Cooper High School announced on Monday that Christian Stefanopoulos Prohaska will be the next girls’ basketball coach.
She’ll take over for Justin Holthaus, who was named the boys’ basketball coach at the school on May 22.
Stefanopoulos Prohaska, a Boone County alum, enters the program with 13 years of Division I coaching experience with stops at Xavier, Seton Hall, Kentucky, Bucknell and Morehead State, primarily as an assistant and recruiting coordinator.
“Coach Prohaska is the total package—experienced, inspiring, and rooted in Northern Kentucky,” Jaguars Athletic Director Randy Borchers said in a press release. “Her presence will no doubt continue to build and energize our program leaving a lasting impact on our student-athletes. She will continue to focus on student and player development focusing on the rich traditions of being a Lady Jag varsity basketball player.”
Prohaska played under Nell Fookes at Boone County, helping the Lady Rebels to the Ninth Region championship game in 2001 against Highlands. She then went on to play at Austin Peay for two seasons from 2002-04. After two years with the Governors, she transferred to Thomas More to finish out her playing career. She guided the Saints to a PAC conference co-championship. She graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science.
She then got involved in coaching under Matthew Mitchell at Morehead State in 2006 before heading over to Kentucky with Mitchell until 2010. She returned to Morehead and then went to Bucknell, Kentucky, Seton Hall and Xavier. She’s been a senior sales recruiter for Medical Solutions for the past five years.
“I am honored to be named the girls basketball coach at Cooper High School. It’s a special opportunity to lead a program with a proud tradition of success in the community I call home,” Prohaska said in the press release. “I’m excited to build on that legacy, compete for championships and invest in the growth of our players both on and off the court.”
She inherits a program that has won the last four Ninth Region titles and should enter the 2025-26 season as favorites to do it again. They lost their glue in Zene Thompson, the lone senior on the roster, but are expected to return Ninth Region Player of the Year Haylee Noel and three other starters that include Addyson Brissey, Alivia Scott and Brinkli Rankin along with key reserves in Lyric Hooper and Gianna Cooper.