Longtime Scott County Central boys basketball coach Cookson enjoys action from stands

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Ronnie Cookson was sitting in the front row at Mizzou Arena as the Scott County Central boys basketball team played for the Class 1 state championship Saturday.

But this year, for the first time in 18 trips the Braves have made to the final four, he was sitting across the floor from the SCC bench.

"I feel real good," Cookson said with a laugh and a big smile before the Braves' 79-72 win over Drexel. "I'm not nervous now."

Cookson led the Braves to 13 state titles as their coach. His teams finished second once and third once.

Still, he said the butterflies never went away.

"Yeah, yeah," he insisted. "I got nervous every game."

Cookson served as an assistant to Kenyon Wright during the last two seasons. He didn't go to practices but sat on the bench during games.

"I made him," Wright said. "I went and told him, I said, 'Look, I want you here.' This year those seniors were gone. These guys I brought up and everything. They knew what I expected of them. I've been there long enough that they know what I expect."

Cookson wore a navy blue shirt Saturday that matched the Georgetown Hoyas hat on his head.

He said he stayed on the bench as long as Georgetown freshman Otto Porter was on the SCC roster because that's what he'd promised to do.

"I promised Otto Porter Sr. that I'd stay until his son graduated -- Bubba," Cookson said, saying the promise was made just after he returned to the school in 2008. "I stayed four years with him. Then that was it."

Cookson and Wright still talk regularly throughout the season.

"Coach K does a real good job, and me and him talk all the time on the telephone," Cookson said, calling Wright by his nickname. "We just compare notes a little bit. He's doing a great job with them this year. I mean, really."

Wright listed Cookson, Bernie coach Brad Botsch, who he assisted for a season, and his high school coach David Heeb as influences during Saturday's postgame news conference.

"Coach Cookson knows a lot, and I use him as a reference all the time," Wright said. "I'll call him up all the time and ask him -- just like last year. If I need something, I'll call him up."

Cookson watched Thursday's semifinal at his home before driving up with his wife for Saturday's championship game.

He attended the team's practice Saturday morning and said a few words to the team.

"We had a little talk," he said.

Cookson said he told the team, "That they made it this far, it's time to go. Last game -- they don't need to save anything."

Wright insisted that his newest state ring wouldn't mean any more to him than the others just because it was the first without the coach who the school's gym is named after on the sideline.

"No," Wright said. "It don't mean anything. It don't mean nothing. ... He's been coming to the ballgames, and I wanted him to come to the ballgames. I made him. He wouldn't have been there last year if I hadn't made him be there."

While he and Cookson still discuss the X's and O's of the game, that's not how most of their talks start.

"Well, he likes to trap coyotes," Wright said with a laugh. "We talk about that a lot. He's either doing that or selling seed. That's one thing we talk about. That's always the conversation starters, coyotes and seed. But it always comes back to basketball."