A QUESTION OF BALANCE : Canyon High Wrestler Cooper Wins With Style That’s Basically Aggressive

The boiling point is that temperature at which liquids and sometimes people seethe, churn and bubble over in agitation.

Zach Cooper wrestles each match on the verge of the boiling point. But it wouldn’t do for Canyon High School’s top wrestler to actually reach it.

“You’ve got to be aggressive and you have got to go hard, but you can’t be anxious,” said Cooper, 16. “It’s just a balance. If you get overly aggressive, it’s a disadvantage. If you run at a guy, it’s easy to get thrown.”

Cooper, who is the No. 2 Greco-Roman wrestler nationally among 15-16-year-olds, doesn’t get thrown often.

He excels in all three types of wrestling: collegiate style, which is also used in American high schools; freestyle, which is slightly less restrictive and is used at the Olympics; and Greco-Roman, in which wrestlers contact only the upper body.

Cooper, a junior, is 10-0 this year for Canyon, the No. 1 team in the Southern Section 4-A. Canyon’s eight consecutive Century League titles have tied a county record. The Comanches, under Coach Gary Bowden, are shooting for the record this season, and Cooper figures to play a large part in the chase.

Not only is he physically big at 6 feet 1 1/2 inches and 191 pounds, but he is large on talent.

He was the U.S.A. Wrestling Assn. state Greco-Roman champion as a freshman, then won the state Greco-Roman and freestyle championships for 15-16-year-olds as a sophomore.

As a sophomore last year, he was the Century League champion in the 175-pound class. He placed second to Andy Leon of El Dorado in the Southern Section 4-A and second to Leon again at the Masters--the state qualifying meet which features the best wrestlers from among all divisions of the Southern Section’s schools. He reached the quarterfinals of the state meet before losing to the eventual state champion. Canyon didn’t have a freshman class when he was in ninth grade, so his sophomore year was his first of high school competition.

He earned his national ranking with a second-place finish at the National Championships in Warrensberg, Mo., this summer.

“He’s got so many medals we’ve been trying to figure out what to do with them,” his father, David Cooper, said.

The younger Cooper picked up another award this weekend as the 191-pound champion at a 29-team tournament at Rosemead High School.

He helped lead Canyon to the team title over South Hills. Laguna Hills placed third and Mater Dei fourth.

Cooper breezed through his preliminary matches, pinning three opponents--two in the first of 3 2-minute periods--to advance to the semifinals Saturday.

In the semifinal he couldn’t pin Eisenhower’s Ghassan Hasan, but he bounced him around and rubbed him all over the mat for a 12-4 victory.

He beat Marc Guilliland from Norwalk High School, 7-1, in the final.

“(Guilliland) put on his track shoes and he ran from him the whole match,” Bowden said. “If the guy would have stood and wrestled, he would have gotten pinned.”

He did not get a pin in the semifinal because he “felt a little slow,” Cooper said.

“I think I ate too much breakfast.” Let’s see, Denny’s Southern Slam breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 slices of bacon and 2 biscuits with sausage gravy, Gatorade, 2 bagels with cream cheese, a strawberry milkshake, some bananas and an apple.

A growing boy needs his food. Two and a half years ago, Cooper was almost 60 pounds lighter. “He’s grown phenomenally,” Bowden said. “When I tell people he wrestled 138 a couple of years ago, they can’t believe it.”

He began filling out between eighth and ninth grade, when he grew 7 1/2 inches and gained 35 pounds. He gained more weight last year and now is a lean 191, having slimmed down from 205 after football season. He was the starting defensive end and fullback on a team that finished 0-10.

Bowden describes Cooper’s style as “very standard, orthodox, solid. . . . He beats you with the basics. He doesn’t do anything different than the average wrestler. He just does it a lot better.”

Cooper is used to controlling his opponents and fortunes in wrestling. That’s why his football experience has been frustrating.

“I always felt I played well enough that if the whole team played as well as I did, we would win,” he said. “In wrestling, if I win, no one can take it away. If I lose, there is no one to blame but me. In football, if you win it’s the quarterback. If you lose, it’s the linemen’s fault.”

He has worked hard for his success. “His real strength is that he loves wrestling more than anything else,” Bowden said. “He’s wrestled hundreds of tournaments in the off-season.”

When Cooper started wrestling in seventh grade, he was just another wrestler. That summer he joined the California Age Group Wrestling Assn. program at Cal State Fullerton and began to improve.

He wrestled in California Wrestling Assn. tournaments against older opponents every weekend from January through March.

“I got wrestled to a pulp,” Cooper said. But he stuck with it and just kept improving. By summer’s end he placed second in the last tournament of the year.

In ninth grade, his final year in junior high, he didn’t even have a close match, his father said.

He also participates in the Junior Elite Training System at the Amateur Sports Training Center in San Clemente. The program is designed to develop promising wrestlers for international and Olympic competition.

“He is the caliber of wrestler who has the physical attributes, the size dimension and the heart and attitude to become an Olympian,” said JETS Coach Bob Anderson. “He has a natural feel to throw back and expose and do dangerous-type moves. He has no fear, just like some gymnastic kids. It is just in their nature.”

This fearless wrestler who simmers just below the boiling point in his matches is just plain good-natured off the mat. He maintains a B-plus average in honors courses and generally never lets a scowl cross his face.

“I feel incredibly lucky,” said his father, who wrestled at Bucknell University. “He never gives me a bit of problem. He is always in a good mood. He’s the All-American kid.”