{"id":53900,"date":"2020-02-28T12:47:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=53900"},"modified":"2020-02-28T12:47:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:47:33","slug":"fhsu-wrestlings-a-j-cooper-is-getting-pins-and-taking-names-as-regionals-draw-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=53900","title":{"rendered":"FHSU Wrestling\u2019s A.J. Cooper is getting pins and taking names as regionals draw near"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY BRADEN HOLECEK
PHOTOS BY ALLIE SCHWEIZER AND LEXI GROSS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being humble and hardworking has finally paid off for Fort Hays State junior wrestler A.J. Cooper.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His journey to this season\u2019s impressive win-loss total has not been as typical as other wrestlers he has competed against. In fact, Cooper did not originally come to the university to be a part of the wrestling team.
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\u201cI came to Fort Hays State originally to play football,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cI walked on to the wrestling team, and clearly that\u2019s worked out pretty well.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed it has, but he is even more thankful that Fort Hays State gave him the opportunity in the first place.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m from western Kansas. This was the closest four year, obviously it\u2019s affordable, but Fort Hays State football and wrestling gave me the chance that other schools didn\u2019t,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to go to a JUCO, so I ended up here. And I\u2019m thankful that I did.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooper currently has one of the nation\u2019s top pinfall records with 13 total falls as of February 26. Interestingly enough, he may not have been as excited about this originally.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m not a big fan of getting pins. But they happen, it\u2019s more team points. So, I guess it\u2019s important to get pins,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t even realize it until one of my teammates said something to me.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once it was brought to his attention, Cooper decided that it might as well continue.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess I better start getting more pins to see if I can get a little closer to the top.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, Cooper and his teammates\u2019 objective is to win. But, there is some added motivation heading into the team\u2019s regional this Sunday.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFort Hays State hasn\u2019t had a Division II National Champion yet. So, that\u2019s ultimately the goal,\u201d he said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wrestler added that his pin record could be an added boost to achieve that.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I can pin everybody on the way there it will be easier,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cBut if not, I still want to wrestle hard and see what we can do.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fort Hays State wrestling team may not receive the attention that other sports do. This squad is all about working hard, while having some fun along the way.`<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know anything about wrestling, it\u2019s probably one of the hardest sports that you do,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cYou gotta work hard every day. We work hard, but at the same time, we have fun. We like to poke fun at each other.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Overall, he does not feel like their team unit is any different than the other ones on campus.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just a lot shorter, usually,\u201d he said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shortage in numbers does not limit the goals that the team or Cooper may have individually.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for his own goals, Cooper had both atheltic and academic goals in mind. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to get a 4.0 GPA. I wanted to finish at the top of the MIAA individually and as a team. I also set out a goal to be top three at Nationals,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, as long as I make it through Regionals, I can attain that goal at Nationals.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cooper wrestles in the 285-pound weight class. His road will not be easy. However, he is ready for any challenge.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDepending on who I wrestle, it\u2019s a little tough sometimes,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cYou know, I give up 50 pounds. But, there should be some fireworks out there at the heavyweight bracket. It\u2019s something that people should come out and watch.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fort Hays State wrestling team will host the Super Region 4 Championships this Sunday, March 1st. The event will kick off at 10 am in Gross Memorial Coliseum.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY BRADEN HOLECEKPHOTOS BY ALLIE SCHWEIZER AND LEXI GROSS Being humble and hardworking has finally paid off for Fort Hays State junior wrestler A.J. Cooper.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":53904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,784],"tags":[13634,9127,13574,604,1987,103,290,7976],"class_list":["post-53900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-wrestling","tag-a-j-cooper","tag-aj-cooper","tag-braden-holecek","tag-fhsu-athletics","tag-fhsu-wrestling","tag-tiger-media-network","tag-tmn","tag-wrestling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/B95A0938.jpg?fit=4995%2C3330&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53905,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53900\/revisions\/53905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}