Maple Grove's Prep Elite

Photo: Marshall Franklin Long

Rachel Cooper: A Humble Hero

Rachel Cooper speaks softly, but she carries a big stick—a couple of them, actually. The Osseo incoming senior’s two weapons of choice are a lacrosse stick and a hockey stick, and in most cases, she lets both do the talking for her.

As a junior, Cooper led the North Metro Stars hockey team with 17 points and led the Osseo/Park Center Mustangs lacrosse team with 52 goals. She’s played varsity in both sports since ninth grade, but is leaning towards pursuing her “passion” of lacrosse in college. Mustangs coach Martha Trumble believes Cooper, a three-time all-conference player, definitely has the skills to play at the next level. Trumble believes it so deeply, she encouraged her junior captain to try out for the Minnesota Lakers select summer team, which gave her the opportunity to travel all over the country to play in top college recruiting tournaments.  

“She is just a natural,” says Trumble of Cooper. “She is just unbelievable. She will play any position she is asked to play and do anything she is asked to do... She just has an uncanny ability to get open, get the ball and put the ball in the net.”

Cooper is also a standout performer in the classroom, where she maintained a 3.7 GPA  as a junior while taking AP and HP classes. “School is very, very important to me,” says Cooper, who is on the Junior Class Committee and National Honor Society. “It’s definitely challenging, but I’ve learned to take the time out of hanging out with friends and to stay up a bit later to get that work done.”

If history serves as evidence, Cooper will continue treating goalies to sleepless nights as a senior. But it won’t be her mouth making the noise. “One thing about Rachel is she doesn’t realize how good she is,” Trumble says. “She’s just maybe starting to see it. She is modest.”

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