In David Cooper’s first season as football head coach, the Starr’s Mill Panthers ended with a 10-2 overall record and 5-1 in region play. The team’s season ended in the second round of AAAA state playoffs.
“At the beginning of the season, it was a lot. I was very fortunate to take over this job and have a bunch of familiar faces in the room. I had to rely on those familiar faces and all the experience in the room,“ Cooper said. “That’s one thing about high school and football, it’s never the same season and you have to figure out what works best for you going forward.”
In the team’s final game of the season, senior quarterback Logan Inagawa rushed 16 times for 55 yards and a touchdown and completed 18 passes for 297 yards and 4 touchdowns. Senior Lincoln DeLaere caught 3 of those touchdowns and hauled in 10 passes for a total of 226 yards. Sophomore Thomas Cochran scored the other touchdown in the team’s loss to Cartersville, 53-35.
“[Cooper] coming in from a coordinator job and then becoming head coach was a big step, but I think we all just embraced it,” Inagawa said. “We all embraced him as head coach, and we all grew together this season.”
Amidst this transition, the Panthers had a record-breaking year, tying or setting 22 team and individual records. Most notable among those records is DeLaere becoming the school’s first ever 1,000 receiver, finishing the season with 1,017 reception yards. In the game against Cartersville, DeLaere set six individual records.
Inagawa broke the school record for individual passing yards previously set by Adam Holley in 2009. He also tied the school record for passing touchdowns in a single game set in 1999.
Many of the records were set by seniors. Cooper will need to look to younger players in the years to follow.
“It’s just been the next man up. We lost a few seniors that were really good and contributed a lot to the team, so just stepping into that role and fill those shoes,” freshman Braxton Rein said. “You always want to achieve more, but, you know, baby steps.”
The football team is losing 23 seniors to graduation this year and will need to rebuild. The biggest changes will come on the offensive side of the ball.
“[The seniors] had a little adversity hit them when they were young, but nothing replaces playing time and experience. With Logan taking over for a three year starter allowed us to run multiple offenses,” Cooper said. “And I guess we’ll start that over next year with whoever gets the quarterback job trying to piece it together to where in a couple of years we can do the same thing.”
Football is a sport that requires many things but the most important is discipline. Throughout his coaching career, Cooper has learned to teach discipline through building relationships with his players.
“Early in my career I was really hard. I was a yeller,” Cooper said. “Through my time here I’ve tried to have a little more player relationship. You want the kids to believe you’ve got their backs no matter what happens, and to do that you’ve got to build relationships.”
