Cook Sisters Balance Teamwork in the Pool and Individual Life Beyond the Deck

It might be hard to tell Emma and Maggie Cook apart when they are up to their ears in the pool wearing their water polo caps, fighting for a win.

The Sunbird sisters may be close in age and share some similarities, but Emma, 20, and Maggie, 19, are highly competitive—even against each other. Emma, a junior studying nursing, plays center for the water polo team, and Maggie, a sophomore majoring in liberal studies with an emphasis in math, is a utility player. The two have always been athletic, playing sports such as volleyball, basketball and track since fourth grade.

Playing water polo together was not their original plan, but they enjoy it. “We played last year together. It was a lot of fun,” Emma says.

Entering her third year at FPU, Emma has already received her nursing scrubs and shoes, and practices giving shots in the arm as well as making goals in the pool. “I’ve already had classes delving into concepts that I’m inevitably going to have to face in the future,” she says. “And through my professors and being in classes with other students who might not have the same values as me, the combination of our views is helping me shape the context.”

After graduation, Emma plans to work in pediatrics or go on a Mercy Ship, where she and like-minded volunteers can use their lifesaving skills to do God’s work in different countries. Currently, she is focused on improving the water polo record she and her sister help build.

“Water polo helped me become comfortable with being uncomfortable,” she says.

Meanwhile Maggie hopes to become a math teacher and continue her role coaching the junior varsity girls water polo team at Buchanan High School. “I love seeing them better understand the sport daily and make connections,” she says. “With hard work and God’s guidance, my degree will help me be a successful teacher in the classroom and on the pool deck.”

Although parents Aaron (TC ’01, BA ’00) and Ginger (TC ’03, BA ’98) Cook encouraged their kids to attend FPU, Emma and Maggie made their own decisions, both for education and faith. “It’s always been their decision to accept Christianity or not,” Ginger says. “That was always their call, and they did.”

“We always encouraged them to look at a private education, faith-based, because that’s the value I felt that I had going to FPU,” Aaron added. “Our encouragement was to find a community.”

The sisters did consider other options. “I knew I wanted to stay local,” Emma says. “I liked (FPU) a lot. I did not want to go to a big school.”

“I tried so hard to not be in Emma’s shadow, but I realized that FPU would be two distinct experiences for both of us,” Maggie says. “We could have a great time together being on a team again, and we could both live our own lives.”

Aaron and Ginger agree that the smaller community and connectedness they felt at FPU attracted them to the institution. Ginger’s first job after FPU was at a
Bakersfield drug and alcohol clinic for pregnant women, while Aaron taught sixth grade in Hanford. The two eventually moved to Clovis Unified School District, where Ginger is a school psychologist and Aaron is a principal.

“We’re proud that our children are living out that next chapter of their lives at FPU,” Aaron said.

Aaron and Ginger Cook have a 15-year-old son, Grady, also a water polo player.