New A&M-Commerce Athletic Director

By Danny Kambel A&M-Commerce Sports Information

Commerce, TX –

Following a nationwide search, Texas A&M University-Commerce President Keith D. McFarland has announced the hiring of Carlton Cooper as its new athletic director.

Cooper, who has spent the last nine years working for the athletic department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, comes with an extensive athletic background as a former student-athlete and as a supervisor of internal and external affairs within intercollegiate athletics. At A&M-Commerce, he will be responsible for the oversight of 11 intercollegiate sports that participate in the Lone Star Conference.

Since 2000, Cooper has served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Internal Operations at SMU, where he is responsible for the coordination of day-to-day internal operations of the athletic department while assisting the director of athletics in supervising and providing leadership for department initiatives. He has been involved in the development of long-range and annual operating plans. Those functions include: personnel, conference liaison, fund raising, facilities operations, facilities enhancement, sports supervision, game-day operations, sports scheduling, academics and making financial bids on conference and NCAA Championships. Cooper also oversees the following support areas: community and guest relations, equipment room, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, video operations, team travel, stadium maintenance/concessions and security operations. In addition, he has also served on multiple committees for the university, Conference USA, Western Athletic Conference and the NCAA.

Prior to his current position at SMU, Cooper served as the Athletic Department's Community Relations Director from 1998-2000. He founded the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP) for SMU and developed the curriculum for the SMU PIKE Big Brother Program (SMU/Dallas Public Schools Tutoring and Mentoring program). Cooper designed "Reading Our Way to College", a reading program for DISD fourth-grade students and created the SMU/MLK (Martin Luther King Center) "Road to the Pros" career lecture series featuring national sports, education and business leaders.

Cooper holds memberships to a number of organizations and serves as a board member for the Dallas All-Sports Association, SMU Advisory Board for the new student recreation center, Longhorn Hall of Honor, SMU Ex-Student Association, and the University of Texas Ex-Student Association. He also serves on the NCAA Championship Cabinet and is also involved in the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Dallas Asian and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, NACDA and the University of Texas Longhorn Foundation.

The Paris, Texas native was recently added to the Wall of Fame at the Boys and Girls Club of the Red River Valley. Cooper played college basketball at the University of Texas from 1982 to 1985 and was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks. He went on to serve as a player/coach in the Netherlands, New Zealand and Philippines before returning to Paris in 1994 to become the Head Boys Basketball Coach and with Assistant Principal duties at Paris High School.

Cooper earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Texas in 1985. A two-time member of the Dean's List, he received the Texas Teacher Certificate in 1985 as well. Cooper collected a graduate certificate in mediation/arbitration from SMU in 2000 and earned a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from SMU in December 2001. Cooper was a four-year letterwinner at Texas, where he also was an assistant coach when they won a regular season conference title in 1986.

He is the son of Clarence and Barbara Cooper of Paris, Texas is married to Niesje and they have four children, Brandon, Danielle, Chanel and Ava.

More on Carlton Cooper:
PERSONAL DATA
Hometown: Paris, Texas
Bachelor's: University of Texas-Austin (1985)
Master's: Southern Methodist University (2001)

Brief Employment History
1985 Dallas Mavericks (Drafted Player)
1985-87 University of Texas (Graduate Assistant Basketball Coach)
1986 Kaypro Basketball Stars - Netherlands (Professional Player/Coach)
1986 Manilla Beer Basketball Team - Philippines (Professional Player/Coach)
1987-1994 Nelson Basketball Association - New Zealand (Professional Player/Coach)
1994-1996 Paris High School (Head Basketball Coach/Assistant Principal Duties/Teacher)
1997-2000 Arlington Texans - Southwest Professional Basketball League (Head Coach/General Manager)
1998-2000 Southern Methodist University (Community Relations Director)
2000-present Southern Methodist University (Senior Associate Athletic Director/Internal Operations)

University of Southern California Athletic Director - Mike Garrett: "I would like to congratulate Texas A&M-Commerce for selecting Carlton Cooper as the next Athletic Director. He is very knowledgeable about college athletics and knows what it takes to create a successful department. I believe that Carlton will bring great insight and energy to an athletic program with great potential. Everyone is a winner in this selection."

Former SMU Athletic Director - Jim Copeland: "We really appreciated his enthusiasm and energy at SMU. He did a little bit of everything for us. I think he will suit Texas A&M-Commerce well."

SMU Head Men's Basketball Coach - Matt Doherty: "Carlton is a great guy that will do a terrific job of bringing the athletic department together along with creating a vision of success."

SMU Head Men's Soccer Coach - Schellas Hyndman: "We are very excited for Carlton Cooper as he realizes his dream and becomes the new Athletic Director at Texas A&M-Commerce. Carlton played a very important role in the success of SMU soccer, having reached the College Cup final four twice under his leadership. In addition, we hosted two soccer College Cups while Carlton was here at SMU. He's been a great friend to SMU soccer and will be missed."