Sports have always been an opportunity for Amy Cooper. An opportunity to excel, an opportunity to achieve her dreams. Sports opened doors for Cooper, and when physical limitations prevented her from competing, she used her love of sports to open up doors for others.
Cooper’s athletic career started at Minneapolis Washburn High School where she was a standout athlete and received the Athena Award her senior year. She competed in soccer, track and field, basketball, and swimming and diving, and earned all-conference, all-metro, and all-state honors with the soccer team. She was also part of the 4x200-meter relay team that placed third at the state meet.
She went on to attend Howard University, and was part of the first women’s soccer team at a Historically Black College and University. She was the team’s Co-MVP for three straight years, and earned All-Big South Conference accolades two years, making her the first HBCU soccer player to earn all-conference honors.
After graduating from Howard, Cooper took a position as a graduate assistant at Prairie View A&M, and she helped start the university’s first women’s soccer program when the Southwest Athletic Conference added women’s soccer. This was the start of a long coaching career for Cooper, and a career advocating for equity and inclusion in sports.
While in grad school, Cooper was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. Her passion for soccer was undeterred, and she played in a semi-professional league in Houston for several years. She was later diagnosed with compartment leg syndrome, which causes muscle and nerve damage, and underwent multiple knee surgeries. She was eventually diagnosed with Stage 4 arthritis in both knees, and was forced to stop playing competitive soccer.
Though she could no longer compete, Cooper never stopped loving soccer, or athletics. She was the head women’s soccer coach at South Carolina State University for four years, and moved back to Minnesota for two seasons as the head coach at Southwest Minnesota State University.
In 2012, Cooper headed to Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she served first as the Assistant Athletic Director, transitioned to interim Director of Athletics, before being formally hired as Director of Athletics in February 2015. At Trinity, where the majority of students are women of color, Cooper championed diversity and inclusion, and fought for equal opportunities for her athletes.
In 2018, Cooper took the Senior Women’s Administrator position at her alma mater, where she took on gender equity initiatives and was tasked with oversight of budget, traveling, and ticketing. She returned to her home state once again in 2021 when she was hired as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Administration at the University of St. Thomas. She oversees the department’s gender equity, finance, administration, and compliance. She serves as an advisor to the university’s Black Student-Athlete group, and offers support and guidance to underrepresented athletes.
Last year, Cooper was diagnosed with autism, which opened up a new chapter in her professional journey. She doesn’t see that diagnosis or her physical limitations as a reason to slow down, and prides herself on empowering individuals across gender, race, and background to succeed in sports and beyond. Cooper has used her love of sport to champion initiatives that serve women and underrepresented groups, ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity to live out their dream in sports - just like she did.