Keon Cooper’s future is in track and field, but he was not about to abandon a sport he loves before heading to college.
Unlike most modern high school athletes, the Steinert three-letterman is not specializing in his main sport at the expense of enjoying others that he is good at. The senior played football in the fall and passed on winter track in order to take one more shot at wrestling this winter.
“Wrestling was my first sport and then it was track and field, so I really wanted to stick with wrestling,” said Cooper, who’s a standout javelin thrower. “I knew I would be good at it my junior and senior year, and I knew it would put me in shape for the throws in the spring.”
Cooper made the most of his opportunity this year. After finishing second in the District 23 Tournament on Feb. 17, he advanced to Region 6 competition for the first time in his career. His record was 29-4 with 16 pins, which can safely be considered a breakout season after he won 31 matches over his first three years combined.
“He’s the type of person who does the extra stuff,” Steinert coach Adam Jankos said. “A lot of kids think that two hours of practice is what it takes to be a good wrestler, but Keon’s a person who works out on his own. He’s got a mat in his garage. He has former wrestlers of mine who he works out with at their house, so he basically gets private lessons at home.”
Cooper’s exposure to the sport came at an early age, as his dad Doug is a long-time Jankos assistant. When he was little, Cooper would go with Doug to watch practice and meets.
“I was really fascinated by it, and I was asking him about it, asking if there were any leagues,” Cooper said. “I was like, 7 or 8 and I would just be rolling with the older kids.”
From there he began working at All Heart Wrestling with Danny Flounders, who helped mold Steinert’s two-time state champion, Brandon Cray. Upon entering high school, Cooper had the basics down, but needed work.
“He came in as a freshman and he knew how to wrestle, but he was like a freshman,” Jankos said. “He wasn’t like the Brandon Cray-type freshman, but your average freshman that comes into high school and knows how to wrestle. He ended up getting 10 varsity wins, which is pretty good. He’s definitely made some progress since then.”
Health problems stymied his next two seasons; but he battled through a knee injury to reach the district consolation finals before losing and missing the regions by one spot.
“Junior year, I kind of thought he was gonna make it out of districts,” Jankos said. “He was seeded second and lost in the semifinals, and we thought, ‘All right, no problem we’ll wrestle back, we’ll take third.’”
Due to a series of early upsets, however, the wrestle-backs were tougher than forecasted, resulting in his consolation loss.
“Taking fourth in districts was really needed for him to step it up this year,” Jankos continued. “What he’s done; getting out of districts, shows what kind of work he did.”
Cooper couldn’t agree more.
“Fourth place definitely made me want to work harder,” he said. “I joined Elite Wrestling (in Jackson) and was going to different clubs, trying to work harder for this season. I’ve been going to Flounders for privates. First and foremost he’s been talking to me a lot about the mental aspect of it. Mentally, you have to be there to be on the mat with somebody else. I felt like that gave me a big jump on all the other wrestlers.”
Cooper entered the season by wrestling Northern Burlington standout Tommy Hill and losing 5-1. Jankos felt it was a good gauge to see where he was at and what he needed to work on. In the Mercer County meet, he had the “honor” of being the first of many Spartan wrestlers to come down with the flu, and managed to struggle to a fourth-place finish.
Cooper’s district loss was in the finals to Hightstown’s talented Johnny Andre, 6-2, at 182 pounds.
“He was seeded second and Johnny Andre’s a tough wrestler,” Jankos said. “We kind of broke down the way Johnny wrestled and tried to make the match as close as possible.”
The match was a learning experience for Cooper, in case the two happened to meet in the regions.
“That was actually my first time wrestling him,” he said. “That was the match everyone wanted to see. I guess he was just lower (to the mat) than I was. I had to get down low to match his level, and he got in with shots and used that toward his advantage.”
It is the kind of analysis one would expect from Cooper, who is more of a technical wrestler than a scrapper.
“He’s not the kind of person that just comes out and starts clubbing your head, that kind of stuff,” Jankos said. “It’s not like a brawl match, he really focuses on his technique, which is pretty solid. Especially on his feet. He’s got some nice takedowns, some good set-ups. If you’re gonna lay on your stomach when he’s on top, you’re gonna go over. He’s got some things on top that he’s turning people pretty easily with.”
However the region tournament turned out, Cooper was happy with the season, saying, “going into my senior year I just really wanted to go out with a bang.”
Make no mistake, he has gone out, as throwing the shot, discus and javelin will be his athletic focus from this point on. Cooper credits football and wrestling for keeping in shape for track, and he does club track over the summer to keep himself sharp in that sport.
He has won the javelin at the Mercer County Meet the past two years and just missed reaching the Meet of Champions in that event by one spot. His goal this spring is to reach the MOC and Penn Relays.
His skills are good enough to draw interest from a plethora of colleges, including Rutgers, Rhode Island and West Chester. His dad is pushing for Rutgers but Keon has his sights set on University of Hartford. He actually turned down a track scholarship to the Connecticut school, only because the art scholarship they offered him was higher.
Much like his father, an art teacher at Steinert who becomes the faculty paparazzi at after-school social engagements, Cooper enjoys drawing and painting.
“I like to do realism, face portraits of people,” he said. “I do paints, color pencil, any type of medium.”
Much to the chagrin of his mom, Kianna, Cooper started learning art from Doug at home.
“It was trial and error,” Cooper said. “There were papers on top of papers. You’d see them all over the house. Color pencils, paint, it was everywhere. My mom was heated.”
Maybe she can provide some tips to Cooper’s future Hartford roommate on how to clean up the mess.
Keon Cooper won 29 matches this year, just shy of the 31 combined wins he compiled in his first three years. (Photo by Amanda Ruch.),
