Coaching Experience: Coach Cooprider begins his fifth season as the top assistant for the Pioneer Baseball team. He also serves as Special Teams Coordinator/Secondary coach for the Grinnell Football team each fall. In Coach Coop’s four seasons, Grinnell has won 80 games, the most in any four-year span in school history while the Pioneer Offense has seen 12 team and 11 individual records fall since 2009, including Runs, Hits, Doubles, and Home Runs. The Pioneers have also garnered 22 First-Team All-MWC position players, 7 All-Region honors and 1 All-American. Coop came to Grinnell from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota where he was the Tight Ends coach for the Tommie Football program in 2008, helping the Tommies to a 7-3 record after a 2-8 mark in ’07. He also spent 2006-2007 at Pine Crest Preparatory School in Fort Lauderdale, FL where he served as an assistant varsity baseball coach and as head boy’s golf coach.
Baseball Playing Experience: Coach Coop was a two-sport athlete at Carleton College where he graduated in 2006 with a degree in American Studies. A catcher and outfielder while with the Knights he still ranks 5th all-time in career home runs. Ben graduated from DeKalb High School (IL) where he was a two-sport All-Conference player and Wendy’s High School Heisman winner.
Personal: Coach Coop lives in Grinnell with his 3 year-old golden retriever “Griswold”. He has a Master’s Degree from Concordia University in St. Paul in Sport Management.
