Of the four seniors on the WSU women’s basketball team, guards Dawnyelle Awa, Alexas Williamson and Taylor Edmondson and forward Mariah Cooks, Awa is the only regular starter of the bunch at point guard.

With nine underclassmen and a constellation of some of the Pac-12’s most promising talent, this season has, in a way, been a bit of a transition period for the program.

As young players like the team’s leading scorer in freshman forward Borislava Hristova nurture their raw abilities into a skill set suited for the Pac-12 and Head Coach June Daugherty brings in a skilled recruiting class that features five-star guard Chanelle Molina, these four seniors have been asked to show the new faces the ropes all season long for the Cougs (14-15, 5-13).

Edmondson and Williamson have made just one start apiece in their careers at WSU, filling the role of providing scoring and focus off the bench, but it is Cooks, who started all 32 games for Daugherty last year and made two starts her freshman year, who knowingly has lived through the most substantial change of fortune.

With her family in attendance, it was unusual to hear Cooks’ name called out in the starting lineup introductions this past Saturday against Utah. A three-year captain and starter at forward every game last year, Cooks made the choice in the fall, however, to give up her spot in the starting lineup and accept a sixth-man role.

“Selfless,” sophomore guard Caila Hailey said of Cooks’ decision. “I know how much (starting) does mean to her. How she adjusted from starting last year to coming off the bench this year, I don’t think it changed her game all that much. She’s still scoring, she’s still getting rebounds, she’s still playing her game.”

Averaging 7 points per game and 4.4 rebounds, a player who works so hard that Daugherty described her as a “bull in a china shop” on the court, such a sacrifice from Cooks embodies the legacy her senior class will leave behind both as players who helped turn this program around and in the WSU community.

“Honestly it wasn’t (a difficult choice),” Cooks said. “I love this group of girls, I love this team. So whatever’s best, I’m 100 percent willing to do. So being able to humble myself and knowing that I’m going to do what’s best for these girls.”

A leader from the beginning

From Santa Maria, California, Cooks’ first experiences with basketball involved two-hour drives throughout southern California in her middle school and AAU years to play up in competition on teams that she did not always receive copious amounts of playing time from.

Once a second-grader playing on a team of fifth graders, taking 10 minutes to complete the drill of dribbling the basketball across the court, Cooks was not intent on playing basketball in high school initially. A three-year letter winner in volleyball as well, it was soccer that first spoke to her as the sport to invest all of her energy and passion into.

Playing both sports at the same time allowed Cooks to realize that basketball was the sport she truly could be great at if given all that she has. Filling the role of vice president in ASB all throughout high school and a leader in her church, what Cooks lacks in flashiness or a dazzling style of play is made up in whole through everything else it takes to be a basketball player.

“I’ve always been kind of the underdog,” Cooks said. “I didn’t grow until I was a sophomore in high school- I was 5-4, I was a point guard. Always playing up, always having that chip on my shoulder, always knowing that I was going to be the hardest working player on the floor. Just keeping that mentality today – always working hard, always doing the little things that may not be glorified or highlighted.”

This underdog mentality was not lost on Daugherty and her staff in Cooks’ high school days. In fact, it’s what landed Cooks a scholarship from WSU among offers from Georgia, Penn, Princeton, Pepperdine and Long Beach State and gave her the resolve to play a bit undersized at her position in the Pac-12.

“What happened was that Mariah blind committed, she called a verbal without ever having visited the school,” Daugherty said. “She had already done research on the school with law and her wanting to be a judge and then she called me one day and she said, ‘I know I can play in the Pac-12. You’re the only ones who have offered me and I already know about the academics and if you want, I’ll go ahead and commit now and just visit later. I don’t want to lose a chance at a scholarship.”

“And along with that she said, ‘You’re never going to have to worry about me being in the gym, you’re never going to have to worry about me outside of basketball.’ She’s lived up to her word,” Daugherty said.

Daugherty never doubted Cooks’ ability to perpetuate the vision she has for this program as it grows from the time she took over as head coach back in 2007 when there were only seven eligible players to practice.

Having an individual like Cooks in the program was paramount as Daugherty guided the program to back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in decade, and has since been of equal importance from the time of her decision to relinquish her starting spot.

“Some of it is just productivity from others in her position, in particular Lou Brown, and some of it is that we wanted to make sure as we rotated some of these younger kids, that we had good leadership on the floor, and Mariah definitely provides that,” Daugherty said.

Coming out of that discussion with Daugherty, Cooks knew everyone on the team was awaiting her response to see how she handled the alteration. In her words, the collected manner in which she took the news was something that really helped strengthened the bond of this team and its respect for her as a leader.

“If it was really important to me, I think that they would have adjusted the lineup,” Cooks said. “But they really emphasized the point that the starters don’t matter. They wanted this team to be great and to be great, they needed that from me. But if I really wanted to start, they would have given it to me, but knowing that I was okay with putting the team first really helped their decision.”

Daugherty knew that Cooks would not balk at giving up her long-held spot as a starter to a freshman or sophomore as she tries to morph this program from just being good enough to compete in the Pac-12 and make the postseason to a recognized figure on the map of women’s basketball on the West Coast.

The joy Cooks has found through helping people is renowned all throughout Cougar basketball. In her aspirations to become a judge through her political science major and to use her knowledge of the law to assist in the recovery of human trafficking victims and work with the church, nobody doubts her ability to grasp the meaningful scope of such situations.

Fresh off a dislocated shoulder and recurring ankle injury in the past year, Cooks was OK with taking a servant-leader role her senior year in order develop Daugherty’s program, a trait she picked up from her dad.

“Very selfless – he’s very much a servant leader, wanting to do everything for everyone else but also taking care of himself in that same token but not in a selfish way by any means,” Cooks said of her father and biggest inspiration. “In watching how hard he’s worked his whole life to provide for our family, I would say that he’s helped shape me into the leader that I am today on and off the court.”

Cooks, and the other three seniors as well, took care of the program that has provided them with a family and home these last four years in that same sentiment. It made the prospect of saying goodbye this Saturday a demanding challenge.

Everything Cooks has given to Cougar women’s basketball during her time spent in Pullman made her arguably the strongest face of leadership Daugherty has had in her three years as captain.

In a sense, the humility and gracious nature reflected in Cooks’ character in her choice this fall to be a leader on the second unit for younger players is one of countless microcosms of the layered and carefully woven character she is.

“She’s very special,” Hailey said of playing alongside Cooks. “It’s sad that she’s going to be leaving us soon. Just one of those hard workers that you can never not talk about. In the future, she will be a player that they will bring up a lot as far as someone who was dedicated, worked hard, had heart, passionate. Just someone who loved the game.”

Cooks described players like herself and the other three seniors as the “foundation and cornerstone of everything” for this still-growing program since 2011. With all of the skilled players waiting in Daugherty’s recruiting wings and those who already saw a spike in minutes played via the efforts of Cooks and the other three seniors, the hope for Cooks is that the program continues to excel linearly.

Thinking about the prospect of returning to Jack Friel Court five years down the road as an alumnus, Cooks knows that because of the work that has already been done in which she was a focal point of, watching one of the Pac-12’s top team’s with Daugherty at the helm is not a far cry from reality.

“I think she’s going to look back in a few years and say, ‘Gosh, I think I was a really substantial part of how Bobi and Alexys and Nike and Krystle and Maria are going to do as future Cougs because I was there kind of (at the) grassroots, the foundation of really helping them understand how hard you’ve got to work, how dedicated you’ve got to be,” Daugherty said of Cooks’ legacy.

With the conference tournament set to begin in two days, the time spent watching Cooks and the entire senior class is drawing ever-closer to a close, but the end of this chapter in Cooks’ path is just the start of narrative of her living out a virtuous life that touches everything and everyone she encounters, making them better off for having known her.

“Pullman was where I found myself,” Cooks said. “Pullman was where I established who I am. That has helped change my whole life and my future and who I am. I have the community to thank for basketball. I can’t put it into words how thankful I am for my experience here at Washington State. This will always be home, for sure. Wherever I am in the world, Pullman’s home.”