Cooper focuses on parent involvement
Seahawks football coach John Cooper is working to send parents into the game.
Blessed with about 65 boys who have come out to play for the middle school, junior varsity and varsity program, the coach has held programs for players’ parents that bring a sharper focus to what he is trying to do on the field.
He last week held a Donut for Moms night, where the women get a t-shirt, take photos with their boys and get a more in-depth look at what a practice is like, by observing the drills.
“Moms can see what they do,” Cooper said. “It gives us a little ownership of our program.”
He’s also held a night for dads, where they get a chance to place the team’s FC decal on their son’s helmet, and chow down on bbq.
So far this summer, he’s taken players to three camps, and played them in four 7-on-7 scrimmages against area opponents.
Practices have been from 6 to 9 p.m. ET weekdays, but with the start of classes, that will switch to 3:15 to 5:15 p.m.
On Aug. 9, the team will play a “ref scrimmage” in Hamilton County against five other teams, returning a favor that the program about three hours east of Franklin County gave the Seahawks by traveling here in the spring.
“It gives us a chance to get reps for our players,” Cooper said.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.