A familiar face is returning to Tallahassee and the Florida State softball program.
Ellie Cooper, who played for the Seminoles and previously was part of the team’s coaching staff, has been named the program’s Player Performance Director. The announcement was made last week.
Cooper is currently serving as a facilitator for Athletes Unlimited and also owns and operates Ellie Cooper Elite Performance, a mental performance coaching business. When she unveiled her business, Cooper described her work: “As a certified mental performance coach, it is my job to help athletes break down the mental barriers that keep them from performing their best when they need it the most. Just like training your physical skill set, you must train your mental skill set so that you have something to go to when the pressure of competition starts to build and adversity strikes. Athletes must learn how to control themselves before they will be able to control their performance. Through developing the correct habits, strategies, and routines athletes will be able to execute the behaviors necessary to help them unblock the mental barriers keeping them becoming the elite performer that is already inside of them.”
As the Player Performance Director at FSU, Cooper “will be implementing and developing the mental game and player performance while assisting with technology, video and the day-to-day operations of Florida State softball,” according to the school’s press release.
During Cooper’s playing career at FSU, which stretched from 2014-17, she earned a pair of all-ACC honors and was an all-region honoree in 2016. She finished her career with a lifetime .319 batting average, seven home runs, 122 RBIs, 31 doubles, and a .960 career fielding percentage.
She helped lead the program to four ACC titles and four Super Regional berths during her playing career, as well as two trips to the Women’s College World Series. As a student assistant coach in 2018, she was part of the staff that guided the program to their first national championship.
