On Feb. 22, the St. Edward’s men’s basketball team celebrated an 84-71 win against West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX. The team’s win marked their first win in Canyon, along with another big feat — it commemorated Andre Cook’s 400th win in his career as a head coach. Cook, originally from upstate New York, has had a 29-year career coaching basketball — 21 of those coaching at the collegiate level. Cook reflects on the beginnings, the adversities and achievements he has endured in his ongoing career.

Cook started off his collegiate coaching career as head basketball coach for Hudson Valley Community College in 2004 and coached there for five years. When a long-time friend of his, Ryan Marks, began coaching at St. Edward’s, he was introduced to the campus and made a few visits to the hilltop. Eventually, Marks had gone on to coach at other universities and encouraged Cook to begin coaching at St. Edward’s. Cook explains that his fondness of the campus and the city and encouragement from his friend compelled him to make the decision to move from Albany, NY to Austin and start coaching the men’s basketball team in 2009.

“At the time I asked him, ‘Do you think I would have any chance at your job?’, and if he had said no I wouldn’t even really think much more about that,” Cook said. “But he said yes, and I really liked the school. So in 2009, we moved 2,000 miles from Albany, New York, and we’re now in Texas.”

Cook explained how this marks his 16th year as the head men’s basketball coach and went into depth about his past experience coaching the Hilltoppers. Though the team had a rocky start during his first three seasons as coach, Cook expressed how it was a learning period for him and the team to see what worked, not only for the team’s improvement, but also for him to gain more understanding of the team.

“We weren’t winning the first three years, so I had to figure out what works at St. Edward’s, what works for them and what we’re about,” Cook said. “Eventually, I think we got to know who we are.”

Finally, the team made a tremendous comeback, currently maintaining a 12-season winning streak, with Cook marking the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons as a coaching highlight of his on the hilltop.

“We’ve had 12 straight winning seasons now and we’ve got what type of recruits that work here, work at the school and work in the system that we want to play,” Cook said. “Over time, the highlights were ‘18-‘19 and ‘19-‘20, when we were 57-8 — Those back-to-back years of winning 57 games and only losing eight was clearly tremendous.”

Cook continues his streak of success this season, with the team’s winning stats at a current 20-11 record. The team’s performance has been triumphant throughout the season, but started with a setback. Cook explained how the season had an extremely rough start when team captain and senior Blake Nielsen sustained a major ACL injury during opening weekend, leaving him out for the remainder of the season and the team, and Cook with uncertainty. Cook stated that with their best player out, though emotionally and mentally difficult, he and the team made do, stepped up and persevered in the face of adversity.

“It hurt us with Blake out in many ways — emotionally, it hurt us on the court and at one point we were five and six in the league, but our guys have hung in there and I’m proud of them,” Cook said. “We’re coming around, and that’s a credit to the guys because we lost some tough games earlier in the year. It’s been a life lesson that when it’s bad and it’s not going great to just be able to hang in there, stay in the fight, and our guys have.”

Cook and the team recently celebrated their latest win against St. Mary’s on March 1, marking the end of the regular season and advancing the team to the playoffs.

Throughout Cook’s career, he has had his fair share of highs and lows of coaching on the hilltop. However, his achievements and willingness to lead his team through obstacles exemplify his commitment to his team, admiration of the sport and serve as a true testament to his continuous dedication as a coach.

“I’m proud of them, and they know that I am,” Cook said. “I am so grateful to my coaches growing up that gave me the passion and love for basketball and competition and a wantingness and a willingness to win.”