicago changes you mentally and physically as a player," she said. "It's a rugged style of basketball, and it gives you a love and a passion for the game that I don't see from a lot of people."
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