Softball ‘phenom’ signs with Pfeiffer
Editor’s note: Charly Cooper is the granddaughter of County Compass publishers, Jeff Aydelette and Flora Moorman.
Charly Cooper, a native of Bullock, NC near the Virginia border, is receiving the chance to continue her softball dream at the next level. She will play next season at Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, NC. The game of fast pitch softball has been her life since the ripe old age of 6. She cut her teeth locally playing in the Dixie youth organization, administrated by the Northern Granville Athletic Association. Then at 8 years old she started and will end her travel ball career playing with local standout organization Carolina Mash. Her tenure with the Mash, led to a lifelong love of the game, where she developed her skill set, and fueled her determination. With the Carolina Mash, she traveled along the mid-Atlantic states playing in hundreds of tournaments, winning countless championships, and MVP awards, over a span of eight years.
She also is a four-year starter at Vance Charter School, where she has posted some of the top softball statistics in school history. Over .500 career batting average, most runs scored, over .600 on base percentage. With Last season, being her strongest year to date, amassing over a .600 batting average, and zero errors at Short Stop, as she helped lead Vance Charter to a deep run in the NC State Playoffs.
At the end of the 20-21 Softball Season, she was ranked the #1 SS for batting average in North Carolina 1A Division for the junior class and eighth overall batting average in the state as SS in all divisions for the junior class. She is also ranked the #1 SS for Runs Scored in NC 1A Division for the junior class and #7 in the state overall as SS for Runs Scored for all classes. She was also an awarded an All-Conference selection as well at the end of the season.
For the last few years, Charly was having trouble deciding if she wanted to go to college, or join the military. Her love of softball obviously won out. She loves home, Granville County is in her blood, so when she began the process of deciding on a college or University to attend, she had some pretty specific criteria. She wanted to be within three hours from Bullock, a small school where she can get to know every one, and a winning softball program. So as the process continued, and some offers to play started to come in, if they didn’t meet the criteria, she immediately declined.
She was asked to attend a showcase camp at Pfeiffer, and right away she noticed an incredible culture. Pfeiffer Head Coach Monte Sherrill, who happens to be the winningest coach in North Carolina History, was leading the camp with his daughter – Pfeiffer softball standout and now assistant coach – Vada Sherrill.
“I could see this place was different from the start.” Cooper said. “The players were disciplined, and everyone knew what the other was going to do, and they all smiled and had fun”. Soon after the camp, the offer to play at Pfeiffer came in, and every offer and camp that she attended was compared back to Pfeiffer.
Then Coach Sherrill said: “Come on to play here and within three years, with our team and recruits, we will win a national championship!” That’s what sold her on Pfeiffer. “If I’m going to work hard and play, we might as well win,” exclaimed Cooper.
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