Pack Unlocked, Volume 3: Cole Cook

If you are a football player, be the best football player you can be. If you are a baseball player, be the best baseball player you can be.
If you are a broadcaster, be the best broadcaster you can be. If you are in the chess club, be the best chess player you can be. Whatever it is, be the best you can possibly be at it.
- From a paper written by Cole Cook during his senior year of high school

RALEIGH, N.C. - If you're going to have a conversation with Cole Cook about Cole Cook, pull up a chair.

Actually, make it a rocking chair. And go out on a front porch somewhere, maybe in the hills of Tennessee or somewhere in the west Georgia woods. Grab a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade or maybe some sweet tea.

With his slow southern drawl, his habit of droppin' the g's, his stories of getting baptized by his granddaddy or throwing rocks at his brother, that would seem like the best setting to get to know the Wolfpack's junior tight end.

But don't let those big brown eyes and soft-spokenness fool you. Behind that gentle demeanor is a competitor as fierce as any you'll find on a football field … or a baseball diamond … or a broadcasting booth … or even on the other side of a chess board. Competition is not something that Cook learned. It's something he was born with. It's in his DNA. It's as much a part of who he is as the height he inherited from his mother or the brown eyes that was passed down from his dad.

The DNA
Kelli Casteel didn't have a choice but to become an athlete. At the age of 12, she lost her mother to breast cancer, so much of her childhood was spent in the company of her two older brothers, Mike and Greg. Both brothers were athletes (Mike played defensive tackle at Tennessee from 1979-82, while Greg played on the d-line at Middle Tennessee from 1981-84), so she learned to compete early and often.

"I know it must've been hard on her growing up without her mother," says Cook. "She played basketball and volleyball and was really good at both."

In the end, Kelli would become the most highly-decorated athlete in her family as a basketball star. A 6'3 center, she earned a scholarship to play for the legendary Pat Summit at Tennessee. During her career (1989-92) with the Lady Vols, the team won two national titles, advanced to an Elite Eight and another Sweet 16. Kelli would end up earning NCAA Regional MVP honors as a senior.

While his mother was growing up just south of Knoxville, Cook's paternal grandfather Ervin was moving his family from place to place. His career vocation was being a preacher and a salesman, but his passion was baseball. So when his first son was born, he naturally named him after his favorite player: Stan Musial and it was only fitting that young Stan Cook gravitated towards his namesake's sport.

Stan started his collegiate baseball career at Walters State Community College and then played for two years at Western Kentucky before being drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1985. He continued to move around the country, but this time due to baseball. He played stints with the Boise Hawks and the Erie Sailors, before an injury forced him to stay a while with his parents, who were now living in Tennessee.

One night while he was recovering, he met a local basketball star at a party and the two athletes immediately hit it off. Their competitive natures may have had something to do with that chemistry.

"When they were dating they used to play 1 on 1," their oldest son laughs. "And not fun 1 on 1. Like hard! My dad and mom said they used to foul each other and everything and it would get heated. "

They waited until Kelli graduated from UT before getting married. In those pre-WNBA days, she had several opportunities to continue her career overseas. "My dad always told us, 'Your mom chose me over basketball,'" Cole says.

Kelli stayed in the game as the head women's coach at Maryville College (she actually took the job when current Wolfpack women's coach Wes Moore left to be Kay Yow's assistant coach at NC State in 1993). This time, she gave up basketball to be a mom.

The Competitive Cooks from Carrollton
Cole was born in Maryville and the family lived there until he was six. Then, the family of four (he was three when his brother Case was born), moved to New Jersey for a year. After that, they spent four years in Virginia, before settling in Carollton, Ga., in the middle of his fifth grade year.

With their athletic lineage, it was inevitable that the Cook brothers would end up involved in sports.

"I started playing basketball and baseball at four," Cook remembers. "My dad would have the net set up and we'd hit off the tee. We did soft toss into the net. He'd throw to us, take us to the field, hit pop flies. Any time we had free time we were outside playing and whenever Dad could he was helping us hit."

Come basketball season, it was Mom's turn. "The only coach I ever had in basketball growing up was my mom. She coached every team I played for. It was fun because I knew that she knew more than all the male coaches that we were playing against. When it comes to basketball, she doesn't play.

"It was good growing up with two parents who knew the correct techniques and fundamentals and the rules of the game teaching me and helping me get better. I always look up to my dad and my mom because I knew what good athletes they were and how hard they worked."

Football came a little later for Cook, not because neither parent had played that particular sport, but because you couldn't play tackle football until you were a little older. And what was the point of playing football if you couldn't tackle?

"My family enjoyed football and we always had them around the house. My dad told me that when I got old enough, we were going to try football and see how I liked it. So I went out there, seven years old at my first practice, and I did really good and I loved it."

The years at the Cook home weren't divided in months, but in seasons. In the fall, the boys played football. In the winter, basketball, and in the spring, baseball. Both boys inherited the competitive natures of their parents.

"I sent him to the hospital one time," Cook says of his brother Case. "I was in fifth grade and he was in second and we got in a fight. He picked up a rock and threw it at me and hit me in the hand. So I picked one up and threw it at him and hit him in the head. He was yelling, 'You killed me! You killed me!' We both got in bad trouble over that one."

That was the end of the rock throwing, but the competition was just getting started.

"Oh my gosh, it was ridiculous sometimes!" Cook laughs. "Anything and everything was a competition. We could be on vacation and it would be something like who can hike to the top of the mountain fastest. When we play cards with my grandmother, an argument might break out about what rules we're playing by. It's just how our family is. Pick anything, there's going to be some type of argument about who's winning and who's losing."

Cole and Case used to go out in the front yard and play what they called "one-on-one football" where the rules were simple: one brother tried to score and the other brother tried to stop him.

"We were always taught to be a gentleman off the field, but when you step on the field, it's time to go."

The Cook boys weren't only competitive against each other. "One time I got in trouble in PE for yelling at some kid because we lost a game," Cole remembers. "I probably shouldn't have been yelling at him, but that was just how I was. I don't care if we were playing kickball in PE or it was a football game I was trying to win. And one time my brother got in trouble for being too aggressive at recess."

Focus on Football
As soon as he played his first snap of football, Cole knew that was going to be his sport. By the time he was in middle school, his focus was honing in on football, so he decided to cut basketball in order to gain weight and lift in the winter.

"I knew at a pretty early age, around 6th or 7th grade, that I wanted to play college football. As soon as I started getting into middle school I wanted to start making that my priority. I still liked basketball but I didn't like it enough to put it above something that would help me get better at football. I didn't want to work to gain weight and then lose it during basketball season."

Such a mature, goal-oriented, focused decision might be rare for most adolescents, but it came naturally for the son of Kelli and Stan Cook.

"I'm sure I thought about playing at the next level a lot more than the average kid did," Cook says. "My parents always told me and my brother we could do anything we wanted to do in life as long as we worked hard and did right. They told me, 'you're good enough to play any sport you want to play at the next level if you choose to do that but you've got to choose to put the work in.'"

Cole took that to heart. He decided that a goal of just playing college football wasn't high enough. He wanted division I college football. Then he decided that he wanted to play as a freshman for a division I team and not be redshirted.

Team First
As focused as he was on achieving his goals, Cole never thought about putting his personal dreams ahead of his team's success.

"That's something else my parents taught me. Even though I wanted to play D1 somewhere as bad as I did, I never put that ahead of my teammates and us trying to win a state championship. That was always the first thing with football – what were we going to do as a team to help us win a state championship. I understood if I just focused on that, then the college stuff would come with it."

Cook enjoyed great success during his high school football career. He earned all-state honors as a senior and led his team to the state championship game at the Georgia Dome.

He considered it a disappointing season. He wrote a paper about it later that year:
Mediocrity should not be programmed in our minds. Second place should not exist... I am not happy about going to the Georgia Dome to play for a football state championship my senior year. I am not happy about finishing 13-2. I am not happy about a runner-up trophy. The goal was not to win 13 games. The goal was to win a state championship. That feeling of losing is what drives me.

There is where my teammates are
As close as he is to his parents and his brother and despite the love he had for his high school teammates, after Cook made the decision to come to NC State and moved to Raleigh, he has never looked back. College football? Check. Division 1? Check. Playing as a true freshman? Check.

"I tell people all the time, I've never been homesick since I came to NC State. Not one time since I've been here. I just got to the point where there was nothing left for me to accomplish back home.

"I love it back home. But up here? This is where I work. This is where I live now. This is where my teammates are. I can talk to my teammates about anything. Everybody on this team knows everybody. You might not be best friends with everybody, but I've had a conversation with every person on this team at some point. Seniors hang out with freshmen, and everybody has a good relationship with everybody else."

In every single game he's ever played for the Wolfpack, either Kelli or Stan has been there. In fact, they've both been there for all but two games in his career, and that was when Case had games at the same time. Sometimes, they might not make it to their seats until after warmups, but Cook knows that they're always there.

"When we lose a game and I come off the field and people come up to me and say, 'You played so good!' I can't stand it! I just hate losing so bad. My parents know not to say, 'It's ok.' It's not OK!

"It wasn't always like they taught me that you've gotta win all the time. They taught me sportsmanship. But at the end of the day, you play to win. You don't play for participation. You play to win the game. People know me walking around all nice, but that's how I am when I'm not in competing mode."

Big Lanky White Dude
The usually-stoic Cook smiles as he admits that sometimes he's underestimated … by opponents or even his teammates. "They see this big, lanky white dude who's slow and don't jump real high. Then I go out there and start playing and people are like 'oh!'

Cook says his role on this year's team is definitely that of a leader. "My role is to do whatever they need me to do. I tell people all the time when they ask me about statistics that I don't worry about those. I just do whatever my coaches and my team need me to do to help us win.

"I mean, personal stuff is great and I want to accomplish stuff personally as a player, but in the end I want the team to win. If I had to pick between being an All-American or winning the ACC I would pick winning the ACC every time. I think on the team, guys know that I'm somebody that they can come and talk to and somebody that they know is always gonna tell 'em like it is and never sugarcoat anything. Somebody they know they can look to do to the right thing."

In My Blood
Cook says he doesn't remember a day in his life that didn't involve competition of some kind. When he goes home, he and Case, who is now a Division I prospect himself, are constantly going at it … in the pool, playing basketball. The family even has what they call a "Turkey Day Decathlon Trophy."

"My parents are so great because they understand how I think – because I think like them. Other parents might not have any idea about competitive nature, winning or losing. A true athlete is always competing. There's never a time when you've arrived. There's always something you can get better at.

"That's in my blood. That's how I was raised. There's still a lot more I want to accomplish, but know if I stick to what my parents have taught me and continue to do things the right way, I will."

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