By Ken Hansard
The Rose Hill Rockets soccer team finished last season 13-5-1. Their season
ended in the state quarterfinals against Wichita Trinity on a cold, wet, Halloween night in
a game that went into two 10-minute overtimes and was finally decided on penalty
kicks. The Rockets finished their season fifth in Class 4A state and third in league play
(AVCTL – Division IV).
The Rockets return a strong nucleus from last year’s club, including senior
Cooper Bates, a fourth-year varsity letterman who earned Honorable Mention Defender
last season. Bates and his teammates had to live through a long off-season thinking
about that loss to Trinity, but they have bounced back with a vengeance, starting this
season 10-1.
Bates says that he had to work hard to shake that loss, and he spent the past
few months working as much on his mental approach as he did on the physical aspects
of the game, “I had to overcome some self-confidence issues. I needed to be able to
just go out and play, and when I felt that self-doubt, if I made a mistake, it would stick
with me. Out assistant coach, Coach Brent Nessbaum, talks to me before every game,
and it gets me in the right state of mind.”
Bates has also had to overcome some physical challenges during his high school
career, “I have had three broken bones – my ankle, my wrist, and my collarbone – but I
worked hard and came back even stronger.” That might be something of an
understatement. Not only have Bates and his teammates come back strong, they have
thus far looked dominant on the pitch. With five regular season games remaining, they
are sitting at first in the league, scoring a total of 63 goals while conceding only eight
goals to date.
That kind of consistency, even with a strong core of returners, requires
leadership, and Bates has willingly accepted that responsibility, “I see myself as a
leader, both on and off the field. I encourage the underclassmen to work hard because
they are the future of our program. We have lots of potential. We have great chemistry
with our younger guys, and we seniors have been playing together for four years now.”
Cooper and his teammates have already accomplished a lot – both in their careers
and this season – but there is still one thing that consistently nags at Bates, “The one big
goal I think the team has is to win state. We are on the right track to do so; we just have
to keep working hard and stay focused and motivated.”
Bates’ plan for after high school is to play soccer at the collegiate level. He is still
undecided on the school. He would like to study Exercise Science with a career goal of
becoming an athletic trainer.
