Texas Football magazine, Suddenlink honor Cooper's Pogue for fighting hunger, poverty

Cooper teacher Jimmy Pogue is being honored for his work in fighting hunger and poverty in Abilene and Chinle, Arizona.

Pogue, who also serves as the Cougars’ play-by-play voice for football and other sports, will receive the Community Connector Award presented by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine and Suddenlink.

He will receive the award at the end of the first quarter of the Coogs’ football game against Granbury tonight at Shotwell Stadium.

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Suddenlink will be making a $250 donation to the Cooper athletic program in his name.

Pogue is one of 15 people from schools across the state who will be honored with the award. At the end of the season, one will be named the Community Connection School of the Year and receive a $2,500 donation from Suddenlink through voting by the communities.

Pogue also serves as the Student Council director at Cooper. Last year, he began a program called “Table 20” to help provide free food to members of the Cooper community in need. And for two decades, Pogue has taken a group of students and staff members on a trip to Chinle to provide food, clothing and other supplies to the Navajo nation.

“Jimmy helps organize a lot of events that help our community,” Cooper football coach Aaron Roan said in the news release. "... Jimmy Pogue is a guy who is selfless and is my definition of a Community Connector.”

Pogue, who was named the Edwin and Agnes Jennings Teaching Excellence TLC Secondary Teacher of the Year in the AISD for the 2019-20 school year, has been teaching and calling games for Cooper and AISD for more than 30 years.

“I’m deeply humbled to be honored as a Community Connector,” said Pogue, who was voted the Region 14 Secondary Teacher of the Year for 2019-20. “Coach Roan is a great man to work with as a teacher. I love teaching at Cooper High School because everyone is so invested in each other and the students are so kind. 

“Everyone at Cooper High School – from the administration to the custodial staff – is invested. We want all our students to be successful and make sure they have every resource to do so. Everyone sends the same message of being kind and doing things the right way. I love it. I couldn’t think of being any place else other than Cooper.”

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