Cooper’s Road Has Smoothed

The Old World streets of Blakenberge, Belgium, are paved with cobblestone. They are quite charming, and a long way from Simi Valley.

They are a joyful sight for Tawnee Cooper.

“The city is beautiful,” Cooper said. “It looks like the kind of place that you’d imagine a little European city to be.”

Cooper, who played at Simi Valley High and UC Santa Barbara, never expected to be playing women’s professional basketball in the picturesque city.

After a college career hampered by injuries, Cooper became a special education teacher and a girls’ basketball assistant at San Marcos High in Santa Barbara.

Then came an offer to play in Blakenberge and she agonized over the decision before signing with the club late in November.

Cooper, 23, played about one month before returning home at the end of last year. She returned to Belgium after the holidays and will conclude the season this spring.

It hasn’t been an easy adjustment.

“That first month, the homesickness really hit her hard,” said Julius Cooper, Tawnee’s father. “We were on the phone with her an awful lot of the time.”

Cooper found herself playing basketball in a Western European city bordering the North Sea, a 14-hour plane journey from Los Angeles.

“She still had that competitive side in her,” Julius Cooper said. “There was no doubt. Even though she was getting comfortable, and she was always going to teach and coach, she always had the injuries in college. I think she still wanted to see what she could do.”

Said Tawnee: “I had kind of thought basketball was over. I had a job and I was settling down. All of the sudden, boom, one phone call and my life changed.”

Cooper missed the last 11 games of her junior season at Santa Barbara with a broken tibia and a torn anterior cruciate ligament and 21 games in her career. She averaged 9.3 points and 4.1 rebounds with the Gauchos.

“That was all the more reason I wanted to go [to Belgium],” Cooper said. “I never felt like I reached my potential in college.”

Cooper is among the most experienced players at Blakenberge. She compares the skill level to that of U.S. junior colleges, so she has assumed the role of teacher and unofficial coach.

“One of the main things is to share what I’ve learned over the years,” Cooper said. “It is kind of like being a player-coach. To get a chance to do that, in a place like this, isn’t something I ever expected.”

Getting used to the cobblestone streets was the easiest adjustment for Cooper, the only American on the team. Although the club provides housing and transportation, her first apartment didn’t have electricity. And then there’s the language barrier. Her roommate, from Greece, is one of the few people who speak English.

“It was kind of rough at first,” Cooper said. “But I like it. I’m getting used to it. It’s a totally different world.”

Cooper, who is averaging 20 points, plans to return home in April and consider her options.

For the time being, Cooper is happy to take her first steps as a professional on the cobblestone streets of Blakenberge.

“I’m glad I decided to play again,” she said. “It’s been a great experience. I hope it leads to something else.”