SEATTLE — It has become an increasingly common occurrence at Climate Pledge Arena: Storm guard Zia Cooke scores, the announcer calls out “Let her…” and the crowd responds enthusiastically, “Cooke!”
Across five home games, Cooke has scored 64 of her 90 points on the season. Though Cooke swears she has been too locked in to hear the chant, she feels great about the start of her fourth WNBA season.
“It feels good, honestly,” Cooke told The IX Sports. “It’s definitely a breath of fresh air for me, and I think it all just comes from the work that I put in.”
On opening night, Cooke immediately set a new career-high, scoring 15 points in a 91-80 loss to Golden State. The No. 10 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft improved on that further two home games later, dropping 25 points in a 77-59 win over Connecticut. On the season, she has scored in double digits in five out of nine games played and is averaging 10.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 18.1 minutes per game off the bench.
After the Storm defeated the Mystics 97-85 and Cooke scored 10 points, Washington head coach Sydney Johnson said the 5’9 guard was a focus on their scouting report and letting her score that many was an area they let themselves down in.
“She’s playing great, always been super aggressive, and kind of has a green light right now, and she’s taken full advantage of it,” Johnson said ahead of the team’s rematch two days later. “One of the things that’s impressive is she’s a tough shot maker. It’s not just necessarily wide open looks; she’s kind of like one of those players that thrives on being guarded closely and hitting those lean back shots or tough threes.”
This is quite different from last season when Cooke started to rediscover herself after two years struggling in Los Angeles. Last year, the South Carolina alum didn’t know when or if she would see game action on a nightly basis. Cooke played in 26 games last season and, through nine games this season, has already surpassed or matched her 2025 totals in points, assists and rebounds.
Everything about this year, from a new coaching staff to many new teammates, has provided Cooke with a crucial, fresh start. Cooke’s strong start to the season isn’t just good for her individually; it is good for her team.
“Without Zia, we’re not even in a couple of these games; we don’t win a game or two,” veteran guard Natisha Hiedeman told The IX Sports.
“We need her to score for us, and she’s gotten straight to that,” Jordan Horston told The IX Sports. “Just being confident, getting downhill, making right reads, finding people — she’s been a great scorer for us, and that’s what we need, the spark off the bench.”
Sixth player of the year energy
Cooke has become one of the first players that head coach Sonia Raman calls off the bench on a regular basis. Australian guard Jade Melbourne, who has been starting for the Storm since Dominique Malonga’s injury, told The IX Sports that Cooke changes the energy when she comes into games, whether she’s scoring or not.
“For the people coming in … it’s all about maintaining and going up another gear and [Cooke] is probably the frontrunner for that and the leader for that,” Melbourne said. “There’s no drop off when Zia comes into the game. We’re actually better out of it. And I think the last five minutes of our first quarters have actually been better when Zia comes into the game. She’s really brought the juice, increased the energy, and been a real spark plug.”
Related to that energy, Hiedeman thinks Cooke also boosts the team’s speed because she likes to play with a lot of pace, on and off the ball.
Melbourne says none of the team are surprised that Cooke is performing like this, given the work she always puts in.
“Zia has just stayed consistent in everything she does,” Melbourne told The IX Sports. “She’s always in the weight room, she’s always putting up extra shots, she’s always going 100% at practice. … She’s just someone that’s grabbed her opportunity with both hands.”
Melbourne, who has been in that spark-off-the-bench role more often than not in her WNBA career, understands that a bench role isn’t easy. In her experience, it’s a really tough role to take on if you don’t own it and are just worried about minutes. But if you own it, it’s fun.
“It’s fun to come in,” Melbourne explained. “The starters from the other team might still be in; you’ve got the fresh legs. You come in, take it to them, and you see the ball go through the hoop early, and you bring that energy to the team, and we rely on that. …
“I certainly enjoy it, but you also have to stay ready for the moment, and it’s a testament to the consistent things she does day in and day out that she’s ready to do that. And she’s owned it, so she’s going to continue to do that all season.”
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Cooke feels like this season, she really is owning it. Raman told Cooke early on that she wanted her to be a spark off the bench. In the past, Cooke said that might have affected her mentally if she felt like she should’ve been starting, but sometimes you have to put pride aside and do whatever the team needs.
“So when she told me that she wanted me to be a spark off the bench, I took that with pride, because coming from not even playing to being a spark, that’s a blessing in itself and it’s something I definitely take pride in,” Cooke said. “So every time I step on the court, being a spark is my guide.”
Owning her role also means playing to her strengths, or as Melbourne put it, “tailoring her game to allow herself to play with that elite athleticism.” That athleticism ranges from her foot speed to her vertical jumping (Melbourne said she wins jump testing for the guards) to her innate instinct to spin with the ball.
“It’s hard to get to the rim in this league because everyone’s so long and teams do a really good job of clogging up the paint, but Zia’s first step just catches everyone off guard,” Melbourne said. “And the way she can take off from just below the free-throw line and still use her two steps to finish at the rim, she can hang in the air; it’s a unique skill set. … She knows what her body’s capable of, and then has a skill set to complement that. So it’s really special, and I love watching her play.”
In addition to her elite first step, Hiedeman has also seen growth in Cooke’s IQ that has helped her. All around her game — reading the defense to know when to pass, when to be aggressive and get a bucket, and where to move off-ball — Hiedeman has seen improvement to further boost her impact as a three-level scorer.
While Cooke’s offense has been the most obvious element of her impact, Melbourne says that part of the shift she brings is via her defensive intensity.
“She’s also like a dog on defense, and I think that’s really underestimated too,” Melbourne said. “She’s going to be up in your face, she’s going to be annoying you, she’s going to poke at the ball, she’s going to make offenses really uncomfortable.”
Being a presence on both ends of the floor is what Raman and her staff have asked of Cooke. She sees her guard really trying to rise to the occasion and “be someone who can pressure and pick up a little bit more full court, and even in the half court, just at the point of attack, trying to get into people, be physical, be scrappy, and make plays.”
Cooke says she feels like her defense has improved because it is easier to play defense now that she knows the teams and concepts better, and because of her teammates.
“It’s just easier to play when you want to go to war with people,” Cooke said. “And I see Jordy is hyping me up to play good defense, and I’m seeing her do the same thing. I feed off that type of stuff. So this environment also helps me want to be a great defender.”
Confidence
Another area of growth for Cooke is in her confidence. Cooke came into the 2026 season with a new level of confidence that was immediately visible to everyone.
“As soon as she steps on the court, it’s a different feel from Zia. Like she’s not the same person no more,” Horston told The IX Sports back on May 5.
Horston expanded on that ahead of their most recent home game: “Even during training camp, she just walked into this role with a confidence, and with her shoulders pushed back and her head held high, just owning it. She’s really just stepping into this spotlight, like it’s hers, because it is.”
Some of that confidence Cooke credits to playing in Athletes Unlimited during the offseason, allowing her to play with and against players like Tina Charles and Ariel Atkins. Cooke averaged 16.4 points on 39.4% shooting, 3.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game during the 2026 AU season.
“Honestly, it just reminded me of who I was and just not losing that,” Cooke said on media day. “It just felt good. … To be able to play against these people that are in the position that I want to be in eventually and to see that I can perform at a high level against a lot of pro athletes, it just shows me that I’m not here for no reason.”
But Cooke said the biggest thing for her this offseason was working on the mental side.
“The ball goes in when you’re just mentally happy. Everything works out when you’re just mentally in a good space, and that’s what I’m trying to find,” Cooke said on media day. “That’s the Zia that I want to see: just smiling, being happy, being appreciative of each and every opportunity, just seeing the ball go in.”
That mental work has looked like dialing in with herself, reading the Bible and talking with her mom and family about life. Coming into the WNBA and not playing much was a huge shift for Cooke, who was a four-year starter at South Carolina, and feeling like she couldn’t contribute put a toll on her. Playing overseas presented new difficulties.
“I had to sit with myself a lot of times when things just weren’t going my way, and it was just like, what are you going to do about it? You’re going to sit up and cry, or you’re going to figure it out,” Cooke told The IX Sports. “It’s just a process, and once you find the beauty in your process and accept it, things usually go your way.”
Now, Cooke knows that the W is often a mental test that she can’t let win.
“Just not getting too high, not getting too low,” Cooke explained, is key to maintaining her confidence after her career-high scoring night. “I got to make sure that I’m on my A-game at all times, controlling what I can control, and being where my feet are at.
“I’ve learned a lot within these last three to four years … understanding I can’t control what people do. I only can control what I do. So that’s making sure I’m in the gym, getting my work in, keeping my head high, no matter if it’s going good or going bad, and then just be ready when my opportunity comes.”
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Building a relationship with Raman
Cooke’s relationship with Raman has also been key to her confidence level. On media day, Cooke praised Raman for being a calm, understanding, and realistic person. She also said Raman is the first coach she’s had in the WNBA whose film sessions were more positive than negative, and that Raman brought life into rooms.
“One thing I’ve been saying my whole time in the W is I want to build a relationship with a coach, I want to watch film with a coach, I want to just feel like a coach believes in me, and I think she’s a true definition of that, so I’m super grateful to be here,” Cooke said.
It helped that Raman began building her relationship with Cooke in the offseason. As soon as she was hired, Cooke said Raman made sure to contact her and visit her at AU. In Nashville, the pair went out for food, had transparent conversations and watched film together.
That level of care, the little things, has shown Cooke that Raman is a woman of her word and that when Raman says she believes in her, she really means it. Cooke shared a recent example where Raman was on her all of practice, saying she wasn’t in the nail, and Cooke responded that she was certain she was. Cooke suggested going back to watch the film, and Raman did. Shortly after practice, Raman texted her guard that she was right; she was in the nail.
“It’s just stuff like that, for a coach to even be able to take accountability and put their pride aside and just let their player know that they was right. That means a lot,” Cooke said. “That means a lot to me, just the relationship that we’re building. I’m proud of it, and I’m gonna go to work for her every night, for sure.”
Raman told media that she thinks building those kinds of relationships is really important in her role as a head coach but also just in how she is wired as a person. She is also doing that by getting to know them off the court, connecting with players about what is important to them, what they did on their off day, anything that builds that relationship. Those conversations help on the court.
“It allows for the basketball conversations to happen a little bit more smoothly, and it helps build trust,” Raman said. “I feel like I can push Zia really hard because there is that level of trust, and she knows that my approach to her and to all the players is I want to put them in positions to succeed and positions to be able to help impact winning for the organization.”
Cooke is happy to be coached hard by Raman because she is not yelling at her.
“It’s a difference between yelling and just telling me what I need,” Cooke said. “That’s what I like about her the most, is that she can have a conversation; she doesn’t have to scream or yell for you to do something. … Just tell me what I need to do. I want to do exactly what is needed from me for the team, so just let me know what it is.”
Raman also knows how important confidence is for professional basketball players as a whole. Hoping that players start with some intrinsic self-belief, she sees the coach’s role as just adding to it.
“We’re additive, but sometimes, you know, you miss a few shots, and you can start to doubt, or to second-guess,” Raman said. “I think that’s where we have to come in and make sure that we let them know if our process led to a really good shot, and it doesn’t go in, I’m not going to change my opinion about the fact that I thought that was a really good shot. And I’m going to encourage her to continue to shoot it, continue to make plays.”
Having that belief in her players also means coaching them really hard in practice to understand what the reads are so that she doesn’t have to overmanage in games. And then it’s understanding that mistakes will happen and “armchair quarterbacking” won’t really help them.
“It’s understanding that with freedom there will be some mistakes or some things that happen that we would have preferred to happen differently,” Raman said. “Understanding what those are, processing those, and then kind of moving forward and keeping the expectations about things that are really controllable — the effort, the energy, the unselfishness. Those are the things that they can bring all the time.”
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Support from teammates
Knowing how important confidence is to all players, Cooke’s confidence is also bolstered by her teammates, each in their own individual ways.
Hiedeman considers Cooke one of her best friends on the team and just consistently communicates with her on and off the court.
“We have a really close relationship, but just telling her, like, ‘If it’s two on you, somebody’s open’ … just communicating through things,” Hiedeman said. “She’s really eager to learn and wants to be on the floor. So she’s really good at being coachable, not only by the coaches but teammates as well.”
Cooke says Hiedeman has helped her in many ways, including with reads on the court and with embracing her role as the first player off the bench. Hiedeman brings the experience of someone who was in that role in Minnesota just last year.
“She put in perspective for me that … I could go chase being sixth player of the year and taking pride in that position,” Cooke said.
Melbourne likes to just constantly remind Cooke of her talent and importance to the team. It’s a unique support she sees team-wide, everyone being genuinely happy for each other, rather than something like being jealous over minutes. Melbourne, for example, said she went home after Cookie’s 25-point outing and watched the highlights because it was just so fun to see her teammate ball out.
Horston, who basically grew up playing basketball with Cooke in Ohio, said the duo is always in each other’s ears no matter what.
“That’s my friend first, so I’m always going to be there for her, wherever, whatever she needs,” Horston told The IX Sports. “If that’s encouragement, if that’s we just need to sit together, that’s what I’m going to do because that’s my dawg.”
Leadership
During the first days of training camp, Raman told Cooke that she was enjoying Cooke’s leadership and wanted to continue to see it. To Cooke, it felt crazy to hear Raman say that.
“In a way, this is my fourth year, but to be honest, I feel like it’s only my second because Seattle is the only place that’s really ever given me a chance,” Cooke said on media day. “But I do see myself jumping into that leadership role … helping lead the younger ones to get to where they want to be as well.”
Early on, that looked like telling all of the rookies to be confident because Cooke feels she came into the league with that confidence, but then it started to wane the more that things didn’t go her way.
“No matter what it looks like for you, no matter how your journey might go — it might go a way that you never expected — don’t ever lose that confidence,” Cooke said on media day of the advice she’s given. “Don’t let anybody take that confidence away from you because you were drafted here for a reason. I don’t ever want to see them put their heads down because I did that a lot, and that’s not something that I think was good for me.”
The lessons Cooke has learned in her own journey seem to have benefited at least one of the rookies, as Flau’jae Johnson praised Cooke after her career-high 17-point performance came in the same game as Cooke’s career-high 25 points.
“She’s very confident, and I learned that from her, just to like be confident,” Johnson said. “Shots fall, no matter what, she plays hard on defense. She’s a pro’s pro.”
Cooke has also taken on the role of the leader of the “gray squad,” aka the bench unit that wears gray pennies in practice. Hiedeman has made sure Cooke understands that when she is on the court with the gray squad, she is its leader: “That’s your team, you got to lead them.”
“I think now she sees that she’s the leader of the gray squad,” Hiedeman said. “It’s the same position that I’ve been in, and it starts and ends with you, so she’s really just taken that on.”
The same lesson Cooke has tried to impart to her rookies is what she wants everyone to know: that your journey is your journey. It is what she is currently trying to teach her nephew, who wants to have a career in boxing.
“I just want people to know that I never gave up,” Cooke said. “Your career is going to be your career at the end of the day. So don’t even get your hopes up thinking that everything’s going to go perfect for you, because it’s not. You’ve got to take those proper steps to become the person that you want to be, and you’ll be tested.
“I just want to let younger generations know that it’ll pay off for you, just don’t quit. If you don’t quit, you’re going to be just fine. You’ve just got to keep that drive to want to be great, and it will all happen for you; no matter when it happens, it will.”
Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The IX Basketball. The IX Basketball’s editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.
