Providence College basketball | A WINNING RECIPE: Ed and Nurys Cooley welcome Friars team to their home on Thanksgiving for third straight yearwww.woonsocketcall.com/node/12444EAST GREENWICH – It’s Tuesday morning and Nurys Cooley is hard at work in the kitchen.
Celery, onions and parsley are being chopped and bagged, while close by, sweet Italian sausage simmers in anticipation of being added to her stuffing recipe. Just like her detail-oriented husband, Nurys understands that preparation is the key to a successful outcome – whether the product is a pick-and-roll or a casserole.
Nurys, the wife of Providence College men’s basketball coach Ed Cooley, was busy this week preparing a Thanksgiving feast for a group of Friar basketball players who won’t have the opportunity to spend the holiday with their own families.
With PC hosting Yale on Friday, Cooley wants his team to be stick to their traditional day-before-a-home-game routine, which includes staying overnight at a Providence hotel. So LaDontae Henton, Kyron Cartwright or Jalen Lindsey won’t be in their respective home states of Michigan, California or Tennessee for the holiday.
But that doesn’t mean that they or the rest of their Friar teammates will go without a nice home-cooked meal, thanks to Mrs. Cooley’s hospitality.
“It’s just that they’re far away from home,” Nurys says. “They’re kids who come from large families who love and miss them.”
The invite list includes the 14 players listed on Providence’s roster, plus several assistant coaches and their respective families, graduate assistants and student managers … just about the entire PC hoops family.
All involved parties wouldn’t have it any other way. They might not be blood related, but that’s a minor detail.
“Everyone is involved,” says Nurys Cooley, as she slices vegetables while a reporter sits at the counter. “It’s a huge family of people.”
“To me, it’s more about getting the family together more so than the team,” said Ed Cooley.
“One of the reasons why I wanted to come to Providence is I wanted somewhere I could have a new family away from home,” said Henton, a Providence senior. “Coach Cooley and his wife always provide that for us. Even if it’s not a holiday, I know their place is where I can go and have peace of mind.
“We’re able to get away from basketball for a while, bond with each other, and eat some good food,” Henton said.
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The elaborate meal Nurys prepares won’t feed just her husband’s co-workers and students, but also family from both her side and husband Ed’s. Along with the Cooleys’ two children, daughter Olivia and son Isaiah, the number of guests expected to their East Greenwich home is close to 50.
That’s a lot of mouths to feed, so Nurys starts early and does a little bit each day so that she’s not overwhelmed come Thanksgiving morning. Dessert is baked a week ahead of time with some of the traditional holiday fixings ordered at Dave’s Marketplace.
Of course it wouldn’t be a holiday gathering without family pitching in and making a dish.
“My sisters-in-law are making macaroni and cheese,” Nurys said. “I do have tons of help.”
This marks the third straight year that a Friar-style Thanksgiving has unfolded at the Cooley’s homestead. The tradition of Ed and Nurys hosting the basketball team for a meal began when Ed was the head coach at Fairfield (Conn.) University. They picked up the practice from the wife of one of Ed’s coaching mentors.
“Before we got to Fairfield, Donna Skinner always hosted,” said Nurys about spending Thanksgiving at Al Skinner’s home during Ed Cooley’s nine-year stint as an assistant coach at Boston College.
On the Cooley’s menu is a 20-pound turkey, pans of turkey breast, two hams, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, black beans and rice, macaroni and cheese, cabbage, green bean casserole, baked ziti, cranberry sauce, biscuits and corn bread.
Included on the dessert card are pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie and apple pie. Olivia Cooley will chip in with a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, and either red velvet cake or tiramisu.
As for beverages, Nurys notes that the Friar players are big fans of lemonade and ice tea and of course, sports drinks.
Asked if she will enlist any assistants, Nurys says she doesn’t abide much input into the process.
“As far as my kitchen and the food I’m preparing, I’m an army of one,” Nurys said. “I struggle to relent control of my kitchen. I’m sorry, but I do. You want to maintain control.
“None of this is hard,” she states while going back and forth between the stove and sink. “You just have to prepare.”
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The final push to get the meal just right takes place while Nurys’s husband holds practice for the team at Alumni Hall on Thanksgiving morning. Everyone is expected to trickle in beginning at 1:30 with dinner served at two o’clock.
“When they start to get here, it’s a matter of taking the foil off and setting up everything on the counter,” said Nurys, adding that the job of carving the turkey falls to her husband. “Everyone serves themselves.”
Arranging seating for 50 is the final piece of the puzzle.
“I thought about getting tables so that we can sit together and snug in one room, but it’s not going to happen,” Nurys said. “There’s no way you can put 50 people in one room.”
Instead, the many rooms inside the Cooley home are transformed into mini gathering spots.
“We spread about throughout the house … I just let them go anywhere,” said Nurys. “You can go into different rooms and hear different conversations.”
In a new twist, dessert will be served at the Cooleys. In past years, Ed would take the desserts back to campus so that the players could get started watching film. This time, the players and coaches will be herded into the great room to watch tape of Yale – and maybe Kentucky, too.
“I’m very happy about that. When they’re done watching, then we’ll have dessert,” said Nurys. “The players always clean up. I never have a mess when my teams leave.”
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Besides film study, the day’s activities also typically include a traditional game of cornhole – the actual board is a replica of the court at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, and also a discussion about which generation’s music is more appealing.
What Nurys appreciates the most about hosting the Friars is having the opportunity for the players and the coaches to interact in a completely relaxed, welcoming environment.
“In the end, we’re dealing with young men,” Nurys said. “I think people judge them more because they’re athletes and they’re in the spotlight. They’re great kids. They relax and joke around. They actually like each other, which is wonderful.”
In many ways, the presence of Henton and the Friars help complete what Thanksgiving means to Ed and Nurys Cooley. Olivia and Isaiah might be their children, but they also know the family ties extend further.
“There’s nothing like having a meal that hits close to home,” Henton said. “It feels great to be around people that you really care about and genuinely have your back on and off the court.”