Picture courtesy of Tanner Colvin
WICHITA — Jason Hooper decided the time was finally right.
Moments after his Salina South boys basketball team completed its season Friday with a 61-33 loss to two-time defending champion Kapaun-Mt. Carmel in a Class 5A sub-state final, he informed the players that their last game would also be his last as the Cougars coach.
“I told the guys that this is my last game as the head coach here for a while,” said Hooper, who spent a combined 20 seasons as a South head coach, taking over the boys program in 2013-14 after seven seasons leading the Cougar girls. “I’m stepping down just to be a better dad for a little bit.”
Hooper won 214 games as a South head coach, including 115 in 13 seasons with the boys. His resignation came after one of his most successful seasons with the boys team, which finished with a 16-9 record. The 16 victories matched the 2020-21 season, when the Cougars finished 16-5.
“When I do something, I do it 100%,” Hooper said. “And with my daughter having more active tournaments with her golfing, and a lot of those tournaments all over the country and happening in the winter and really year-round, it was a situation where I was having to start making decisions on trying to be at two places at one time and not being able to do that.”
“Which am I going to prioritize? Obviously, basketball was my choice all the way up until the point at which, last night, I decided it was time to step away.”
The decision did not come as a shock to South athletic director Ryan Stuart, though the timing caught him off guard.
“Coach and I had discussions, obviously, but he 100% deserves to tell the kids when he felt like it was right,” Stuart said. “He felt, after the game tonight, that he was going to let his kids know.”
“He’s been a coaching mainstay of Salina South basketball for as long as I’ve been here — 20, 25-plus years — and he’s just pure class. Every person would feel comfortable with him leading their kid. He does things the right way, he demands things out of kids and he’s just a great person.”
Hooper, who will continue to teach and coach the boys and girls golf teams at South, cited family as his primary reason for giving up his basketball duties.
“My daughter was born without one hand, and she has been accepted into an adaptive golf program that does a lot of things nationally,” he said. “It’s called the North American One-Armed Golfers Association, and actually my wife and I have kind of taken on the organizational part of the junior program.”
“And so, there’s another thing that is taking up a lot more time for myself and just trying to organize those trips and stuff.”
But even with Hooper putting family first, that was not necessarily an easy sell.
“My daughter was not really happy with my decision,” he said. “She loves the idea of dad being basketball coach, and that’s definitely a part of her life that she’s going to miss as well.”
“And my wife loves the (players), having them over and making them Jello punch cake and all the special things that we did. But it was just a situation where two things were starting to interfere with each other were starting to interfere with each other and one of them had to go.”
Stuart made clear that the decision to step down was Hooper’s alone.
“He’s not leaving the school. He’s an outstanding teacher and he does a great job with both of our golf programs,” said Stuart, who succeeded Hooper as South girls basketball coach before becoming athletic director. “There’s obviously some family things that deserve his time more than basketball does at the moment.”
“There’s many, many, many reasons to respect Jason Hooper and how good of a family man he is. For family to be his priority right now is not a shock to me in the least.”
Hooper leaves South basketball along with a six-member senior class that included four of the Cougars’ five starters.
“These guys are always going to have a special place in my heart,” Hooper said. “They sent me out on the right note. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done tonight, but we had a great season.”
