Many people fantasize about the life of a college football player. For Cooper Lawson, also known as Big Country, this dream will soon be his reality.

His mother has watched his development closely over the years. “Cooper has always been super smart and wicked good at math. I thought maybe he would like being an engineer. However he has always loved playing football and used to narrate his backyard football games with his brothers. Coop would make a great media broadcaster with play by play action. ”

Lawson’s mother thinks he has the right stuff to succeed. “Cooper will be an amazing teammate and has been blessed to have opportunities to play in college. I know he will thrive and succeed with God leading the way. I am excited to watch his journey unfold and be there to cheer him on.”

Not only does Cooper have the talent to play college ball but he has an amazing support system building him up every step of the way. 

All his life Lawson has dreamed of playing college and then hopefully the NFL. Football is his passion. Growing up, anything and everything he did in his free time involved football. However, he was barley getting any recognition from coaches. As he got older and went into middle school, freshman, and sophomore year, he believed his dreams of making it to college football were over. By Cooper’s junior year he became a starter on varsity. With the help of coaches, Big Country got his highlights out to small collages. Not long after, bigger D1 schools started to reach out to him. That is when he said his passion sparked again!

Many young players wonder what it takes to play college football; or at least the process it takes to get to the next level. Lawson said, “It started with a lot of offseason training, after football ended my sophomore year I spent everyday after basketball practice lifting at peak fitness. Everyday before school I would do a workout also, and this helped me get faster and stronger for my junior year.

College coaches must become aware of a recruit’s skills and attributes. Lawson explained how he put together a highlight tape of his best plays and took his measurements of like height, weight, hand size, and arm length, and posted it on his twitter account. 

Lawson went on to say that Twitter is what most coaches use to communicate with athletes. Soon coaches started reaching out, starting with the small schools and then eventually the bigger schools started coming to his practices and weights sessions, and inviting him out to their campus. Lawson also takes his dedication and grind from football to basketball season! Now that is Grit!

Big Country has certainly come a long way from the time he was in middle school to his senior year, going from a small town high school in “the middle of nowhere” to visiting big D1 campuses. Although Lawson is currently keeping the school he will go on to play with to himself, he does have good reasons for his choice. “I chose the school I did because they have a great coaching staff and seem like they really care about you as a person. They have one of the best strength coaches in the nation. Some of the other commits to the school are really good players, and I think we would have a bright future together on the team.” 

Looks like Cooper will be soon living his dream that started when he was just a little kid and making history for the Star Valley Braves!