Beyond the X: Demands come in many forms for high school football coaches

1. Finding balance
Cooper is the son of an educator. His dad, like Cooper, was a math teacher before advancing into administration.

When Cooper at an early age told his dad he wanted to be a coach and teacher, his pops looked him almost quizzically.

"You sure that's what you want to do?" he asked.

Cooper didn't blink or hesitate. He started assisting at Harbor (Sant Cruz, Calif.) while playing college baseball at Santa Clara University. When he was cut from the team his junior year, he became Harbor's full-time defensive coordinator.

By the time he was 24, he was the head coach there and later at his alma mater Aptos (Calif.). He brought a lot of energy, but not much balance.

"Back then I didn't know what I didn't know," he said. "I'd work 12-14 hours a day thinking this was the greatest thing ever. I had no time for a girlfriend, it was all teaching and football.

"Now I have a 6-year-old daughter (Miko) and been married (to Carol) going on 22 years and now you have to be able to balance everything. I know now that football is not more important than (family). It used to be football was more important and it got me in a lot of trouble. Now I love my wife and daughter a lot more than I love football. … But football is pretty close."

2. Type and grade A
Line coach Chet Dickson has been by Cooper's side the entire 17 years at Granite Bay, an affluent bedroom community near Sacramento where some of region's most famous either reside or have lived.

Among those are actor Eddie Murphy, Reds' manager Dusty Baker and a host of former and current Sacramento Kings, including Chris Webber, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Rick Adelman.

It's a community that expects excellence, in academics, athletics and the arts. Dickson said Cooper is the perfect man for the job.

"He's a type-A personality," Dickson said. "He's very focused and directed and very goal-oriented. Those are all things you want to teach young kids and athletes. Set a goal, pursue the goal, achieve the goal. That's where Ernie is coming from. It carries over to the team and coaches."

3. Pass the balance
Cooper loves to compete. But he vowed when he arrived at Granite Bay that he wouldn't worry about winning.

"All I ever wanted to do was build a program and surround myself with people who wanted to be around something special," he said. "I wanted a positive family atmosphere. I wanted our community to wrap themselves around the football program and say, ‘Boy that's a neat thing they've got going there and I want to be a part of it.'"

To that end, Cooper makes sure it's not all football 24/7, 12 months a year. He regulates that the day football ends, he doesn't see his players — other than weight training during school hours — until spring ball in May.

He highly encourages his players to play other sports and almost all do: wrestling, basketball, baseball, rugby, lacrosse, track and field.

It limits the Grizzlies sometimes in spring ball — the team's top two fly backs Tony Ellison and Lucas Baiocchi were running track during last week's 7-on-7 — but the peace of mind and working muscle in other areas is the balance Cooper seeks.

4. "Do your best, don't sweat the rest"
That was Cooper's very first and most important credo and it's tied directly to John Wooden's quote: "Success is peace of mind that comes from the self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best you are capable of becoming."

He has many more sayings he and the Grizzlies live by.

"The most important ability is dependability." — Cooper's response to that is "just show up." 

More credos on the wall:

* "Grizzly pride, Intelligence. Character. Tradition."

* "The spirit of camaraderie is born when people link their destinies and act as one to press for the same goals."

* "When things aren't going well: Weather the storm. Stay positive. Stay focused. It's never over until 0:00."

* "When things are going well: Handle the euphoria. Stay focused. Continue to execute. It's not over until 0:00."