Dominating for a second straight season in doubles matches, Cooper and Houston Danzer’s efforts have given them the Owensboro Times 2023 Boy’s Tennis Co-Player of the Year.
Cooper said it feels amazing to win this award and winning it with his brother, who has been there his entire tennis career is just the cherry on top. Houston shared the same sentiment, saying that they continually improved all season long, while becoming closer on and off the court.
“This award is an honor in and of itself but winning it with my brother is on another level,” Houston said. “We worked hard to achieve success and that hard work brought us closer together as brothers.”
The dynamic duo came into the season looking to win regionals as a team and as doubles. While they fell just short of their team goal, Cooper said there’s no else he would rather grab two straight doubles region titles with.
“I wouldn’t want to play with any other partner,” Cooper said. “Even though some matches didn’t go as planned, I wouldn’t want to play with any other partner…its special playing with your brother. After a loss, we both have to talk about it at home which most teams don’t get the opportunity to have.”
Houston said that winning a second regional title was gratifying, especially after being ranked the No. 2 seed, saying that they had something to prove and were able to come out on top. With other big wins throughout the season against Bowling Green and the Region Championship, he went on to say just how much fun he’s had on the court with Cooper this year.
“Tennis this season was a lot of fun and we played lots of great teams,” Houston said. “There were moments during the season where Cooper would bring me up during game play and times when I would do the same for him. We complemented each other in this way and ended up winning most of our matches.”
Cooper said that the brotherly connection between the two has only helped them elevate their games throughout the years, having played countless hours together.
“Since we’re brothers our chemistry on the court is so much better than any other team,” Cooper said. “Most partners only spend time with each other during the season. Also we have played many sports together over the years…football, baseball and basketball.”
Houston reiterated that same message, saying that as the season went on they learned how to build each other up and motivate each other—ultimately bringing them closer together.
“We were able to figure out what each other needed to elevate our play,” Houston said. “We would focus on the positives and not on the mistakes that we made, if we made a mistake we would quickly put it behind us and focus on the next point. We figured out pretty quickly that blaming one another for a bad shot was not going to lead to success, we had to change our mindset.”
Houston said that some of his favorite memories from this season with Cooper came from celebrating wins together, something that even their teammates looked forward to.
“After every match we would win we always would run to each other and do a chest bump,” Houston said. “Our team anticipated the chest bump and would always laugh and cheer.”
And while they have had an absolute blast playing together this season, both players made sure to note that without the Owensboro Catholic coaching staff and their teammates that made it such a family-esque environment they wouldn’t have been able to grab a second straight regional title.
“We wouldn’t be the team we are right now without coach Noel and coach Kamuf,” Cooper said. “They always knew what we needed to hear during a match even though sometimes we didn’t want to hear.”
As for now Houston and Cooper have their eyes set on a third straight doubles title, with the hopes of also grabbing a team title to close our Cooper’s high school career.
“I’m looking forward to playing my senior year with my brother, winning the regional championship for the 3rd time with him and hopefully winning another team title,” Cooper said.
