Newark’s Josh Cooper wants ball field to be his classroom

Josh Cooper could not think of a more perfect place to be than teaching in Newark.

Cooper, in his fifth school year teaching at Newark Community High School and fourth as head baseball coach, grew up on a family farm right next to Cross Lutheran School on Route 47 in Yorkville. His family’s was a beef farm. He remembers showing at the state fair.

A 2012 graduate of Yorkville High School and two-sport athlete, he also remembers waking up one morning in March 2011 and seeing Newark’s state championship boys basketball team on the news. Unfamiliar with the school, he was told by his parents that Newark was, in fact, a school down the street.

“Growing up on a farm, in a rural background, I have kids on my baseball team that go to milk cows before school. I can understand and relate to these kids,” Cooper said. “During planting season, it’s super busy, and I’m like ‘Guys, I get it.’ Having that knowledge, I think they respect me.”

Cooper played basketball until his sophomore year of high school at Yorkville, but baseball was his sport. The memory that still sticks from his high school career, which he shares with his current players, was losing to Ottawa and former Chicago Cub Michael Hermosillo 2-1 in a regional final his senior year.

Cooper himself had aspirations to play professionally, but soon realized that his future was in teaching the game as a coach. He did some assistant work at Rockford University, where he played for four years. He was substitute teacher at Yorkville and Somonauk before a position opened up in 2018 as a physical education teacher at Newark. Cooper called up Newark principal Jim Still, coincidentally his dean at Yorkville, and applied for the position.

He served as an assistant baseball coach for one year before being promoted to head coach.

“Sometimes good things happen to you,” Cooper said. “It happened to fall in my lap, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

—  Josh Cooper, Newark baseball coach

“Sometimes good things happen to you,” Cooper said. “It happened to fall in my lap, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

Cooper related that some of the most valuable lessons a boy or girl can learn can be on the ball field or basketball court. They include hard work, discipline and how to handle failure – adversity even the best baseball players must overcome.

“Baseball is a game of failure. It’s the only game where you can fail seven out of 10 times as a hitter and be an All-Star,” Cooper said. “I want the ball field to be my classroom, for these boys to learn how to be a better man and how to handle adversity. It’s a humbling game, one of the most tough and heartbreaking games, and it reveals a lot about kids and adults alike. I was lucky enough to play as long as I did. I want to give back what the game gave to me.”

Cooper himself encountered adversity right off the bat as a head coach. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 season, what was to be his first, after two weeks of practice.

His return to the dugout was the stuff of dreams.

In spring 2021, Cooper’s Newark club made the state tournament for the first time in program history, taking third in Class 1A. Cooper fondly recalled a sea of matching blue T-shirts in the stands following the Norsemen to Peoria.

“We were all saying that I think there might be nobody left in Newark. It was absolutely crazy,” Cooper said. “This town rallies behind its sports. It just took that little bit of success to put the program in the right direction.”

Cooper is thankful for those who have pointed him in the right direction: His parents, who drove him back and forth to games and for teaching Cooper to hold himself to a high standard. His head coach at Rockford University, Bob Koopmann. And Ralph Mispagel, who coached him for five years starting in seventh and eighth grade travel.

“He was someone with high morals, a family guy, someone I could look up to,” Cooper said. “He was somebody who pushed you, but was also the first person that if you did something right he’d let you know. He made sure he got the most out of you. He’s someone I try to model myself after coaching.”

Cooper feels most blessed to have a support network at home with a spouse who can relate to the day-to-day life of teacher and coach.

His wife and high school sweetheart, Alyssa, was a four-year varsity dancer at Yorkville, and the two dated all through college. Now she is a special education teacher at Yorkville and coaches JV poms. Fortunately, their season schedules allow them to navigate teaching, coaching and care for their 1-year-old daughter, Evelyn.

As long as Newark wins, Dad is not super mad, and Evelyn can run the bases afterward. The Coopers try to limit talks about work, but both went into coaching and teaching to try to mold young minds.

“It’s family first, as much as work tries to encapsulate people’s lives. Life is short, and you want to enjoy it while it lasts,” Cooper said. “It’s a lot of help [having another teacher as spouse], something I sometimes take for granted. It is a blessing to have someone that understands what we go through.”