Kimalee Cook is a standout point guard for Circle High School.
Travis Heying
The Wichita Eagle
The picture, taken outside the family’s farmhouse in Whitewater, captures the 11 smiling faces in the Cook family.
When Kimalee Cook looks at this picture, she doesn’t see the difference in age and shades of skin tone in the family. She doesn’t notice that her two parents are white and she is Black, or that her oldest sibling is 22 years older. She just sees one family — her family.
Many recognize Cook, 18, as the standout basketball player already signed to a Division II scholarship and state champion sprinter at Circle. Few know the story of how she became a star athlete.
It begins with this picture of her family.
“There’s a lot of love to go around,” she said.
All 11 members of the Cook family pose for a picture outside their farmhouse in Whitewater. Kimalee Cook, in the back row, second from right, is a standout basketball senior at Circle High this year. Carla Cook Courtesy
One adoption becomes five
It was never the plan for Leroy and Carla Cook to adopt five more children after they raised four biological ones of their own. It just happened, kind of like how Kimalee became a member of the family.
After the couple had adopted four boys less than four years apart — they had to remodel the attic of their farmhouse into a makeshift boys dormitory — Carla Cook had become a popular phone call for attorneys looking to place newborns with new families. The night that she learned of Kimalee, she was actually expecting a phone call from a birth mother in Chicago, where she was preparing to take on the family’s newest child.
Instead, a Wichita attorney phoned Carla that night to alert her of a baby girl who had just been born by a stunned mother, who did not know she was pregnant and thought the pain was appendicitis. Carla couldn’t say no. Kimalee was born on a Wednesday and adopted and taken home by the Cooks on Friday.
Because Leroy and Carla Cook are white and their five adopted children are all other races — Kimalee is Black and her four brothers are biracial — they were upfront with each one of them about being adopted.
“We’ve never hidden it from them. We’ve always talked about it from the get-go,” Carla said. “We felt like that was a healthier way to handle it.”
Kimalee said she’s never thought twice about it.
“My mom was my mom and my dad was my dad,” Kimalee said.
Raising nine children was a challenge, especially with such a large age gap between their biological and adopted children, but Leroy and Carla, who own Butler County Printing, made sure they were able to provide a good life and education for every one of their children.
Counting all of the grandchildren, there are now more than 30 people at family gatherings around the holiday season at the Cook household. Carla Cook Courtesy
Their biological children are now all grown up — Kayla, 40, Krista, 37, Kendra, 35 and Kylan 31 — while the five adopted children all closer in age — Keegan, 23, Kinsley, 23, Kobe, 20, Konnor, 20, Kimalee, 18.
But life with such a large family — Christmas gatherings now consist of more than 30 people, counting the grandchildren — brought its own set of challenges. What was the key to making it all work?
“You have to take the time and find out what their strengths are and help them along and encourage them in those areas,” Leroy said. “They all have their own different personalities and different strengths and some of them compliment the others and that’s been neat to see. With Kimalee, playing sports was a big one so that’s what we tried to support her in.”
Circle senior Kimalee Cook is averaging 17 points and four steals, as she has helped Circle to an 11-4 record and No. 8 ranking in Class 4A. Circle High School Journalism Courtesy
‘When she’s on the court, the game is just more fun’
Long before she ever picked up a basketball, the Cooks knew that Kimalee was going to be special.
She was reading words at the age of 2 and reading chapter books by 5. Within her first week in kindergarten, the school sent home a note with Kimalee informing her parents that it had never before seen a child with her level of reading comprehension at that age.
She had such a thirst for knowledge that Carla had to buy multiple dictionaries. When other kids were sleeping on the bus on the way to elementary school, Kimalee was pouring over line after line in a dictionary. She started writing for pleasure in the third grade and hasn’t stopped.
“We knew very early on that she’s extremely advanced,” Carla said. “That’s all come very natural to her. She’s always been very bright.”
The same was true for basketball. She was a natural and already the best player on her team when she started playing in the first grade. By the fourth grade, Kimalee had hit an early growth spurt and towered over her peers — she was already 5-foot-3 and wore a size 10 shoe. She led her team to an undefeated season and was using the speed that would later win her the Class 4A 100- and 200-meter dash championships along with her length to practically steal the ball and score at will.
“I sure do love it when she turns on that speed on the basketball court,” Leroy said.
“When she’s on the court, the game is just more fun,” Carla added.
Where Kimalee found the most competition at that age was actually in her backyard, where the family had a slab of concrete with a basketball goal set up. With four brothers, all just a few years older, Kimalee believes those no-holds-barred, 1-on-1 battles growing up established the mentality that she still plays the game as a senior in high school.
“They were very, very competitive and with me being the youngest, I had to fend for myself all the time,” Kimalee said. “I think they helped me become the player that I am today with my competitiveness. And now they all support me and I think they are all really proud of the success that I have had. So that’s really great.”
Kimalee didn’t grow much after the fourth grade — she’s a 5-5 guard now — but that didn’t stop her from becoming one of the top two-way forces in Kansas. She’s averaging 17 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 4.1 steals for an 11-4 Circle team ranked No. 8 in Class 4A and has signed with Southern Nazarene, a Division II program just outside of Oklahoma City.
After missing out on qualifying for the state tournament last season, Kimalee has taken it upon herself to be the leader of making sure Circle returns this year.
“Kimalee is such a talented basketball player and just a great all-around threat,” Circle coach Brian Henry said. “She definitely uses that state championship speed on the basketball court to score in transition. This year she’s done a tremendous job of getting her teammates involved and working on her outside game. Now she’s a deadly combination.”
Circle’s Kimalee Cook, 2019 Wichita Eagle High School All-Metro Girls Track and Field 200 meters selection Fernando Salazar The Wichita Eagle
‘You know someone is out there loving you’
After raising five adopted children, the Cooks have become accustomed to the conversation with their children about their adoption.
“Each child is born with a longing for their birth mom,” Carla said. “Each one has grieved in their own way about being adopted and not being with their birth mom.”
The Cooks leave it up to each of their adopted children if they want to pursue a relationship or meet their birth mother. In order to make that option available, Carla keeps in touch with all of the birth mothers.
She still remembers the awkward silence in the hospital room with Kimalee’s mother as she jotted down her phone number and email address and told her to not hesitate to reach out for updates on Kimalee. After four months, Carla heard from her.
The two have remained in close contact to this day. With Kimalee’s permission, Carla has sent regular updates and pictures of Kimalee to her birth mother, who now lives in Texas.
From afar, the birth mother has watched her daughter grow up. She smiled when she read about Kimalee already reading chapter books at age 5, laughed when she saw video clips of Kimalee’s domination on the basketball court, and beamed with pride when she watched a clip of Kimalee pulling away down the straightaway to win a 100-meter state track championship.
Although Kimalee is fine with sending her birth mother updates, she has decided not to pursue a relationship with her yet. To this day, the two have still not met.
“I’m not to that point in my life yet where I’m ready to talk to her,” Kimalee said. “I know for a fact that I will eventually build that relationship, but at this point I don’t think I’m ready yet.”
Carla says that if Kimalee does ever choose to meet her birth mother, she will meet one of her biggest fans.
“She calls Kimalee her angel all the time,” Carla said. “Whenever Kimalee is ready, her birth mom can’t wait to meet her.”
For now, Kimalee is concentrated on leading Circle back to the state tournament next month and preparing to play college basketball. Her family believes she could be successful in any number of potential job fields, but Kimalee has developed a passion for sports broadcasting and plans to pursue that in college.
Regardless of what happens, Kimalee finds comfort when she looks at that picture of her family.
“I think that’s the best thing about having such a big family,” she said. “You know someone is out there loving you.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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