Nicole Cooper '11 Recruiting Profile

My name is Nicole Cooper. I am a senior at Washington Township High School in Sewell, Gloucester County, New Jersey. It is one of the largest high schools in South Jersey containing over 3000 students. My school's athletics is in the Olympic Conference, along with 16 other schools. I started running track when I was in 7th grade. I originally decided to run track because I didn't want to play basketall anymore and wanted to participate in a different sport. I thought I was pretty fast, so I thought I cold excel at the sport. Between 7th and now I have competed in many events (100m, 200m, 400m, 55m hurdles, 100m hurdles, relays, high jump, long jump, triple jump, shot put, and discus). As well as improving in the jumps this season, I am planning on being a multi-event athlete for my final year of high school track. I want to continue my track career in college for a variety of reasons. As a team captain of my high school's team, I can bring leadership I have love for the sport, and I want to see how far I can go. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get to the next level and excel. Being a college athlete means you will have to have good time management to keep up with your studies and be on your "A game" at all times. Learning how to balance academics with athletics, will definitely help me my management skills when I am an adult in the workforce. I hope in making the 2010-2011 the best one yet, and set personal bests in all of my main events. In the high jump my goal is 5'4" The key things I need to work on is a consistent approach, and converting horizontal speed into vertical lift. I think those are the key things thats keeping me stuck at 5'0". I just starting triple jumping for the first time last year, so I am still very raw at the event. I need to work on perfecting my technique in each of the phases. I think this is the event where I can have the biggest improvement. I think I have potential to end up as a 36'0" jumper by the end of senior year. Basically for all the jumps in general I need to work on making my run ups more consistent, and run through the board in long/triple jump, because I sometimes become tentative reaching the board. In the hurdles, I can improve on my starts, form, and fast twitch muscles. I am currently working on my weak areas this fall, and hoping to have them cleaned up and perfected this season. After I graduate high school in June, 2011, I plan to attend a 4 year college or university in the fall of that year. I want to go to a school that is at least an hour away from where I live, because I want to be in a different setting I'm not too familiar with. I prefer to stay in the Northeast region of the country, but I am willing to expand down the East Coast. I am leaning towards majoring in accounting and minoring in marketing. I want to get my MBA in 5 years. I rather go to a medium or smaller sized school because teacher to student ratio is smaller, and the professor can identify you by your name not a number.