Pierre tight end Cooper Terwilliger shines at Sanford Sports Football Combine
Pierre tight end Cooper Terwilliger entered last week’s Sanford Sports Academy High School Football Combine as one of the more highly-touted recruits in attendance.
He already holds a football scholarship offer from a Power Five program, Iowa State. He's also received invitations to attend football camps at many of college football’s heavy-hitters such as Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida State.
Terwilliger is still just a freshman, but he looked like anything but a ninth-grader during the combine. Standing at 6-foot-5, he towered over the other attendees. Even more impressive, he showed he has one of the largest catch radiuses in the state, ranking fourth among wide receivers and tight ends in the vertical jump, with a 30.5” leap.
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“He's 6-5 and has a good frame, 220 pounds. He can run, has great hand-eye coordination, athletic for his build, and has already gotten varsity playing time and in a very successful program at Pierre. ” Director of the Sanford Sports Football Academy Kurtiss Riggs said. “So he's got a lot of great qualities that attract coaches.”
Entering a combine with the pressure of knowing college football coaches are there to watch your every move would fluster most – and definitely most freshmen – but Terwilliger went into the combine with a great mindset.
He knows he needs to get accustomed to competing under that pressure, and while the early offers might have taken some of that pressure off, he just wanted to compete at a high level and go after every player in front of him.
“I thought I did pretty good,” Terwilliger said after the combine. “I stacked up well against these upperclassmen. I didn't really see myself looking like a freshman today.”
"I was not expecting that.”
Terwilliger couldn’t believe what he just heard.
His dad needed to hear it a second time, just to be sure.
“‘You’re doing what?’” Terwilliger remembers his dad asking after Terwilliger was offered a football scholarship at Iowa State.
“It was surprising,” Terwilliger said. "I felt relieved and it was just an awesome feeling. I loved it.”
The freshman has already accomplished so much in his brief varsity career at Pierre. He was brought in to practice with the Governors' varsity team the summer before his freshman year. Impressive enough, but even more so when realizing he's getting elevated at a program that was aiming to win their seventh consecutive state championship. Terwilliger didn’t flinch. He immediately felt like he belonged, like he could play at that level.
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He had to earn his playing time throughout the season, and he did, quickly becoming someone coach Sage Steele could rely on as Pierre went 11-1 and won another state championship again. Terwilliger had 19 receptions for 274 yards and four touchdown receptions in his freshman season.
Those numbers and Terwilliger’s recruiting profile will only improve as he continues to develop as a player and as he becomes more involved in the Governors' offense. Pierre will be competing for their eighth consecutive state championship this fall.
Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at jfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFERN31.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Pierre tight end shrugs off pressure, shines at football combine
