Former Westside head football coach Larry Cook taking reins at PikeView
Jan. 24—GARDNER — Larry Cook, a WVU player alumnus who formerly coached at Westside for three seasons prior to serving as an assistant on the highly-successful Independence football program has recently been named head football coach at PikeView High School.
Cook's stint at Westside included the Renegades' 2014 run to the WVSSAC state semifinals. While at Independence, Cook served under John Lilly on a state that supervised a Class AA state championship team and a state semifinal team. He was also a basketball assistant for the Patriots.
Cook has extensive experience as a head coach, having compiled a combined record of 85-59-1 reaching back to his first assignments in New York in the early to mid 1990s. He coached at Gilbert High School prior to serving at Westside.
Cook played his high school football at now-defunct Oceana High School in Wyoming County. He earned All-State honors twice, including having been named all-state defensive captain. In his senior season he was named a Bally's All-American, a Street & Smith All-American and also received the Hunt Award, which was presented to West Virginia's best high school lineman.
Cook was offered full scholarships from WVU, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Marshall, Syracuse, Rutgers, Maryland and others. He went on to play at West Virginia, where he was part of th 1987 Sun Bowl team, the 1988 Fiesta Bowl team that competed for the national championship against Notre Dame, and the 1989 Gator Bowl.
He was named a member of the Mountaineer Club and named an A.C. 'Whitey' Gwynne award winner — "bestowed upon the player whose attitude, effort and spirit provide an oustanding unsung contribution to the success of the team."
Cook is the successor to previous PikeView head football coach Jason Spears. Spears took the over the program in August of 2018 after veteran head coach Bobby Wyatt retired.
