Donald Cooper joined the SHC staff in October 2015 and during his tenure with the Badgers he has been instrumental in directing the teams' recent successes. His men's group has broken nine school records and his women's group has broken another 10 school records. In 2019, Amber Mason broke the school record in the Heptathlon and was the first SHC individual conference champion in any event. Athina Amanor was named to the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All - American Team by CoSIDA.

A 2012 graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Cooper competed in the Decathlon, High Jump and 400-meters while earning All-Southern Conference honors all four seasons of his career. Cooper began his coaching career in 2012 as an Assistant Track & Field Coach at Neosho (Kan.) Community College where he coached Multi events along with Hurdles and Throws. He coached one National Championship winner in the women's 60-meter hurdles and eight All-Americans in Throws and Heptathlon. In 2014, he was an Assistant Track Coach at the University of Montevallo where he coached Men's and Women's Throws, Jumps, Multis and Sprints.