By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Christian Prohaska said putting her family first is the reason she resigned as head coach of the Cooper girls basketball team after one season.
“I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old and there were definitely some tough times where we’d have practice and getting out at 7:30 or 8 o’clock and then wanting to watch another (team’s) game after that,” she said. “It’s just a lot of demands and I feel like it’s best for my children to put them first.”
Prohaska was hired last spring to replace Justin Holthaus, who stepped down as the Cooper girls head basketball coach to take charge of the boys program.
She had spent 14 years as an assistant coach on the college level, but had never been a head coach before. Her husband, Adam, was one of her assistants.
Cooper was ranked among the top teams in the state all season and finished with a 20-9 record, but the Jaguars faltered in the playoffs. After losing to Ryle, 69-30, in the 33rd District final, they were upset by Highlands, 51-42, in the first round of the 9th Region tournament.
Cooper had won four consecutive 9th Region championships prior to that upset. After the season-ending loss, Prohaska said she informed Cooper administrators that she was considering stepping down as head coach.
“I told them after the season kind of where I was,” she said. “They were very supportive and told me to take the time I needed. I just came to the decision that it was going to be best for me to resign and put the family first.”
Prohaska, who has a full-time job in sales, met with Cooper team members last Friday and said some of them were surprised by her decision. She said ending the season with back-to-back losses isn’t the reason she’s leaving the program.
“Honestly, if anything that was a big part of me wanting to come back,” she said. “I’m very competitive and I didn’t want to go out like that.”
Three of the starters on Cooper’s team were juniors Alivia Scott, Brinkli Rankin and Haylee Noel, who was named 9th Region Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. Noel had team-high averages of 20.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.
Dayton is also looking for a girls head basketball coach to replace Laura Hall, who compiled an 18-25 record over the last two season with the program. Hall had spent most of her 33-year coaching career on the middle school level.