Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – A question was posed to West Branch head coach Matt Hughes at the team’s annual media day as a tribute to the versatility of senior two-way star Cooper Gates.

The question was essentially if there was a position that Gates couldn’t play on a football field.

It was followed with the caveat of ‘perhaps not offensive line or quarterback’?

Hughes was quick with his answer

“You never know where he might end up,” Hughes said with a wry smile.

Regardless of if Gates actually lines up at quarterback or offensive guard this season the answer from Hughes speaks volumes about what the senior standout can do on the field.

“He’s got such great instincts, he’s just a football guy,” Hughes said of Gates. “It doesn’t matter where we put him on the field he picks it up. He knows the strategy behind the plays and that allows him to go play where ever he wants because he knows what has to get done.”

While Gates has the ability to play any position across the field he has primarily settled at running back on the offensive side of the ball.

Through the first three seasons of his career Gates has rushed for 903 yards and 11 touchdowns after running for a team-high 492 yards and five touchdowns last season.

Gates averaged 5.8 yards per carry last season and also caught 14 passes for 87 yards.

Hughes plans to utilize the versatility Gates brings to the offense even more this season.

“Because of our formations and the things we want to do he could be all over the field,” Hughes said. “He is a punishing ball carrier, he’s a great blocker, he can catch the ball. He’s so talented all around we want to try to utilize him as much as we can.”

He has been impressive on offense but unlike many two-way players that prefer to have the ball in their hands Gates would rather dish out a hit than take one.

That mentality makes defense the strong point for the the 5-foot-10, 185-pound Gates who is also a state medalist wrestler.

“I really like defense,” Gates said. “I like offense but normally I don’t like getting hit, I’d rather hit somebody.”

A physical tackler, Gates has shown an incredible knack for making his way to the ball carrier while rotating between defensive line and linebacker throughout his career.

Gates has already amassed 158.5 career tackles after leading West Branch with 61.5 stops last season.

“If you are playing linebacker you basically have to know what the defensive line is doing which helps you out if you move from linebacker to defensive line,” Gates said. “I already knew a lot of what the defensive line was doing so it wasn’t hard to pick up on that position.”

Gates has raised his production defensively every year, going from 9.5 tackles for loss and three sacks as a freshman to 13 tackles for loss and seven sacks a year ago.

He was the Class 1A, District 5 defensive player of the year after leading West Branch in sacks and tackles for loss.

“He’s just an unbelievable talent, an unbelievable football mind, a leader, everything you want in a football player,” Hughes said. “We tell him ‘just go play football and get the guy with the football’. That’s really his marching orders, go find the guy with the ball and he does it.”

Gates has a single goal this season and it isn’t for more rushing yards on offense or more tackles or sacks on defense.

It’s simply more wins.

After a 3-7 season that ended with a loss to eventual state champion Grundy Center in the second round of the Class 1A playoffs Gates has his sights set on a much different season this fall.

“I think we are going to be a dominant football team this season,” Gates said. “Last year we weren’t all together but this year I think we have really good seniors, really good leaders and I think everyone is pushing each other to go to the max.”

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