Sidney Cooks ready to display her skills in the McDonald's All-American game
CHICAGO - Sidney Cooks was always the tallest and she was always advanced.
When the Kenosha St. Joseph standout first started playing basketball in kindergarten she towered over the other girls so much that she had to carry ID to prove she was the same age as the other girls. By the time she was in the third grade she was playing with girls a year or two older. She got her first scholarship offer – Purdue beat everyone to the punch – in seventh grade.
Cooks easily could have been left alone to roam the paint and still dominate games with her length and athleticism.
What has made Cooks special are the ball skills she brings with her 6-foot-4 frame. She can put the ball on the floor and get to spots or pick it up and make good decisions. Cooks is comfortable facing the basket and was good enough shooting three-pointers during her prep career that she hit 40.4% (65 of 161) from beyond the arc.
“Terry Bennett when I played with the ABC Knights in Milwaukee, that’s where I got my versatility from,” Cook said, referring to her former club coach. “He pretty much let me do anything. I just started developing a jump shot, and then I’d be like can I bring the ball up and have the guards go to the post. It started off as fun, just wanting to bring it up and then realizing I can actually do this.”
Cooks was in middle school at the time. It was perhaps the start of what landed the Michigan State recruit on arguably prep basketball’s biggest stage.
The McDonald’s All-American game will be played Wednesday at the United Center, and Cooks will be on the floor in her customary No. 10 jersey, playing for the West squad. The girls game starts at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2. The boys game begins at 6 and will be shown on ESPN.
Cooks will join DSHA’s Arike Ogunbowale (2015) and Racine Case’s Samantha Logic (2011) as the only girls in state history to play in the game.
Cook’s combination of size, skill set and national team résumé made her an easy choice for the game. And once here, she lived up to her billing by beating six All-Americans for one of four spots in the three-point shooting competition at the Powerade Jam Fest on Monday. She took third.
“I was the only post player, on the bright side,” Cooks said.
Cooks averaged 27.6 points, 13.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game for St. Joseph this past season, leading the Lancers (18-8) to the sectional final in Division 4 before losing to eventual state champion Howards Grove by two points.
She posted 20 double-doubles in scoring and rebounding, shot 53.7% overall and finished her career with 1,909 points.
Her year came on the heels of two national team experiences the previous off-season.
She played on the 3X3 team that won a silver medal at the FIBA U18 World Championship and then won a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
Cooks averaged 10.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game for the U18 team at the Americas Championship.
The McDonald’s game has offered her the chance to reunite with those team members and play one more time in front of her family and classmates.
“It’s going to be huge,” Cooks said with a smile. “I know a lot of people are coming down from my school. They’re just taking the day off. My whole family will be here. There will be a lot of Cooks people.”
Cooks' goal is to post a double-double, which would give her the most productive performance of any state girls player in the game.
Logic, who played at Iowa and in the WNBA for one year, finished with four points on 2-for-7 shooting and grabbed four rebounds for the East in a 78-66 victory in 2011.
Ogunbowale, who just finished her sophomore season at Notre Dame, had nine points on 4-for-13 shooting and three assists in the East’s 89-87 victory two years ago.
“I think we’re all just trying to showcase our skills and just leave our names on the floor and show why we are here. That is the biggest thing,” Cooks said. “You get to the game, but people are like, ‘Can you hold to it. Is she as good as they say she is?' I think we all have that mindset of make sure you go and do what you’ve got to do, so they know I deserve to be a McDonald’s All-American.”