CHANGE OF VENUE.

Byline: Bill Schlotter Daily News Staff Writer

By the time his daughter turned 12, Julius Cooper had seen enough.

The environment daughter Tawnee (Taw-NAY) was growing up in with his ex-wife was not, he felt, exactly suitable for a child.

"The house she was in was drug-infested," said her father. "She would be left alone for days on end. Her mother was into drugs and all kinds of things. She was in and out of jail.

"(Tawnee) had a rough childhood, she really did."

So on one of his visits, he and new wife Jeanne took action.

"She had been left with some of her mother's friends," Cooper said of Tawnee, now a star player for the Simi Valley girls' basketball team. "My wife and I went out to pick her up for a visit and we decided we weren't bringing her back."

"It was pretty hard growing up," Tawnee said. "I really didn't have much of a childhood.

From the time her father and mother split when she was just a baby until her father took custody, Tawnee Cooper had suffered the neglect common to children of drug-afflicted parents, her father said.

After taking her home to Simi Valley, the Coopers eventually won custody of Tawnee. And a whole new life opened up for a neglected child.

"I owe a lot to my dad and (step-mother) Jeanne for everything they've done for me," Tawnee said.

Tawnee's first days with her dad's family were a little rough, Julius Cooper said.

"She had a little attitude problem," he said. "But I'm kind of a disciplinarian so we laid down some discipline and from that day on, she's been fantastic - what a kid."

Tawnee also had problems with motivation and self-esteem.

"It was hard to have self-confidence with the way I was growing up," she said. "And I didn't do all that great in school - until I came here."

So many things changed when she moved in with her dad.

One of the biggest was her discovery of sports, particularly basketball.

"I'm a big basketball fan," Julius Cooper said. "I was outside shooting baskets one time and I just started teaching her. She expressed a love for the game and it just went from there."

From there, Cooper has developed into one of the best high school players around, averaging an area-high 26.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game for the 25-2 Pioneers.

Cooper may be the best player in the history of Simi Valley girls' basketball.

In the '80s, Simi had Cheri Graham, a 6-foot-3-1/2 post player who set season and career point records en route to winning a scholarship to Louisiana State.

"I didn't think any of her records would ever be broken," Simi coach Dave Murphy said. "But Tawnee has already broken her single-season mark of 692 points. And Tawnee has 1,325 career points to Cheri's 1,381, so she might get that record, too."

Cooper is doing it in the post like Graham. But at 5-9 she is much smaller. And Murphy said she will probably play outside at UC Santa Barbara next year.

Murphy can't stop talking about Cooper's skills.

"She has incredible moves and she can play inside or outside," Murphy said. "She has great athletic ability, quickness and jumping ability. She gets a lot of points on creating and on putbacks. She is really a classic creator, we don't run that much for her."

Pioneers point-guard Jamie Griffin - a star in her own right - says Cooper is the most dedicated Pioneer.

"She's the one who has worked the hardest," Griffin said. "She's always out there shooting and learning more moves. And it's really paid off."

Cooper's work ethic extends to other areas of her life.

The girl who "didn't do all that great in school" when she came to live with her father now has a 3.28 grade-point average and a passing SAT score.

Last summer, she took an algebra class for no credit just to learn the subject better.

"Most kids wouldn't do that," Murphy said.

The differences between her former life and the present sometimes make Tawnee philosophical.

"You need to make the best out of your life, no matter what you do," she said. "Everything is up to us and the options our parents give us."

Does she ever ponder where she would be now if her dad hadn't brought her to his home?

"I don't even think about it," Cooper said. "I'm not looking at the past any more. I'm looking at the future."

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Photo (1--color) Tawnee Cooper overcame a rough start in life before becoming a star basketball player. (2) Tawnee Cooper has no trouble rejecting a shot by a Simi Valley High teammate during practice. Joe Binoya / Daily News