It was a pretty impressive year for individual achievement in high school athletics for Osceola County Athletes.
Celebration’s Felipe Costa won a state championship in swimming, the first in several decades. County weightlifters Julian Sykes (St. Cloud) and Isaac Balado (Harmony) won double gold medals and state titles in that sport; while Gunner Holland and Anderson Heap won state wrestling championships.
Osceola individuals also stood out in team sports. Running backs Tyler Emans (Harmony) and Oneil Senatus (Celebration) piled up eye-popping numbers, as did Kowboys defensive lineman John Walker. Celebration track and cross country standout Jared Falchook placed at states.
And while all those individuals were certainly deserving of Athlete of the Year status, the Osceola News-Gazette had chosen Osceola High wrestler Cooper Haase as its Male Athlete of the Year for the 2021-22 school year.
Haase, a junior, won his third consecutive state championship in March, capping off a sensational season by pinning four opponents, including Riverview’s Nikolas Hernandez in the Class 3A, 138-pound finals to finish to cap a stellar 58-3 record. His only losses came against nationally ranked wrestlers, including a 3-1 decision in the championship round of Osceola’s prestigious Knockout Christmas Classic to Tom Crook, the sixth-ranked wrestler in the nation at that weight class. Haase won state and regional championships in USA Wrestling events this spring and represented team Florida at the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals in Fargo, ND in July.
For the perfectiondriven Haase, it was a good season, but not a great one.
“I am a very goaloriented individual and I had a good season but I did not reach my goal of an undefeated high school season,” Haase said.
It is that type of attitude that makes Haase one of the country’s elite high school talents, according to his former coach Jim Bird.
“Cooper is an absolute technician and master at his craft,” said Bird, who recently resigned from OHS to move closer to family. “No one works harder or studies more and is constantly looking to get better. Forget the wins, forget the tournament championships and forget the accolades he has already received, his only concern is how he can get better. He is one of those rare athletes where simply being great is not good enough.”
Starting in the sport at age six, Haase said he shortly became hooked after that.
“The thing about wrestling is no one is born a great wrestler. Some guys are born naturally fast so they are good at track. Big, strong, fast guys may have a natural advantage in football, basketball and baseball,” Haase said. “But wrestling is different. No one is born a great wrestler. There is only one path to become successful in this sport. You have to ask yourself, how much of the work, training, sacrifice and time are you willing to put in?”
With all his successes, Haase still admits to getting nervous before a match.
“Doesn’t matter who it is against, I’m usually a bundle of nerves before a match. You’ll usually see me jumping around shooting imaginary basketballs or something. Once a match starts, I immediately focus on what is happening on the mat.”
He credits Bird for a lot of his success.
“When I was younger I went into a lot of matches with a ‘deer in the headlights’ look and he simply was such a calming influence on me,” Haase said. “Coach Bird pushes all his athletes to strive to be the best we can be and has meant so much to me in my career.”
Haase, who won state championships at 106 pounds as a freshman and at 132 as a sophomore before winning a 138 title as a junior, has a 155-10 record in three seasons.
For the future, Haase said his immediate goal is join Fox Baldwin as just the second wrestler in school and county history to win four consecutive state wrestling championships. He has verbally committed to West Point, where he will wrestle collegiately and hopes to pursue a career as either a pilot or engineer. He noted that the opportunity to wrestle at the Division I level while serving his country appealed to him.
“I fell in love with the place when I saw it,” Haase said about the service academy. “As a wrestler, you understand discipline and that aspect of Academy life really appeals to me.”
“Cooper is the type of kid that I guarantee you will be successful at everything he does in life,” Bird added. “He always learns from his mistakes and uses those mistakes to get better. He is an elite wrestler with great character.”
Haase edged out Costa, the Orange Belt Conference Athlete of the Year, Holland, Heap, Sykes and Balado for the award.
