Never Done Learning: Gary Coover’s Journey Through Basketball

4 minute read

By Andrea Aruino

At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings, Gary Coover is already on his way to play basketball at the Olympic Club in downtown San Francisco. By 6 a.m., he is back home making breakfast for his kids. For Coover, basketball is not something he sets aside when life gets busy. It is something he intentionally makes time for, driven by a desire to keep learning and challenging himself as an adult player. Rather than simply relying on the experience he has built over the years, Coover has embraced the idea that there is always more to learn, this pursuit eventually led him to UPBasketball, where he continues to invest in his development alongside coaches who challenge him to find another level in his game.

Before working with UPBasketball, Coover had spent years playing in the same leagues and had developed into a reliable role player. He was an aggressive rebounder, a strong screener, and someone who focused on doing whatever his team needed. Eventually, he realized he wanted more from his own game.

“I just thought to myself, if I'm going to love this game, I either have to just stop or I have to get better, and so I just had to make a choice. The only answer was to get better,” Coover said.

That decision led Coover to begin working with Coach Wes Preston and Donovan Washington through one-on-one training. While the early sessions did not immediately translate to his games, Coover continued putting in the work and taking notes after each workout. After about 12 sessions, something finally clicked. For the next six weeks, Coover showed up to these scrimmages feeling mentally and physically better than he has in the past. The experience showed him the impact that consistent training and the right mindset could have on his performance.

All of a sudden, that stretch was cut short when Coover ruptured his Achilles. The injury forced him to step away from the game and begin the long process of recovery, but it never made him consider giving up basketball. Returning to the court has required more than rebuilding his physical strength. It has also pushed him to rethink his identity as a player. For years, Coover had built his game around rebounding, defense, and being the player who did the things that did not always show up in the box score. As his game evolved, he realized he needed to expand beyond that role.

Working with coaches as an adult has allowed Coover to approach that evolution differently. He knows his game, understands his weaknesses, and is willing to have honest conversations about what is keeping him from improving. That has made the mental side of training just as important as the physical work.

“We start every session with five minutes of therapy. I’ll tell Wes or Donovan, ‘hey, here's our play and here's what's missing.’ And they’re responsive, I like to talk through it with them and be honest about what was going on in my head. They’re great at giving me opportunities to grow and tactics to use on the court,” Coover said.

That level of individualized coaching is part of what keeps Coover coming back. He values working with coaches who are willing to listen, adapt, and meet him where he is as a player. For Coover, continuing to learn does not mean trying to become the player he was years ago. Instead, he is using his experience as an advantage, understanding his game while remaining open to changing it. His goal is to continue improving relative to where he is now. That mentality has also shaped the way Coover approaches basketball with his six-year-old son, Edan. After Edan joined one of Coover's sessions with Coach Donovan, he became interested in basketball and wanted to be part of the game himself.

Since then, Edan has joined UPBasketball's Little Hoopers program, creating another way for the two to connect through the sport. Coover's goal is not to push his son toward a particular level of competition, but to help him see himself as an athlete and develop the resilience that comes with playing sports. Coover is not adamant about seeing Edan play in the NBA, he simply wants him to develop a strong mindset that basketball shared with him when he was growing.

As Coover continues his journey back from injury, he remains intentional about making basketball part of his life, whether he's playing before sunrise at the Olympic Club, training with Wes and Donovan, or working with Edan. While his end goal may differ from a young player chasing a professional career, his motivation remains the same: to keep learning, improving, and challenging himself.