Miami Herald Lifetime Achievement Award: Marty Cooper, American Heritage Softball
When honoring the best of the best for lifetime achievement, Marty Cooper is in that category for sure.
The Miami Herald decided to make it official, and Coach Cooper is a 2025 recipient of a Miami Herald Lifetime Achievement Award.
It’s been a long time coming.
Cooper, who retired from coaching softball at Plantation American Heritage after the 2022 season, not only put American Heritage softball on the map in Broward County, South Florida, statewide and nationally, but he helped so many student athletes attain college scholarships -- hundreds, maybe thousands -- when you also consider the many softball players who competed for his competitive travel softball teams and in a showcase created by he and his wife Cyd.
Based in Plantation, where he resides, the Coopers planted the seeds for Plantation Athletic League softball (rec and travel) and later the Gold Coast Hurricanes, a travel team, under the direction of them, that changed the course of fast-pitch softball in South Florida. If you’re talking Marty Cooper and softball in Broward County, you have to mention Cyd, too. A top notch travel program, the Hurricanes competed on a high level statewide, regionally and nationally.
In 1994, Marty and Cyd were running the slow-pitch softball program (recreational and travel) in Plantation under the Plantation Athletic League banner. They brought rec and travel softball to 500 girls in that area. They offered clinics with college coaches to teach skills to the rec and travel players. Their two daughters participated in the program, too, but Marty and Cyd’s attention focused on all the kids -- their unofficial extended family -- registered in PAL softball.
When fast-pitch softball became a thing in high school, the Coopers formed Gold Coast Hurricanes Fast-Pitch Softball, and they made it top notch, nationally ranked.
From 2004 to 2010, the Gold Coast Hurricanes were ranked Top 5 in the nation. Gold Nationals was the pinnacle of travel softball. Only 64 teams from across the country qualify to attend Gold Nationals. A team must win a sanctioned tournament to earn a berth. The Gold Coast Hurricanes not only competed several times but won the prestigious tournament in 2009. They became the first East Coast team to win it all. They were also second twice and third once.
Furthermore, the Gold Coast Hurricanes were the only Junior Olympic Team invited to play at the Canada Cup, where they competed against Olympic teams from other nations.
How about this achievement? Marty and Cyd even created a dynamic travel softball tournament, Rising Stars Showcase, in Broward County, which attracted teams from across the country as well as many college coaches. They offered the coaches/scouts food daily (prepared by chefs). Nice touch.
It marked the first recruiting showcase tournament in Broward, starting with 20 teams and 20 college coaches. It grew to 250 fast-pitch softball teams from throughout the United States and Canada with more than 350 college coaches/scouts. Their efforts produced thousands and thousands of college scholarship opportunities for players in the event’s 25-year history.
What Marty and Cyd did for Broward County, city of Plantation, American Heritage, the sport and the players just phenomenal. They changed the game, literally and figuratively, branching into the college level with their players, which greatly helped shape SEC softball into a standard barrier in college softball.
Marty Cooper took the high school softball coaching reins at American Heritage in Plantation in 2004. What a job he did in 18 years with the Patriots.
Look at his American Heritage high school numbers. Very impressive.
▪ 18 district titles
▪ 13 regional titles
▪ 13 state final four appearances
▪ 8 state championships
Prior, Cooper coached high school softball at University School in Davie, his first high school softball coaching stint, beginning in 1992. Then, he took over South Plantation, before coaching American Heritage.
Coupled with those above championships, he amassed 648 career wins.
He also coached University School to its first district championship.
University School and South Plantation advanced to regionals. St. Thomas Aquinas, a softball power, was in the same district with South Plantation, so the Paladins qualified for regionals as a district runner-up a few times.
Those efforts and overall numbers -- coupled with the amount of players who competed in the NCAA College World Series, graduated college and made a mark in the professional workforce -- make him one of the most successful coaches in high school and travel softball in the state.
Stephanie Brombacher, a three-time All-State pitcher and two-time state champion at American Heritage, garnered a scholarship to the University of Florida, where she became the Gators’ ace in 2010 and 2011. In four seasons at Florida, the Gators made the College World Series each year. Florida finished second nationally in 2009 and 2011. A four-time All-SEC selection, Brombacher also received All-America honors in 2009 and 2010. In addition to being a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, she was a three-time Academic All-American. Currently, she is a physician assistant in Florida and remains in contact with Cooper, as do many of his former players.
Brombacher recalled: “I was 12 when we first met. One of my coaches at the time, Joe DellaRocca, who coached at American Heritage and learned from Marty, asked Marty if he could take a look at me. I threw some innings against an 18-and-under team, and then he invited me to play in a tournament at the University of Florida for his Plantation Pressure 18-and-under team.”
Full circle, six years later Brombacher would become a University of Florida Gators star pitcher and star student.
She continued: “I was grateful for the opportunity. I started to play [high school varsity softball] for him as an 8th grader, when he became coach at American Heritage. He is somebody that you want to play for and want to make proud. He cares about you as a person, and he would always have your back. He coached us during practice for big moments on the field, and we would be confident in ourselves to make those decisions and believe the right decisions.
“He is also a cool guy. He knew when it was time to focus on practice and the game, but also let us be kids, relax and have some time -- when we went to Canada, California for tournaments -- to enjoy being there, go walk the beach, have life experiences. Things at the time I never thought I would be doing.”
She noted: “There is no one more deserving to be honored.”
A humble Cooper made his mark in cities throughout Broward County, including Davie, Plantation and of course “Cooper” City,
During his illustrious career, Cooper earned All-Broward Softball Coach of the Year honors via the Miami Herald.
Cooper’s impact on Plantation American Heritage softball still remains as his assistant coach, Sam Banister-Collaro, leads the charge. The Patriots, under the direction of Banister-Collaro, were runners-up in the state this season, a state semifinalist in 2024 and a region finalist in 2023.
Banister-Collaro played first base for the 2-time national champion University of Arizona (2006-07). She became a very good coach, working the travel circuit on the West Coast. This summer she is currently coaching the Bombers, based in South Florida.
She recalled: “I called Cyd to talk about bringing my [California] travel team, which was just before COVID hit, to the Rising Stars Showcase. She said, ‘Maybe in 10 years, when my husband retires, you can take over [American Heritage].’”
Well, it happened in less than 10 years.
Banister-Collaro said: “What an incredible man. We moved to South Florida, and he and Cyd made us feel so welcome, and we became a part of their [softball] family. I was his assistant coach for a year, and then he said, ‘How would you like to be the head coach at American Heritage.’ I started crying because I knew what an impact he had on the game of softball down here, and Cyd is like the matriarch of softball here.
“The shoes I had to try to fill; I am so honored to carry that torch. He was a like a dad to all these girls. He gave me a family here. Everybody knows who he is.
“I assisted him a year, and then he handed me the keys to the kingdom.”
Banister-Collaro noted they honored him with a banner in the left field corner of the Tera Ross Memorial Softball Field at American Heritage, citing all his accolades. It’s a rather large banner.
American Heritage Athletic Director Bruce Aven, who has coached the baseball team since 2012, said : “Marty brought an excellence to the softball program at American Heritage, up to the highest level. He gave those girls a chance to be proud of playing at American Heritage. He impacted the girls not only on the field but also off the field. You could see that in their character, their professionalism, how they carried themselves on and off the field.”
An example: an over-matched opponent wrote a letter to Coach Cooper, after a game, thanking him and his American Heritage players for the respect they displayed toward them, making them feel good about themselves even in defeat.
Wayne Lenoff, executive director of summer programs for American Heritage, who provided much of the background on Coach Marty Cooper, listed above, with a help from a close source, added: “Bottom line. Coach Marty Cooper changed many young ladies’ lives. He always emphasized ‘great character’ as well as practicing your skills to be a great player.”
Dozens of Gold Coast Hurricanes played in the NCAA Women’s College World Series over the past two decades.
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 6:10 AM.
