A FAMILY AFFAIR
Coffman junior Kopyar draws on lifetime of basketball experience
If Jenna Kopyar had to put a number on it, she’d say she started playing organized basketball in first grade.
But as the daughter of two former college basketball players — her mom, Lori, played at Capital and her dad, Tom, played at Kenyon — and with an older sister, Kaitlyn, who played as well, Kopyar has had a basketball in her hands since she could walk.
“My mom was my older sister’s coach, so I would go to her practices and when I was old enough, practice with them,” Kopyar said. “I was always around it.”
A decade later, Kopyar, a junior at Dublin Coffman, understands how unique it is to grow up in such a basketball-driven family. And with Lori working as one of Coffman’s assistant coaches, basketball is still a family affair.
“It’s definitely very different than
I’d say some other families might be, but I love it,” Kopyar said. “That’s where I learned to love the game in the first place. I don’t think I’d be where I am today without that.”
Last season, Kopyar was one of two sophomore starters for the Shamrocks and helped lead the team to its first regional championship game since 2017, where it lost to eventual state runner-up Newark. She averaged 12.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.8 steals, and earned first-team all-district and second-team All-ohio honors.
Coffman coach Adam Banks calls Kopyar one of the most “mature, basketball-aware” players he’s worked with. Her lifelong exposure to the game is a large reason why.
“When she’s on the court, she knows where she’s supposed to be and she’s consistent,” Banks said. “She’s disciplined in how she attacks the game. She’s in the gym before practice getting shots up, stays after practice to get
shots up. She really has an understanding of what it takes to be good, what it takes to get to the big spotlight and then how to perform when the lights are on.”
Kopyar, who is No. 8 on Gannett Ohio’s list of the top 22 girls basketball players in the state, does a little bit of everything for the Shamrocks. When they need a big play — whether it’s a basket, a steal or a defensive stop — it’s likely that Kopyar will be the one to make it.
In the regional championship loss last spring, Kopyar scored 27 points — the most Newark allowed to an individual player all season.
“She’s a knock-down shooter,” Banks said. “She can handle the ball.
Sometimes, we rely on her to bring the ball up. Sometimes, we need her to run her lane and look to be more aggressive in transition. There’s not a whole lot that she can’t do. She can shoot the three, she can take you off the dribble and she also has a post-up game.”
Growing up around basketball has made Kopyar comfortable with the pressure of having the ball in her hands in the biggest moments. The years she spent watching her sister play and watching her mom coach gave her a deep understanding of the game, as well as how to handle adversity and what it takes to be successful.
Coffman has been a young team for Kopyar’s first two years, with multiple underclassmen starters her freshman year and no senior starters last season. But this year, the team that Banks called “young old people” last year has one of the most experienced lineups in central Ohio.
“We’ve always been that young team that’s had to work it’s way up,” Kopyar said. “Everyone’s always like, ‘Oh, they’re young, they’re inexperienced.’ Now it’s like, we’re the old team. I think that will definitely help us in the long run.”
Kopyar, who describes herself as a “super competitive” person, has a single-minded focus on leading her team to a state championship this spring. She knows how close they came last year, and neither Kopyar nor her teammates want to feel like they came up short this time around.
For Banks, who has witnessed Kopyar’s progress since her freshman season, the expectation is simpler.
“I just want her to be herself,” Banks said. “I just want to see her be Jenna Kopyar.” bjohnson@dispatch.com @baileyajohnson_