Suzie Cook takes on role as Troup interim volleyball coach – LaGrange Daily News

The Troup High volleyball team will have a new voice leading the charge in the 2025 season in interim coach Suzie Cook. There is no controversy or late firing/hiring; this has been planned since spring as the team’s head coach, Savannah Barnett, is stepping away temporarily to have her first child. In steps Cook, an academic coach at Long Cane Elementary School and local club volleyball coach.

“I didn’t know how big my role would be at first, I thought I’d mostly just come out and help, but I’m excited to be leading practices,” Cook said.”It’s really thrilling because with club ball you’re just building towards a tournament at a time, but this is an entire season where every win and loss means more.”

“It’s still kind of surreal,” she added, chuckling. 

The Tigers needed some coaching reinforcements heading into the 2025 season. It is not just Barnett who will be missing time on the court this season; Berkley Butler, the team’s lead assistant coach, recently welcomed her first child. With JV coach Jennifer Ward the only other coach on staff heading into the offseason, the Tigers had to look outside for help. 

Barnett feels strongly that they found the right woman for the job.

“She has been tons of help and honestly we couldn’t have done it without her,” Barnett said. “She loves the sport and wants to be around it and she’s such a great asset for the girls to have. We were scrambling for a minute, at one point I thought I was going to have to give birth one day and coach volleyball the next, so we are so glad to have her.”

Cook has a strong athletic and coaching background. A graduate of LaGrange High School, where she excelled in soccer and volleyball, Cook went on to play the former at LaGrange College. 

Cook, alongside her husband and current Long Cane Middle School baseball coach Rusty, coached the LaGrange High girls’ soccer team to kickstart her coaching career. She also previously served as an assistant coach for the Long Cane Middle School volleyball team. 

When Cook’s daughter Emma found her way to the volleyball courts, Cook felt a calling to return to volleyball for the first time since she was suiting up for the Grangers.

“When Emma was in middle school, the coach there asked me to help out because she knew I used to play volleyball, but honestly that was the first time I had really been around it since I graduated from LaGrange,” Cook said, laughing. “The love for the game was always there.”

The family bonds on the team are strong. Emma is more than just a player for the Tigers, she is a leader right alongside her mother.

“She might give me an eye roll on occasion, but we usually have a group that will stay 30 minutes or so after practice and she is usually leading them,” Cook said. “I still have a hard time trying to get her to call me coach on the court.”

With games a month out, there is still a ton of work to be done before the season starts. The Tigers will be looking to replace five seniors who started on last year’s team. Despite this, Cook is pleased with where her young Tiger squad stands right now. 

“We are young and that might be a problem if so many of them didn’t play club,” she said. “Most of them are playing volleyball year round, so even though we are young, I think they will grow into a good team as long as they stick together.”

There is not a tinge of regret in Cook’s voice. She is having the time of her life.

“I love every second of it,” Cook said. “I wouldn’t get up here at 7 a.m. every morning in the summer if I didn’t love it.”