But riding a defensive player, sprinting after a ground ball, navigating a scrum — none of these comes easily for the slight 5-foot-11, 125-pound attackman.
Each circumstance comes with a challenge that has affected
every step Woolston has ever taken. He has only one leg. “I was born with a leg all the way to my left ankle, but my foot was not fully functional,” Woolston said. “They made the decision before I was 1 to amputate it so I could wear a prosthetic.” It’s an obstacle Woolston has worked extremely hard to overcome. Since he first picked up a lacrosse stick in fourth grade, Woolston has always been ahead of his peers when it comes to stick handling and knowledge of the game. His coach then and now, Kris Snider, was amazed at his dedication. “It was a sport that just caught his spirit immediately,” Snider
said. “You could see from practice to practice [in middle school] that he was getting better, faster than anybody else. You could tell that on the off days, he was just pounding it against the wall. He’d show up Thursday after a Tuesday practice and he’d be better. I just knew that this kid was doing work on his own, which is pretty rare for a fifth- or sixth- grader.”
Knowing he was limited in what he could do physically helped shape — but not define — the type of player Woolston has become.
“I definitely try not to let it define me as a player,” he said. “It does play a big role in what kind of player I am — more like a finisher rather than a creator, because I don’t have the speed to do that — but I don’t bring it up.”
Playing mostly off-
Handicap What
ball, Woolston acts as a sort of field general for the Raiders, directing teammates where to go when they get bunched up or when the offensive set gets out of whack. He’s sneaky good at getting open, and when he finds the ball in his stick with room to shoot, he knows how to finish. Woolston’s motor always runs at full speed, and his competitive
By Nathan Maciborski
fire is unmatched. Snider sometimes forgets his attackman is playing on an artificial limb — until Woolston takes a lick from a bruising defenseman. That’s when reality kicks in. Snider recalled a game last season when Woolston got caught up in a scrum and came out of it limping. His foot was literally dangling from his leg.
“Coach, I think I broke my leg,” Woolston said. “Is it the good one or the bad one?” Snider asked. “The bad one.” If there’s one good thing about having a leg made of carbon fiber and titanium, it’s a lot quicker to fix or replace than a real one. “Coop, we better get you a new leg,” Snider replied. And they did. Woolston was at practice the next day with a new prosthetic.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
Nathan Hale (Wash.) attackman Cooper Woolston plays with a prosthetic leg, but he refuses to let it get in the way of his goals
“They break usually about once a season,” Woolston said. “It broke twice last year.” Woolston’s resilience and determination have been inspiring to his teammates, who voted him one of their three captains this season. But theirs aren’t the only eyes he has grabbed. At a lacrosse camp last July in Pennsylvania, Woolston impressed Swarthmore College coach Pat Gress enough that Gress will welcome him to the Garnet lacrosse team when players report after the summer. “Cooper certainly brings a very strong effort at all times. That was something that was noticed in camp,” Gress said. “He was always working very hard, and he was always focused and attentive when you were going over something. You could tell he put maximum effort toward the game and would certainly maximize whatever abilities he had. He was definitely very much an effort player, which is what I was impressed with.” Swarthmore’s size — it is a small Division III school of about 1,500 students that competes in the Centennial Conference — and academic reputation appealed to Woolston, who hopes to pursue an engineering degree after he graduates from tiny University Prep. (His high school offers ultimate frisbee but not lacrosse, which is why he plays for nearby Nathan Hale.) Gress hopes Woolston will have much to offer the Garnet, even if it doesn’t show up on a stat sheet. “You’re always talking to players maybe in the middle of a game or in life about overcoming obstacles,” Gress said. “He certainly does that, and yet he never mentioned to me that he had a prosthetic leg prior to coming to camp. He probably has the mindset that it’s not that big of a deal to him, he would just hit that challenge like any other challenge he’s had
?
in life. Our other players would certainly learn something from that and respect him like I do.” Snider has watched Woolston’s progress every step of the
way, the indefatigable young lacrosse player who has defied the odds year after year, never making any excuses. Just seeing Woolston go off to college to continue to play the game he loves will have Snider shaking his head in amazement … again. “It’s about one of the coolest things I’ve ever been part of, and I’ve been a part of a lot of cool things in sports,” said Snider, who was a three-time All-American at Virginia in the 1970s and has pioneered the growth of lacrosse in the Pacific Northwest since the ’80s. “It’s astonishing to see how dedicated this kid is and see him just never quit. I’m getting choked up thinking about it.” Woolston knows more challenges await him in college. The game will be faster. The opponents will be bigger. The players will be smarter. He can’t wait. LM
April 2013 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84