Broken Bow girls head basketball coach Kelly Cooksley announced this week that he would be stepping down after leading the Broken Bow program for the past nine years. Cooksley took over the Broken Bow girls basketball program in the 2017-2018 season following a six year run as head coach of the Axtell girls basketball team. Cooksley visited with KCNI/KBBN sports about his decision.
“There’s a few things. I would say the biggest thing is I have two young kids for those of the people that don’t know. A fourth grader going to be a fifth grader and a kindergartener going to be a first grader and they have activities and things like that and I was missing a few of those and it was just one of those things where you know, like for instance we’re out in Ogallala on my birthday and playing a game and I find out my daughter hits a game winning shot in a game and I’m not there. It was just one of those things where I just had to sit down and reflect and really pray on it that this is what I wanted to do and this is where the good Lord led me and I’m content with that decision.”
During Cooksley’s nine years as head coach, Broken Bow never had a losing season. In that time period, Broken Bow girls basketball enjoyed four seasons of 20 wins or more, appeared in six district finals, and made three state tournament appearances. Between the 2017-18 and 2021-22 seasons, Broken Bow won five consecutive Southwest Conference Tournament titles. Cooksley said all of that success is because of the tremendous players he had the opportunity to coach.
“Yeah, I mean we’ve had a ton of individual accomplishments and team accomplishments. I think setting the record of wins in a season, that one was an awesome one. So we’ve had some incredible players.”
Cooksley said he is extremely grateful for the community support that exists behind Broken Bow girls basketball and all Broken Bow athletics.
“It was just tremendous support and I can speak for all of our kids. They feel it every time and it’s a very, very, very, very special place and that’s one thing that I’m definitely going to miss is just the community support.”
Cooksley will continue to teach at Broken Bow Public Schools as well as continue in his role as girls golf head coach.
Listen to our full visit with Coach Cooksley
