#38 on Fox 40's Top 40 Most Impactful Local Sports Figures: Barb Cook of SV Softball
We continue the Fox 40's Top 40 Most Impactful Local Sports Figures sponsored by UHS Sports Medicine and UHS Orthopedic with Number 38.
Coming in at number 38 on our list is Barb Cook, a legend at Susquehanna Valley and the University of Connecticut.
Barb Cook joined the SV varsity softball team as a seventh grader and the rest was pretty much history. Prior to 1996, the Sabers had only appeared in one Section IV Championship game. And then Barb Cook entered her freshman year campaign. While being coached by her father, Dale, the SV softball squad eeked by an Elmira Free Academy team 1-0 in the Section IV Title game before SV marched to the New York State Class B Title Game, beating Malone by a score of 2-1. With Cook twirling it, the Sabers won back-to-back-to-back State Championships from 1996 to 1998. In those three state championship games, Cook and co. allowed just one run. By 1999, Cook ended her high school career with 117 wins, the most ever for a Section IV pitcher, nine perfect games, 27 no-hitters and 77 shutouts. Susquehanna Valley and Barb Cook stood tall in Class B, beating bigger schools, Elmira Free Academy, Corning West and Owego in four straight Section IV Championships.
If that wasn't enough, Cook went on to play collegiately at the University of Connecticut. As a UConn Husky, Barb won 57 games, the third-most in program history, pitching 70 complete games and striking out 445 batters.
For being arguably the best Section IV softball pitcher of all time, winning three-straight State Titles in the circle and then continuing her dominance in the Big East, while representing an incredible Susquehanna Valley program led by Dale Cook and the Bidwell family, Barb Cook comes in at 38th on Fox 40's Top 40 Most Impactful Local Sports Figures, sponsored by UHS Sports Medicine and UHS Orthopedic.
Be sure to stick with Fox 40 every weekday and 6 and 10 pm as we release one sports figure per night. Coaches, athletes, media members and contributors are all in consideration. Fox 40's Top 40 is sponsored by UHS Sports Medicine and UHS Orthopedic.