Thomas Cooper wishes he could explain it.
From his perspective, he isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary when he takes the field. Cooper isn’t a rah-rah guy who causes people to turn their heads because he is the loudest on his team.
Listed at 5-foot-7, 205 pounds, Cooper also isn’t the biggest or the fastest player on the Heritage Academy baseball team. That shouldn’t be surprising because Cooper held the same distinction in the fall when he played for the school’s football team.
“People look at me and say, ‘Oh, why is he playing center field? There is no way he can get to a ball there or get good jumps,’ ” Cooper said.
On both teams, though, Cooper has been an unquestioned leader because he leads by example, not by shouting. He also makes up for what he might lack in size or speed with a burning desire to give his best for the Patriots.
Cooper tore his medial cruciate ligament during football season and missed the last part of the season. Last year, he broke his left arm and was forced to miss the last part of the baseball season.
Cooper’s efforts have played an integral role in the Patriots’ fortunes. At 17-8, Heritage Academy finished second to Starkville Academy in Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, District 2. At 5:30 p.m. today, it will play host to Cathedral School in Game 1 of the best-of-three first-round Class AAA playoff series.
Game 2 of the series will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in Natchez. If needed, Game 3 will be approximately 30 minutes after the first game.
“When you step between the lines, you want to leave it all out there and go full speed and give it our all,” Cooper said. “Some might say I am verbal sometimes, but, for the most part, I am not (a rah-rah guy).”
Cooper smiles and points out that outfielder Ladd Chain might say he is a little more vocal because he has encouraged him this season to play a bigger role on the team. Those efforts have been a continuation of what he started to do last year as a junior, when the team only had a few seniors and Cooper said he was a leader “a little bit.” He said it was natural for him to take the responsibility of being a leader and putting things he learned earlier in his career from former teammates like James Clark, Parker Dunaway, Clark Atkins, and MJ Hamrick to use.
“In my ninth- and 10th-grade days, when I got a little playing time, they were a little more vocal and you wanted to play hard for them,” Cooper said. “There were some really talented guys we played with. We had a bunch of guys that loved the game and were really good, so anything they said we soaked up and took it into our knowledge. We’re just using what they taught us.”
Cooper leads the Patriots with a 7-1 pitching record and one save. He also paces the team in innings pitched. At the plate, he has 11 RBIs, has scored 16 runs, and has an on-base percentage of .386. He said he felt an added responsibility with classmate Dylan Barker to help set the tone on this season’s team and show younger players like Seth Harris and Blayze Berry how they need to do things.
Heritage Academy coach Bruce Branch, who also coached Cooper on the school’s football team, said Cooper has all of the intangibles a coach could want from a player.
“You know what you are going to get anytime that kid steps on the mound, to the plate, or takes the field. He is going to lay it on the line for us,” Branch said. “He is not a flashy guy by any means. He is just an undersized kid that realizes he has to work harder than everybody and that he has to put everything out on the line to get the job done.”
Branch said Cooper’s recognition of that fact makes him a good leader. He said Cooper has accepted the challenge of hitting in the No. 2 hole and being a team player. He said he also has gutted it out on the mound because he has to survive without a 90 mph fastball. Branch said Cooper finds a way to reach a little deeper or to focus a little harder to make a big pitch when he needs it.
This season, Branch said Cooper has done a good job in center field because he gets great reads on the ball off the bat. He said that goes back to Cooper not being the fastest player and using skills that often aren’t seen to be a leader.
“Those are shoes you don’t really fill,” Branch said. “Kids like Thomas Cooper don’t come along too often — the type that are undersized that realize they have to work exceptionally hard even to get playing time, whether it is on the football field or the baseball field. That is something he has accepted.
“Does he leave his mark at Heritage Academy? Absolutely. I think Thomas Cooper will be a kid we talk about for several years to come. … He has been a fixture here for seven years, and we have watched him mature from a seventh-grader. The role he has accepted and the job he has done for us has been unbelievable.”
The winner of the Heritage Academy-Cathedral School series will face the winner of the series between Central Hinds and Indianola Academy next week.
n Hebron Christian 7, DeSoto School (Ark.) 0: At West Helena, Arkansas, Payton Griffin threw a complete-game one-hitter Tuesday to lead the Eagles in Game 1 of their MAIS best-of-three first round Class A playoff series.
Griffin struck out 14 to help the top-seeded Eagles move one game closer to reaching the semifinals and a matchup against the winner of the Deer Creek-Kemper Academy series.
Channing Tapley was 4-for-4 with a double, four RBIs, and a run scored. Clay Faulkner also was 4-for-4 with four runs scored.
Jessie Moore, Roger Pratt, and Eli Parrish added RBIs.
Game 2 will be at 3 p.m. Thursday in Pheba. If needed, Game 3 will follow approximately 30 minutes after the first game.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.