Bright future for senior Cooper Matthews

The blinding stadium lights beamed down on senior quarterback Cooper Matthews as he threw the ball in a rapid spiral, granting the win to the Trojans in their hard-fought battle against the San Leandro Pirates. With his senior season coming to an end, Matthews expresses that playing their second to last game and senior night was a very bittersweet feeling. 

Coming from a family of baseball players, Matthews is the first one in his family to play football: “I liked wrestling and football more than anything.” Ultimately, Matthews decision to play football stemmed from the aggressive nature of wrestling, as well as his competitive nature yearning for a new challenge after being on the wrestling team throughout middle school. Like many who decided to play football, the team quickly became a close-knit brotherhood for him.            

“Football allowed me to physically express my feelings,” said Matthews. “Football was never something I had to do, it was something I wanted to do.” 

His dedication to the new sport was tested the summer going into his junior year. While playing volleyball with his friends, Matthews accidentally landed on his friend and snapped his ankle in half from diving for the ball. He was rushed to the hospital with a double break and underwent surgery to insert metal plates on both sides of his foot. 

For the rest of the summer, he not only had to push through the traumatic injury, but also declining mental health. Coming into his junior year football season he continued to workout and stay active to try and make a speedy recovery, showing up to practices and games even when he couldn’t play. 

“I was just so proud of myself for being able to fight through pretty bad adversity and getting to come back for seven weeks of the season,” said Matthews. 

Although his senior season had a lot of ups and downs on the field, Matthews’ commitment to the team drove him to work hard at every game and practice whether they had won or lost their last game. 

“I committed myself to the football team and I put in lots of work, so I was never really going to not go hard in practice,” said Matthews. “I didn’t approach a week differently based on the results of the game prior.”

Although most know him as CVHS star quarterback, Matthews carried his number, 11, into the volleyball team as well, where his competitive nature pushed him to take his offseason sport seriously. 

With his senior year coming to an end, Matthews is most likely committing to Chabot Community College, where he will major in construction management and also continue his football career. 

“I’ve always felt passionate about that [construction],” said Matthews. “I just know it can make a difference in people’s lives.”