Southeast Missourian basketball player of the year: Work ethic key to Central senior's success

Of all the adjectives used to describe the play of Alayah Cooper-Johnson, one stands out above the others.

Relentless.

She has to be. Central's standout senior forward has spent the better part of her fledgling basketball career proving any and all doubters wrong. Too slow defensively? Work to become the team's defensive stopper, defending the opponent's best player game in, game out. An offensive liability? Develop a jump shot that defenses must respect to complement a devastating presence around the rim. Can't hit free throws? Practice them for hours on end and enjoy a nearly 17 percent improvement at the line from the year before.

Too short to play forward? Practice footwork and technique under the basket that leads to an average of nearly 12 rebounds a game, including an eye-popping six offensive boards per contest.

Cooper-Johnson's relentless work ethic has allowed her to accomplish each of these things and more this past season. It's also earned her recognition as the Southeast Missourian's girls Player of the Year.

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Central’s Alayah Cooper-Johnson recorded double figures in points and rebounds in 18 of Central’s 26 games this past season. (Fred Lynch)

Add another accolade to Cooper-Johnson's impressive resume. The Tigers played the bulk of this past season without star forward Chelsea Vinson, who saw action in just four games before a knee injury sidelined her the rest of the campaign. With Vinson relegated to the bench, Cooper-Johnson stepped up and assumed the mantle of command for a squad that sorely craved a floor leader.

Others might have wilted under the pressure.

Not Cooper-Johnson.

"Alayah became a leader," said her coach at Central, Sherri Shirrell, a former player at both Central and Southeast Missouri State who knows a little bit about leadership. "She wasn't necessarily a leader before, because we always had someone kind of in that role. She was that kid that played hard all the time. Really stepped into that role and excelled with it as a leader. Not really a vocal leader, but just by example every day in practice and how hard she worked pushing herself. And everybody else saw that, and our younger kids really just embraced it and went with it through the season."

The Tigers' season had its ups and downs, but throughout it all, Cooper-Johnson was staggeringly consistent. She enjoyed a early-season stretch of 10 straight games reaching double figures in both points and rebounds. The Tigers were 4-2 heading into the annual Kelso Supply Holiday Classic at the Show Me Center the week before Christmas. Wins over Sikeston -- a game in which Cooper-Johnson's 29 points were four more than the entire Bulldogs team scored -- and Jackson earned Central a berth in the championship game against upstart Saxony Lutheran.

"I feel that's when I was at my best," Cooper-Johnson said. "As a team, we were winning. And I was getting better, progressing as a player."

Then the bottom fell out for Central. Cooper-Johnson watched helplessly from the low block as two Saxony free throws with a half-second left on the clock wrested the championship trophy from the Tigers' grasp. The loss was the first of six straight for Central and the start of a 1-10 stretch that tested the mettle of both the Tigers and their floor leader.

"I felt we just needed to regroup as a team," Cooper-Johnson said. "Get our heads screwed on right, play the type of basketball we were playing at the beginning of the season."

Cooper-Johnson chose to lead by example. She scored 14 points and pulled down 17 rebounds while playing all 32 minutes of a 50-40 win over St. Louis Rosati-Kain in early February that spurred the Tigers to five wins in their next six games. The lone loss in that stretch was a 75-27 defeat to state-ranked Dexter in which Cooper-Johnson was limited to just eight points -- the only game all season in which she was held below double figures in scoring.

She responded with a 13-point, 20-rebound effort in a 38-28 win over Sikeston, and erupted for 22 points and 17 rebounds in a district tournament-opening victory over the Bulldogs 10 days later. Central's 12-14 final record belies its tough Class 4 schedule.

"I feel pretty good about [the season]," Cooper-Johnson said. "We had a pretty good team this year. I think the team worked together pretty good at the end."

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Cooper-Johnson's season-long performance is even more impressive considering opposing coaches spent much of their practice time devising defenses to stop the 5-foot-8 dynamo's numerous forays to the hoop.

"As an opposing coach, she's one of the hard ones to defend because she's so dangerous," said Notre Dame coach Renee Peters, whose squad ended Cooper-Johnson's and Tigers' season with a 65-41 win in a Class 4 district semifinal. "She has so many tools that she can use. She's got speed, she can jump, she can shoot, she can penetrate, she can rebound. She'[s one of those few players that we'll focus on and make sure someone's on her the whole time because she's so talented."

As much as Cooper-Johnson brings to the floor offensively, it's her defensive presence that also causes opposing coaches to lose sleep.

"The first thing is you have to try to box her out defensively," said Jackson coach Tyler Abernathy, who squad split a pair of games with Central in which Cooper-Johnson averaged 19 points. "She's a relentless rebounder. You have to keep her off the boards. If you didn't do that, she was gonna get all of them."

Abernathy watched as Cooper-Johnson became less of a role player and more of a floor general, handling the ball against pressure while maintaining her high defensive standards.

"She became a good on-ball defender," he said. "She would be guarding our post player, but then there were times she would come out and defend our point guard."

Her persistent peskiness defensively allowed her to match her steals total from a year ago, collecting a team-high 89 thefts, including seven in a loss at Farmington and six three other times -- all wins.

Despite her increased ball-handling chores, Cooper-Johnson committed just 74 turnovers, six fewer than her junior season. She improved her free-throw percentage from 46.9 percent as a junior to 63.6 as a senior and her scoring average from 12.9 to 19.2 per game while shooting 44.8 percent from the field.

"Last year her free throw percentage was awful -- I don't recall what it was, but she did increase that quite a bit," Shirrell said. "She developed a little mid-range jump shot, but always has been really strong around the basket. Her left hand improved tremendously. I think a lot of times she was stronger going to the basket with her left than she was with her right. But her offensive skills are probably where she developed the most."

Shirrell said an early-season tournament at Cedar Hills Northwest served as Cooper-Johnson's coming-out party.

"She was just outstanding," Shirrell said of Cooper-Johnson's performance in the season-opening 72-47 win over Hillsboro where she scored 27 points despite playing only half the game because of foul trouble. "That just carried over to the next night, and her rebounding just started increasing. That first night she didn't really have to rebound -- we were shooting layups a lot -- but I think at that point we realized exactly how much potential she had, and I think she did, too. And she showed that leadership ability by how she plays. Leading by example. I think at that point ... it just kind of started clicking for her."

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"Leading by example" is something Cooper-Johnson does day in and day out, not only in games, but also in practices and during workouts away from the gym. It's helped her improve from a hard-working player devoid of a shot into an effective all-around player on both ends of the court.

"One of our first games her freshman year ... the girl went out and had 17 or 18 rebounds," Shirrell remembers. "Couldn't put the ball in the hole on offense, but just was a rebounding machine. You could see the athletic ability in her at that point. The defense and the rebounding has always been very easy for her, but the offense she's really had to work at, and over the last two years she's really improved in those areas. I thought she was really strong around the basket."

It's that work ethic Shirrell sees rubbing off on the Tigers' younger players, and it's a trait Shirrell sees as Cooper-Johnson's legacy at Central.

"She came in every day and worked her tail off in practice," Shirrell said. "If we're gonna get this program going in the right direction, continue to build, that's something we can build on, and that is just hard work. I think a lot of our younger kids saw that this year, and they're excited about the future, they're excited about playing this summer and working together and winning the district championship."

They'll have to do that without Cooper-Johnson, who is taking her talents to nearby Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo., in the fall. There she plans to play basketball while majoring in criminal justice.

"I feel I can bring a high intensity level and energy and work ethic," she said. "I always work hard, I'm always ready to work."

Playing collegiately close to her hometown played an important role in her decision to sign with the Cardinals.

"I took that in mind when choosing where I want to go," Cooper-Johnson said. "It's not too close, but it's not too far. My family and friends can come and watch me play if they want to."

Cooper-Johnson's energy and work ethic should fit in well with the Cardinals, who finished 21-8 a year ago.

"Alayah is going to be a great player for the Lady Cards and we are excited about her energy and intensity," Mineral Area assistant coach Briley Milfed said in a release.

But Cooper-Johnson's long-term goals don't end there. Her dream is to play at the University of Tennessee and -- perhaps? -- in the WNBA.

"Through extra-hard work, possibly," she said.

If that's what it takes, don't bet against her.