Recently, Cooper represented the Great Lakes as a member of the Under 14 boys country squad in the national competition.  His team came third.  His performance as a midfielder was noted by Jets technical directors and Cooper began his Jets training on October 12.  This selection however means that Cooper has left the mid north coast representative team, from which he was selected for the State.

The training adds a whole new driving dimension for Cooper’s mother Luisa who has to get him to Newcastle four times a week.

“There’s a lot of travelling.  But you know what?  To get anywhere, you have to do the hard yards first and this training and playing games while juggling his grades is certainly that.  The benefits come later,” Luisa said.

Luisa said the cost and time involved in driving for the national competition had been taxing and she wanted to thank Club Forster, Gloria Jeans and her staff at the Forster Private Hospital for assisting her with donations and raffle prizes and purchases.

Through this, she raised about $700 towards petrol and accommodation costs.

Cooper has been playing soccer from the age of five, saying he was inspired to play by his father and grandfather.

“They were good players and I wanted to keep that tradition going,” he said.

A Year 8 student at Tuncurry, Cooper has represented his school in soccer and futsal and will play with the team in Queensland in November.

“That’s good news, but it’s also more money and more time off.  At school, he was chosen as one of the students to have morning tea with the headmaster.  This honour is given to outstanding students,” Luisa said.

“He wants to do sports medicine or physio when he leaves school – something to do with sport, of course,” Luisa said.