1977 - 1978 All Conference Girl's Basketball

1977 - 1978 All-Area Girl's Basketball

1977 - 1978 All-Suburban Tribune Girl's Basketball

In the earliest years of Niles West girls’ athletics, it was nearly impossible to find a team that Shirley Cohen was not a member of and one she did not lead.
Cohen was the first four-sport varsity female athlete in Niles West history, accomplishing the feat her freshman year.

“Something I will always remember was in 1974, the first year of girls’ basketball, we just had a few parents come to watch our games, and we were in the small gym. We barely had uniforms,” Cohen said. “The transition to my senior year, when we had so many students and faculty attending our games and filling the bleachers in the big gym, was amazing and I will never forget seeing such growth in girls’ sports.”

A perennial captain and standout on the tennis, volleyball, basketball and softball teams, Cohen was a member of the conference doubles champions in tennis as well as the district championship team that went on to finish 10th in the state.

But it was in basketball that Cohen made her biggest impression, leading the first Niles West girls’ teams to consecutive conference, regional and sectional titles in 1976-77 and 1977-78, as well as the Evanston holiday tournament title her senior season.

Receiving all-conference, All-Area and All-Suburban Tribune honors her senior year, Cohen was also voted the Best Female Athlete by her classmates in 1978.
Cohen, a graduate of the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy, is a certified hand therapist in the Chicago-area. She and her late husband Gregg are the parents of Jocelyn, Ethan and Jordyn.