WITHOUT A DOUBT : New-Found Confidence Makes Randy Cooper the Toughest Out in a Potent Canyons’ Lineup

Randy Cooper wears such a broad, What, Me Worry? grin, it is difficult to believe he spent all of last season playing a scared second base for College of the Canyons.

Barreling baserunners who slid, spikes high, to break up double plays did not faze Cooper, nor did high-and-tight offerings from pitchers intent on brushing the Hoover High graduate off the plate.

Cooper’s fear sprung from self doubt.

The highly successful Canyons baseball program annually draws talented high school players from throughout the Valley area. Cooper himself opted to become a Cougar rather than attend Glendale College, which is located less than three minutes from his parents’ house.

Yet despite performing at a level that produced a .333 batting average and second-team All-Western State Conference honors, Cooper felt his daily contributions were not up to par for himself or the powerful Cougars, who have won eight consecutive WSC titles.

“Last year, I was nervous,” Cooper said. “Every game, I thought, ‘Dang, am I going to be in there next game?”

This season, Canyons Coach Len Mohney says he can’t imagine filling out a lineup card without Cooper’s name at second base or center field.

And the only people worried this season are opposing coaches and pitchers who have tried unsuccessfully to stop Cooper from wreaking havoc.

“Canyons has some other kids with more home runs,” Valley Coach Chris Johnson said, “but as far as getting pitched to, Randy Cooper is their toughest out.”

Cooper’s fear apparently has struck out.

He is relaxed and batting .434 overall and .473 in conference play for Canyons (17-12 overall, 10-4 in the WSC), which is embroiled in a legitimate race for the championship for the first time in years.

“He’s really on a roll now,” Mohney said of Cooper. “I think he has to be a Division I guy.”

Cooper’s prowess has forced Mohney to tinker with what he hoped would be a batting order set in stone, or at least fiery aluminum. Originally, the middle of the Cougars’ lineup was to feature a mini-Murderers’ Row of sophomores Chris Joy, Peter Washington and Don Pedersen.

Cooper, however, killed that idea with his increased production.

“Last year, Randy was one of the soldiers,” Mohney said. “This year he’s one of the guys the guys look for to carry the bulk a little.”

Handling responsibility for his team’s success is easier than it might have been in the past for Cooper because, physically, he is much different player than he was a year ago when he weighed as little as 149 pounds.

This season, the 5-foot-9 1/2 Cooper maintains 172 pounds, the result of a self-prescribed, year-long weightlifting program.

“He took it on his own and went for it,” said Mohney, who often opens the Canyons weight room for Cooper after games. “He said, ‘Hey, I need to be a little stronger.’ A lot of guys know that but they don’t have the discipline to do it, which is a different thing.”

Cooper said undertaking the regimen was a necessary step toward playing for a Division I program next season.

“It was obvious that if I wanted to go someplace big I was going to have to change something,” said Cooper, who has two home runs and 30 runs batted in. “Last year, to hit the ball far, I had to swing from my butt. Now I just have to jab at it and it goes.

“People say you shouldn’t lift weights if you’re a baseball player because you get too tense. But I haven’t seen anything bad happen in my arm or anything. I think it’s made my arm stronger.”

It’s also made Cooper into a part-time outfielder.

“I think sometimes he’s not real excited about being out there,” Mohney said. “But he’s our best center fielder.”

Cooper was reared as a shortstop at Hoover, where he played four years of varsity baseball under his father, Bob, batting .432 as a senior.

He turned down a partial scholarship at Cal State Long Beach, where his brother, Robby, was a senior, and enrolled at Canyons, where Jeff Flesher, who would go on to become the WSC Player of the Year, established himself as the starting shortstop.

Cooper was a role player for the Cougars, who finished 32-6 overall and 22-3 in conference play with dominant players such as Flesher and pitcher Tim Nedin and dominant personalities like catcher Mike Bible.

“Bible was the leader, one of those types that says, ‘C’mon man, let’s go pull their nostril hair out,’ ” said Cooper, who is a captain this season. “I’m not that vocal. I don’t consider myself a big leader. Just someone who plays hard all the time.”

As Canyons battles Ventura, Moorpark, Valley and Oxnard for the WSC championship, the Cougars find themselves in an unfamiliar setting--a competitive race for the pennant.

“It’s surprising how people just get in your kitchen because you haven’t put it away,” Mohney said. “Who knows? We could still win this sucker.”

Should the Cougars rally for their ninth consecutive title, it will likely be on the bulky shoulders of Cooper, who traded his insecurity for the confidence that breeds success.

“Now I stand up there like I did in high school,” Cooper said. “I sort of look at the guy (pitcher) like, ‘You’re going to get hit. And you’re going to get hit hard.’ ”