Vermont’s Unassuming Star
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Your team has just won its third straight America East championship, making history as just the third team to accomplish that. For the second time in a row, you’re the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. What do you do to celebrate?
You go to the nearby Outback Steakhouse for a post-game meal, of course!
At least that’s what Taylor Coppenrath and his family did on Saturday after Vermont’s 80-57 thrashing of Northeastern in the America East title game, in which Coppenrath had 37 points. He was there with family members – all, like the young man, some of the nicest people you could meet and big fans of the phenomenon there known as Vermont basketball.
It fits the personality of Coppenrath, a very down-to-earth, no-frills young man from the tiny town of West Barnet, Vermont. It was similar to what we saw after last year’s championship game, where he sat out nearly four weeks with a broken left wrist, saying along the way that he was shutting it down for the season, then came back for the conference tournament championship game. In that game, all he did was score a tournament record and career-high 43 points on 14-19 shooting and grab 13 rebounds. Just another day at the office, right?
Coppenrath viewed it that way, and he might be the only one who did.
“I never know what kind of game I’m going to have until the end of the game,” he said with the straightest face, which got a few chuckles. “I thought I was going to play limited minutes.”
The latter comment got a good look from head coach Tom Brennan, who quipped, “We’ve got to communicate better, son!”
Then-Maine head coach John Giannini, now the head coach at LaSalle, looked like a man who had just been ambushed after that game, but managed to sum it up best.
“I expect I’ll take my kids to see this as a Disney movie someday,” he quipped.
Considering some of his efforts over the last two seasons, Coppenrath’s record-breaking performance in last year’s title game might not seem too extraordinary. After all, he scored 41 points against Northeastern earlier in the year, topping the 38 he scored at Pauley Pavilion as the Catamounts nearly beat UCLA early in the season. The UCLA game, which was one of the highest point totals ever by an opponent in the storied arena, woke up NBA scouts to the 6’9″, 250-pound senior, and was a game he won’t soon forget.
“It was pretty incredible, playing at that place was just amazing,” he reflected. “I loved it out there.”
Coppenrath hasn’t taken the path many have to college stardom. He wasn’t a star in high school that was highly recruited; Albany was the only other Division I team besides Vermont to offer him a scholarship. He did not score 1,000 points in high school in Vermont, a state that’s not exactly brimming with big-time basketball talent. His father said that his two years playing on the freshman and junior varsity teams were blessings in disguise because he had a better coach that helped develop him more than the varsity coach would have, and they helped him become the player he was on the varsity team his final two years of high school.
He redshirted his first year at Vermont and not because of an injury, which normally happens to a player who is low on the depth chart or who needs a lot of development. He worked hard on gaining weight because he was thin when he came in, but it didn’t stop there. He did a lot of observing of his teammates, and his father remembers how the long-time student of the game had the math major in him when it came to basketball – he studied not only every other player in the conference, but also the floor at each conference arena. Even though he was redshirted, Brennan had a pretty good idea of what he had back then.
“We had that 11-game losing streak during the year he was sitting out, and Jesse (Agel) had to just rip my arm out from putting his name in the book and saying, ‘listen, enough is enough, we need to win some games’,” Brennan recalls. “But we knew then, when he was redshirting, that he was something very special, and he has never been anything but that from the time he started playing.”
Coppenrath’s best friend and polar opposite personality, T.J. Sorrentine, was on the floor that season, winning the conference Rookie of the Year award. Last season, Sorrentine was someone he turned to quickly when he broke his wrist, which was said to be a season-ending injury. The big man was the biggest cheerleader while his best friend was determined to get the Catamounts another title.
“He knew what it felt like to be out with that wrist injury, because he had two – and I couldn’t imagine having two, it was hard enough with one – but the way he came back and worked so hard… I’m just glad, this is for him,” Coppenrath said. “He couldn’t play last year during the tournament, but this is for him now.”
The two met on their first day on campus, and they haven’t looked back, whether on or off the court. Since they arrived on campus, the Catamounts have had more success than ever, including the consecutive America East championships and four consecutive seasons of 21 or more wins, including the school-record 24 this season. They have won four Player of the Year awards between them, and both won it as sophomores, and they’re good for a few laughs, like on Saturday when they were asked a question in the post-game interview and looked at each other silently before Sorrentine offered some thoughts.
Coppenrath joined elite company when he was named the America East Player of the Year for the third straight year, a feat accomplished only by the late Reggie Lewis. But true to form, he is actually fascinated by it all, as well as the attention given to the program and his play. Although he and his family are looking at potential agents as the NBA beckons, he just keeps playing and forging ahead with his plans to be a high school math teacher in Vermont. He knew a long time ago that he wanted to do it, and admits that his aim isn’t just to make other kids proficient, saying with a chuckle, “Math’s always had a bad name, nobody likes it, so I’m trying to change that.”
Unlike Brennan, Coppenrath isn’t known for his sense of humor, but he’s been known to drop a good line in from time to time like that. Not remotely star-struck from his myriad accomplishments, he’s one of the quietest people you could meet, and also very consistent, as he never gets very high after a big play or win and never gets very low after a bad play or a loss. There haven’t been very many of the latter in his time at Vermont, and his consistency is big reason why.
“What makes him so impressive is that there is so much pressure on him to carry this state – he is the face,” Brennan said after Saturday’s win. “And he never lets anybody down – he never lets them down in the classroom, he never lets them down on the court, he doesn’t let them down socially. You’ve got to thank God you get to coach guys like this.”
Vermont has drawn Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Orange are playing very well right now, so this matchup isn’t an upset waiting to happen. The Catamounts matchup reasonably well with Syracuse save for one potential key – they aren’t nearly as quick or athletic. They know they have their work cut out for them, but it also would not be a complete shock if they pulled off an upset. If that happens, Coppenrath might have a chance to become the school’s all-time leading scorer (he needs 64 points to tie Eddie Benton for that honor), but perhaps more than that, it will just add to the legend of his career in a state that has never been known for basketball.
