Sterling's Willman was do-it-all leader

In making its first run through the Western Big 6 this season, the Sterling football team showed off an effective offense that could at times move the ball at will.

The Golden Warriors’ unbeaten regular season saw them score 49 on Marengo and 47 on Pekin in nonconference play before a Western Big 6 championship run that included a 49-point night at Rock Island, putting up 53 on two-time defending conference champion Moline, 49 the next week at United Township, and 54 to close the regular season with a win over Galesburg.

Of the 451 points the Warriors scored, 126 came from either the legs or arm of Cooper Willman, SVM’s 2019 Player of the Year – someone who could step in and do a little of everything for the Golden Warriors.

“He’s just a really good athlete,” Sterling coach Jon Schlemmer said. “I think being a three-sport athlete is a part of that. … If we had needed him to play defense this year, he would have done a great job for us. And being our punter, and he could field punts if we needed him to. He’s just an all-around athlete.”

Opposing teams learned quickly throughout the year that there were a lot of ways Willman could beat you.

With his arm

The Warriors quarterback completed 77 of 115 passes for 994 yards and six touchdowns this year, an average of 90.4 yards per game.

He had a handful of games with a lot of passing yards, like the 124 on 7-for-8 passing to open the season against Marengo, or the 194 yards on 11-for-15 passing a week later against Pekin.

He had 146 passing yards in Sterling’s win over two-time defending Western Big 6 champion Moline, sparking a stretch run that saw him throw for 120 against United Township and 154 against Galesburg.

But often, his air attack was grounded, not by lack of effectiveness, but because Sterling was trying to burn more clock with a big lead. He attempted just four passes in the first-round playoff win over Chicago Heights Marian for 48 yards. Sterling led 49-6 at halftime of that game.

But even on called passing plays, he might not be throwing it.

“On passing downs when I was getting pressured or I didn’t see anything open, I knew I had the ability to get out of the pocket and run,” Willman said. “So there’s a lot of options for me.”

A lot of the decision-making to switch up from the original plan and improvise came pre-snap. A lot goes into the decision. He will look at the defensive end, to see if he’s going to the inside or the outside. He will look at his own linemen.

“If I pull the ball on some plays, it’s all about watching the linebacker and his tendencies, what he’s been doing the whole game,” Willman said. “I’m able to see what he’s going to do that play.”

With his legs

Where Willman did a lot of damage on offense was running the ball.

He had a team-high 142 carries and a team-high 1,269 yards. Much of that came on designed runs, as the Warriors’ offensive coordinator Shad Bailey wanted the ball in Willman’s hands as often as possible.

“When I had the ball in my hands, I just had to focus in and know that this is my time,” Willman said. “We had a lot more plays designed for me, but with our running backs playing as well as they did early in the year, it kind of took pressure off of me, so later in the year I was able to make those big runs.”

With a talented and veteran offensive line in front of him that included NIU commit Nate Beyer and all-state pick Aidan Munoz-Ripley, Willman and the Sterling ground game churned out 3,456 total rushing yards.

“I think we did a really good job up front of being able to run the football between the tackles, whether it was with him or with our running backs,” Schlemmer said. “With some reads and things on the outside, Coach Bailey at times had to make Coop be an athlete. Even if that guy doesn’t give you the right read, just beat him one-on-one, and he was able to do that. There’s times we could scratch our head a little bit and think about why he pulled the ball or why he didn’t, but he always made us right.”

With his leg

Early in the 2018 season, Alek Duran got hurt. Other players were able to step in and fill some of his many roles with the Warriors, but someone needed to step up as Sterling’s punter. Willman was able to take that on.

“I went over there and I started punting and I was doing pretty well,” Willman said. “Alek came back and Coach didn’t switch, so I just kind of stayed there.”

Willman was the team’s full-time punter this year, booming 25 kicks with an average of 41 yards per punt. His long was a 65-yarder late in the first half of the second-round playoff loss to St. Rita. He had three kicks go more than 50 yards. He was able to down a dozen punts inside the 20; he had just one go into the end zone for a touchback.

Much more often, his kicks would roll into the waiting hands of Noel Aponte, ready to down them at the 1-yard line in order to put oppsing offenses in a tough spot with their backs to the goal line, having to go 99 yards to score.

“It’s really just trust,” Aponte said. “He trusts me to get down there in time, and I trust him to keep it in the air so I can get down there in time.”

Willman also spent more time this year working on the craft of punting. Sterling would work on special teams three or four times a week, with Willman booming away punts not only to hone his own skills, but also to get some reps for the Warriors’ punt coverage unit.

“I started to realize, if I punt it like this, I’m going to get a spiral, and that kind of thing,” he said. “I started to get the hang of it. It was definitely something for fun.”

With his leadership

What stood out to his teammates was not his rushing ability or punting ability, but what he was doing in huddles, in the weight room, in the video room, and in the locker room.

“He was really just our true leader out there,” Aponte said. “Whenever things were going bad for us, he was picking us up. He was just a great player.”

Aponte noticed how Willman was pushing everyone else to improve, and in the process kept pushing himself.

Beyer credits him with keeping everyone focused.

“When times got rough, he was there helping the team out through things,” Beyer said. “He just brought leadership. He knew that he was good, and he knew that we could be good if we did it right.”

The leader and the team’s No. 1 quarterback in 2019, he was not the only quarterback the Warriors were calling upon a year earlier. Throughout the 2018 season, Willman and Camden Bailey split time at quarterback for the Warriors. One would come in and play one series, then the other could step in for the next.

“We’re really good friends, so we were helping each other,” Willman said. “That really helped me out through building that friendship, and also knowing that there’s that other guy that’s going to get me better at the same time.”

It was Willman who came through with more passing yards, 771 compared to 483 for Bailey. Willman also had 737 rushing yards on 78 carries.

When that season came to a close, Bailey graduated. The job was Willman’s alone.

“Coach Schlemmer told me, ‘This is your year, you’ve got to lead this team, you’re the quarterback,’” Willman said. “One thing that he really said that stuck with me was, ‘When we win, it’s because you played good and I coached good, and if we lose, the blame is put on you and on me.’ So that stuck with me that I’ve got to play well every game. He set me to a high standard. When we were up 40 points and I messed up, he was going to put it in my ear and make sure I knew because he wants me to get better. I thank him because he coached me to be the best player I could. It really pushed me to where I am today.”

“I think he was really excited to be the guy, but I think as a junior when he and Camden [split time], the expectations of that were really high for both of them,” Schlemmer said. “So he kind of ran the show from the get-go this summer. He knew it was his time to be a leader, and he did a great job with it.”

With his experience

A high school career of moving around to play several different positions was foreshadowed in Willman’s time with Northern Illinois Youth Tackle Football.

“I was a running back, and then I turned into a quarterback, and then back to a running back,” he said. “I kind of switched from quarterback to running back, and I was a linebacker. I was kind of all over the place. I kept growing, and then I would slow down. After seventh grade, I kind of solidified as a quarterback and started to work on that.”

Helping him solidify that role as a quarterback was his arm strength, helped by his time on the baseball field.

Also helping him prepare for throwing the football was a year on varsity trying to stop others from throwing it. As a junior, while Willman was splitting time at quarterback with Bailey, he just wanted to be on the field as much as he could. That’s when a spot opened up on the other side of the ball. The coaching staff was moving then-senior Isaiah Ryan from safety to linebacker, and would need someone to step in as a safety. Willman jumped at the chance.

He worked hard to become a safety, then when moving back to quarterback, used many of those lessons on offense.

“When you’re a safety, you read the quarterback’s eyes,” he said. “For me, I knew he was going to be reading my eyes, so I’ve got to look one way, throw the other way to get him out of the picture. So seeing the field from different angles was a really big help to me.”

No matter where he was on the field, no matter the task at hand, he just wanted to get out there and play.

“Our offensive coordinator says it best: Coop plays backyard football,” Schlemmer said. “He does. He’s out there. He’s a kid out there having fun. He does some things that make you scratch your head, but in a good way. He’s just such an athlete.”

That style of backyard football came from his actual backyard. Growing up with a football-playing older brother, Tyler, Cooper Willman grew up competing.

“Me and my brother, we always went back and forth. We were always really competitive, whether it was in the backyard or inside playing video games,” Tyler said. “Whatever it was, we were always competing. Maybe I roughed him up a little too much a time or two, but obviously it was good for him in the long run.”

Tyler soon saw in his little brother someone who was both athletic and willing to work hard.

“He was always able to keep up with myself and my buddies when we were out doing stuff,” Tyler said. “It was easy to see that he was going to have success in high school. It was exciting to finally watch him have that breakout year that I knew was coming.”

In fact, it was when Tyler got interested in football that Cooper decided to follow suit, turning his attention to the gridiron instead of another field.

“I don’t remember who convinced him to play football, but I think I was in about second grade,” Cooper said. “I was really big into soccer, and I’d just been asked to play on a travel soccer team, so it was [a choice] travel soccer or football, and my brother, he was just, ‘Hey, play football, play football.’ So I did, and ever since I was 8 years old, I’ve played football – and I’m glad I did. I kind of fell in love with it.”

Cooper Willman hopes he isn’t done playing football. A few colleges have looked at him, but he hasn’t committed yet.

In the meantime, he still has a senior year left to play both for the Golden Warriors basketball team and in the spring for Sterling baseball.

Willman file

Class: Senior

School: Sterling

Positions: QB/P

Parents: Josh and Dawn

Brother: Tyler

Other sports: Basketball and baseball

College plans: Undecided on school, but wants to go into education and coaching