Fleming County’s Cooper Schwartz held a signing ceremony on Friday as he’ll continue his academic and football career at Lindsey Wilson in the fall. (Submitted)
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Fleming County offensive lineman Cooper Schwartz held his signing ceremony on Friday as he’ll head to Lindsey Wilson to continue his academic and football career.
Schwartz has been a wall on the Panthers offensive line over the years, starting his junior and senior year. The 6-foot-4, 315 pounder is not only a standout on the football field, but excels in the classroom as well with a 4.0 GPA and already multiple college courses out of the way.
“People see Cooper and see his size, they know he is a football player. He did a great job for us on the offensive line. Him being an academic standout really helped him in this process. He’s getting a nice package to go there with his academics,” Panthers coach Bill Spencer said.
His academic success translates over to the football field, the Panthers coaching staff confident that anywhere he was along the line, his assignment would be taken care of.
Schwartz played in 31 games in his high school career and was one of the main lineman in helping the Panthers to back-to-back district titles the last two seasons and three in the last four years to go with two regional runner-up finishes.
“Three district championships in those four years is probably the accomplishment I’m most proud of,” Schwartz said.
He’ll be looked at to be an offensive guard at the next level in his discussions with the Lindsey Wilson coaching staff, playing for a Blue Raider program that is currently 7-0 in the NAIA spring season. They look to close out a perfect regular season on Saturday when they play Bethel College.
Schwartz plans to major in Psychophysiology with hopes to turn it into a physical therapist career. Football helped draw his interest toward his major of choice and despite his durability over the years, still had to fight through some injuries along the way.
“Football has really brought me towards that. Had a few injuries before and people helping me through the recovery process has made me want to do that,” Schwartz said.
His ability to catch on quickly should help him at the next level both in the classroom and on the football field when the playbook will become a little bit more complex.
“I just know what happens throughout the play. Picking things up is easy to me and bringing it on to the football field. If I can learn a play quickly and hopefully learn their playbook my first year it hopefully gets me the opportunity to play more,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz continues a pipeline of players in Flemingsburg to play at the next level over the past few years, the success on the field translating into offers for kids to the next level.
“Our goal is if kids want to make that commitment and want to play at the next level then we’ll help find them a place to go to. That’s one of my roles here is to find them a home and place to go to,” Spencer said.
Schwartz is looking forward to heading to campus here in the coming months.
“Their coaching staff really drew me to it, I enjoyed talking to other recruits while I visited and thought it was a beautiful campus. I didn’t want to go to a big school and like that it is a smaller school,” Schwartz said.
