Pennsville’s Hannah Cooksey, a big-time soccer scorer, surpasses 1,000 points in basketball

At halftime against Gloucester, Hannah Cooksey told her Pennsville basketball teammates:

“I don’t give a crap about scoring 1,000 points, I want to beat these girls tonight.”

It was one of the first moments that came to her coach Mike Hartman’s mind when he talked about what makes her such a great player: It’s Cooksey’s willingness not to score, if it happens to be what her team needs at the time.

On Jan. 25 — just one game after Pennsville beat Gloucester for the first time in more than a decade — Cooksey finally did net the 1,000th point of her high school career.

The milestone earned her the distinction of being just the second athlete in Pennsville history to score 1,000 points in basketball and 100 goals in soccer.

“It was a surreal moment,” said Cooksey, a senior point guard. “It was so exciting, and I have to say that, when it happened, it was like a weight off my shoulders.”

The only other player in Pennsville history to accomplish the feat happens to be Pennsville’s head girls’ soccer coach, Dawn Curry.

The two talked about it, and Curry encouraged Cooksey every step of the way, particularly during her rise to 100 goals.

“She would tell me to keep my head in each game — to try to block it out and not focus on [the milestone],” Cooksey said.

These were tasks that Cooksey described as being easier said than done.

Soccer is her main sport — she was a prolific scorer since her freshman year, and Pennsville made deep playoff runs in each of the last three seasons.

Wins haven’t been quite as easy to come by in basketball — the team won 10 of its first 20 games and has a real chance to post the program’s first winning season in more than a decade.

And it’s in basketball where, perhaps, Cooksey’s drive is most evident.

“Hannah is a very determined and driven individual. And this is quite an accomplishment, not just for her but for the school,” said Hartman, who is in his second year coaching Pennsville and has a daughter, April, who is also a senior on the team. “I’ve known this group of girls since they were very young. … They’ve all come up together, played together, worked together … and to see Hannah get this accomplishment, it’s been pretty exciting for everyone.”

As a freshman, Cooksey averaged 5.8 points per game. She has improved every year and built herself into a 1,000-point scorer who leads the team in scoring at 15.2 points per game.

“I had no intentions of coming in as a freshman and having this happen,” Cooksey said of her 1,000 points. “All I knew is that I wanted to come in and work as hard as I can and just improve myself and just keep working. And it did pay off.”

Pennsville has been competitive in almost every game it has played, and Cooksey — who will go on to play soccer at Mount St. Mary’s — said she’s proud not just of her own progress but of her team.

“The main thing for me is getting to know your teammates better and better — knowing how to read them better. Playing with them has made me a better player,” Cooksey said. “In the beginning of this season, we were in a bit of a slump. But ever since, we’ve been working really well together. And that’s what’s made a difference.”