The Illinois State Redbirds welcome Cooper Darovic to the family!
Darovic, a 6′-3″ 170 lb. goaltender is an Orland Park, IL native. He will join the Redbirds in the 2024-25 season after playing for the Chicago Hawks 18UAA CSDHL/NAPHL team.
Cooper chose ISU because “the teaching program and the three ACHA teams.” He intends to major in teaching history.
“My favorite coach is Jonathan Cannizzo because I learned a lot from playing for him for the last three years. He really pushed me to be the best player I can be,” Darovic stated. Cooper’s biggest supporter is his parents and teammates. Cooper stated that his biggest goal was, “I remember when I was really young and was playing house scoring my only goal of the year on this goalie that to me looked huge by scoring five-hole.” Darovic expressed his favorite hockey memory was going to U16 Nationals.
Cooper has two siblings: Caleb and Emmy. Darovic is looking forward to attending college and still being able to play hockey. Darovic’s favorite foods are mac n cheese and pretzels. When asked what animal Cooper would want to be, he stated, “a bird because being able to fly would be cool.”
“Cooper is a top goalie from the Nationally #1 ranked U18 Chicago Hawks CSDHL team. Beyond his obvious skill, his current coach Jonathan Cannizzo spoke very highly of his character and work ethic. Knowing the Hawks organization and their history of developing highly skilled, strong culture players means a great deal to us. We fully expect Cooper to only enhance what we believe to be a very competitive goalie corps for years to come!” – Coach Michael Hernbrott.
If you’re interested in playing for ISU Hockey, we encourage you to fill out our Recruit Form under the team tab on our website!