The Māruawai College year 13 student was one of 32 athletes representing New Zealand at the 2026 Oceania Wrestling Championships in Apia, Samoa.
He won bronze in the under 20s 86kg division, an achievement which was three years in the making.
Cooper competed in the wrestling arena for the first time in 2023, and has not looked back since.
He competed at the South Island championships that year and came fifth in his category in the nationals the following year, followed by a bronze in 2025.
Cooper trains twice a week at Tapanui’s Southern Spartans Wrestling Club, where he is coached by Aron Miller.
Along with developing his physical skills, he said learning to deal with pre-match nerves was a big part of it.
"Especially within competitions, I’ve found that a lot of the time it can be quite a nerve-racking thing, and it’s kind of holding [me] back from my proper performance," he said.
When jittery, he reminded himself of advice from his former rugby-playing father and Mr Miller, to "stay calm and wait ... for the right moment" to attack.
"There’s been a lot of matches where I’ve gone ... super hard, and then once I’m done, my muscles are absolutely knackered and I’m aching, but I don't actually realise because you're that focused on the match and you're trying that hard to win," he said.
That winning spirit saw him set his sights set on MMA wrestling, another step up, which fuses the sport with mixed martial arts.
He is looking to relocate to Dunedin next year to study for a bachelor of commerce degree at the University of Otago but does not plan to let wrestling fall by the wayside.
"It should be good to have older opponents who are more experienced who I'm able to train with," he said.
