Anthony Cooper did not share the dream that many youngsters have of playing football for a free education or the financial rewards that are attached to a professional career.
Playing football, Cooper believed, was something that brought a smile to his face.
“To be honest, growing up and playing rec league football and traveling to play football, I just did it for fun,” Cooper admitted. “I never thought there would come a day that I had a shot to play in college or play in the NFL.”
Everything changed prior to the 2009 football season for the two-way standout from Bayside High in Virginia Beach.
Accompanying many of the highly regarded players at Bayside, including Virginia rising sophomore cornerback Demetrious Nicholson, Cooper suddenly realized he possessed a special talent.
Each catch that Cooper made and every route that he ran at his first college camp at Rutgers University turned heads.
“We had a great team and we had some players that are at Virginia and I did great job and I was only a sophomore at the time,” Cooper recounted. “From there I felt like I could be really good.”
Initially as a rookie at Bayside, Cooper started a position that was not among those that college coaches recruited him to play.
“At first when I came to high school I was at running back, but I didn’t get that many carries,” Cooper said, “so in the offseason I worked hard and changed my position to wide receiver.”
With an explosive offense, Bayside coach Darnell Moore got creative with where he slotted the 6-foot, 185-pound athlete on the field.
In 2010 as a junior, Cooper hauled in 40 passes for 785 yards and seven touchdowns. He added five more scores on kickoff or interception returns. After an undefeated regular season and a trip to the VHSL Group AAA, Division 6 state semifinals, Cooper was a first-team All-Tidewater selection.
This year as a senior, Cooper had 47 receptions, 1,014 yards receiving and scored 11 touchdowns. Playing safety, he added six interceptions and recovered two fumbles en route to being the “most productive player in the Tidewater” in Moore’s eyes.
“It is beyond me that there can be a better playmaker in the state of Virginia,” Moore said at Cooper’s press conference to announce Virginia beat Vanderbilt and Tennessee for his services.
Virginia coach Mike London played a major role in getting Cooper to follow Nicholson to Charlottesville.
“Back when I came up there the first time and visited, we sat down in his office and talked about life. It touched me how he really cares about the players and we built a strong relationship,” Cooper said. “That right there was a big key in the recruiting process. Most of the coaches that I sat down and talked with didn’t talk much about my education. Everything was about football.
“With Mike London, everything was different.”
On Wednesday, Cooper said he would sign his National Letter of Intent, but cautioned Virginia fans to have patience on National Signing Day.
“We are having a ceremony after school, so it will not be until after at least 2:30 p.m.,” Cooper said with a laugh.
Virginia was the lone school that Cooper took an “official visit” to but he said he had countless offers from major programs, including Virginia Tech, Boston College and East Carolina.
Rated as the top wide receiver in the state by Rivals.com and 247sports.com, the views nationally on Cooper vary per recruiting service. Rivals.com views Cooper as the nation’s 57th-best wide out and a three-star prospect in the Class of 2012 and 247sports.com pegs him as a four-star prospect and the No. 31 wide receiver in the country.
Those rankings could have been higher had Cooper focused solely on playing safety.
“This guy can run and he is physical,” Wahoos247.com publisher Jamie Oakes said. “He doesn’t play defense like a wide receiver. He is a guy that loves to hit people and that’s why I love him as a safety. He is a physical receiver. He is not afraid of contact; that’s what I liked most about him.
“What he reminds me of is a [former Virginia wideout] Kris Burd-type with more speed.”
In the past week, Cooper was asked by the coaches at Virginia to select the side of the ball that he preferred to start his career.
“It is offense now,” Cooper chuckled. “When I came for my official visit they asked me if I wanted to play defense or offense. I told them I wanted to play offense, but it doesn’t really matter.”
Cooper knows that he could see the field faster at safety with the Cavaliers losing starting safeties Rodney McLeod and Corey Mosley.
“I will play wherever they need me and I think I can do a good job at it,” he said.
There is something special, Cooper said, about playing offense and helping bolster a unit that saw starters Matt Snyder and Burd exhaust their eligibility after the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
“I feel like I can bring a lot of explosion into the offense and make some exciting plays,” Cooper said. “I know in college it is going to be tougher than it was in high school, but whatever spot they want me to play in I think I will be ready for.”
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