Kara Cook enters her 11th season with the Penn State women’s soccer program in 2022. The 2022 campaign marks her eighth season as the director of operations and performance leadership with the Nittany Lions. Cook served as the director of operations during her first three seasons at Penn State.

Cook has been in a coaching or mentoring role in collegiate athletics for over 20 years and her primary role with the women’s soccer team includes directing the team culture, leadership and player development programming.

Building a high-performance culture that can sustain success over time in a highly competitive environment takes a 360-degree approach. Establishing a culture that fosters growth and excellence begins with authenticity, vision, connection, ownership, and intentionality. Cook has built a unique approach to prioritizing team culture and periodizing effective leadership and player development programming throughout the year.

Since coming to Penn State 10 years ago, she has helped create an elite high-performance culture that has led to the highest team GPA at Penn State, 8 Big Ten Championships, 3 NCAA Sweet 16s, 4 Elite 8s, and 1 National Championship.

Cook’s other roles at Penn State include: daily operations, team travel and youth camps.

Prior to joining the Nittany Lions, Cook was previously an assistant coach for the Lock Haven men’s and women’s soccer programs for three seasons.

While at Lock Haven, Cook helped guide the men’s team to the 2011 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference regular season crown. The Bald Eagles earned Daktronics All-America, NSCAA All-Region and PSAC All-Conference honors during Cook’s three years.

Cook served as the top assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma from 2008-10. As an assistant with Oklahoma, she helped direct all facets of the program and helped recruit a nationally ranked 2010 recruiting class. She also helped direct the Sooners’ summer soccer camps.

Prior to her time with the Sooners, she was an assistant coach with the University of Kansas from 2005-08. While at KU, the Jayhawks never finished below fourth in the Big 12.

At Emporia State, Cook was named the 2004-05 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Coach of the Year. In 2004, she led the Hornets to a 10-8-2 record, marking the first winning season in the four-year history of the program. ESU placed third in the MIAA and climbed as high as fifth in the NSCAA/Adidas Central Region rankings.

From 2000-04, Cook served as the head coach at St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Oklahoma, for four seasons. Under her guidance, the team was able to advance to the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament all four seasons and to the NAIA Tournament in 2001.

Cook got her coaching career start as an assistant at Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma, from 1998-99. She holds a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) “A” coaching license.

Cook was a four-time All-American and four-time captain at NAIA Southern Nazarene University. She helped Nazarene advance to two NAIA National Tournaments. She graduated from Southern Nazarene University in 1997.