Cooke enters his ninth season as the head coach of the Lakers. His time in Erie has not been consecutive as Cooke rejoined the Laker program in 2017, after having coached Mercyhurst from 1998 until 2002. He has 19 years of collegiate lacrosse coaching experience, including 17 seasons as a head coach. He was the first-ever head coach for both PSAC foe Edinboro and Queens (N.C.) women's lacrosse programs.
In 2021, Mercyhurst went 10-4 overall and 7-3 in the PSAC West leading to a spot in the PSAC Tournament as the second seed on the west side of the bracket. Mercyhurst got out of the gates strong with a 4-0 mark thanks to wins over Gannon, Walsh, D'Youville and Slippery Rock. The following six games saw the Green and Blue play .500 lacrosse going 3-3. However, the Lakers ended the regular season on a high securing a home playoff game with back-to-back victories. Mercyhurst knocked off IUP in the first round, before Seton Hill ended the campaign. Four players were named All-Conference as Kaitlyn Lippert, Mackenzie Murphy and Julia Ruscio earned First Team honors, while Julia Rescott was selected to the Second Team.
In a very unusual 2020 season due to a global pandemic the Lakers posted a 3-1 mark and were 1-0 in PSAC play before their season unfortunately came to an end. For the second straight season Cooke coached an All-American as defender Kira Kolb earned the honor for the second time as a Laker. Cooke's team also continued to excel in the classroom as 30 players were named PSAC Scholar-Athletes. In addition, Emma Hubert was chosen as the PSAC Champion Scholar.
In 2019, the Lakers went 13-7 overall and 9-3 in PSAC play. The team defeated Millersville University in the first round of the PSAC Tournament, before suffering a heartbreaking 8-7 loss in overtime to East Stroudsburg University in the semi-finals. However, they did earn an at-large birth into the NCAA Touranment where they once again battled the Warriors of ESU falling by a score 12-8. Cooke added his tenth All-American to his resume as Kolb earned All-American honors.
During his career, Cooke has coached ten All-Americans, as honored by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association: four First Team players and two from the Second Team during his first stint at Mercyhurst. He was head coach when Laker netminder Nicole Bonvouloir was named the IWLCA Division II Goalkeeper of the Year in 2001.
With his return to Mercyhurst in 2017, Cooke inherited a program which for the first time in program history won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament. The Lakers also won a PSAC regular-season championship and had the highest Team GPA in the PSAC.
Cooke holds a Bachelor's degree in Food Marketing from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1994) and a Bachelor's degree in Coaching/Physical Education from the State University of New York at Brockport (1996). He and his wife, Ashlee, have two children, Gavin and Noah.
