Sounders Family: Supporter uses his art gift to provide fun activities as the community comes together to fight COVID-19

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Sounders family has come together to meet an unprecedented challenge.

With everyone involved in social distance, it is easy to feel isolated. But also these scary times are fueling new hopes for hope as we stay home together.

Enter Courtney Cooper, AKA The Tight Coop on Twitter, a diehard Sounders fan with an affinity for the arts. When Coop – as she likes to be called – lost her job because of the COVID-19 crisis, she began drawing coloring books and posting them on Twitter as a fun activity for fans to spend time with.

“I’ve been coloring pages for fun for a while,” she said in a phone interview with SoundersFC.com this week. “I just wanted to give people something to do while we’re all home.”

Although Coop has always enjoyed drawing, it has become a more serious endeavor for the past year. She began taking digital media courses, mixing her love for the arts with her passion for the Sounders.

Her favorite subject, however, is head coach Brian Schmetzer, because of his down-to-earth personalization and commitment to the club.

“When we score, his reactions are so honest,” said Coop, who was born in Seattle but currently lives in southern Oregon. “I look at him and I can say he’s a fan of the team, just like me.

“I have met him several times and he is simply the most beautiful man. I never feel intimidated by him, which is nice as a fan of not feeling nervous about meeting someone like that. I feel like we are so lucky to have him.”

Then it makes sense that the first sketch of a Coop book he posted on Twitter was the manager of the Seattle Sounders.

There is a prominent and supportive community of Sounders fans on social media that is becoming increasingly important as people across the country practice strict social distance.

The outburst of encouragement that Coop received from her fans on Twitter inspired her to continue producing and publishing more coloring pages.

“I don’t think I would have done any such thing if I hadn’t had the connection I do with Sounders fans online,” she said. “When I see the whole community on Twitter, it has inspired me as a fan of making things happen. I hope other people enjoy it, too.”

Her next two posts, one by Clint Dempsey celebrating naked and the other by Cristian Roldan making pizza, included helpful tips on how to slow down the spread of COVID-19. In the end, they attracted the attention of a fairly prominent artist from the Sounders family: goalkeeper Stefan Frei.

Finding herself at home with nothing to do last Monday, Coop noticed her phone start to go off and buzz.

“I looked at him and saw that I was tagged in something, so I dragged my wife and he was like, ‘oh God, oh God,'” Coop recalled. “I watched the video with her and it was just really, really cool. He joked about his hairline. “

“It was so great that he was the man in that video. Of all the players, it was one of the coolest players I could ask for – it doesn’t offend anyone else. But this is the guy who provided us with the first MLS Cup, so really cool. “

After watching Frei’s video, Coop accepted the challenge, posting her Frei illustration within days.

As an out-of-state fan, Coop has long relied on a community that has lived online with her colleagues to fix her Sounders. Their positive reception for her artwork, as well as Frei’s video, made the whole experience even more special.

“I’ve had a few followers that I know have been involved in the arts for a while, and when they see me the club recognizes me it’s quite fun,” Coop added. “I follow Sanders very religiously so I had nothing to focus on. And it’s really really cool to have something from the Sounders with me directly.”

Schmetzer, often referred to as the simple manager of the organization, likes to say that the club is a connection between players and fans. As the Sounders community stays at home together, the willingness of players to socialize with fans online has been a crucial silver lining during the unprecedented crisis.

We’ll go through this together. And with fans like Coop helping to help his Sounders classmates through a difficult time, we could get out of this stronger community.

“I always think we are really lucky to have a club that cares about social media and online interactions because I think the fans feel more special,” Coop said. “Instead of blindly following the team, you feel connected. I feel like the Sounders are getting out of the way to make the fans feel like they’re part of it.”

You can find all of Coop’s work here and support her future efforts on Twitter at @TheTallestCoop and on Instagram at @IKnowCoop.