Smith to play baseball with the Jets

Cooper Smith signed with Northern Oklahoma College Jets (Enid) Tuesday, May 16, but Coach John Morgan said while he’s one of two seniors leaving the Outlaw Baseball program, the impact he’s made in four years won’t be forgotten.

“This is not the last you’ll hear about Cooper, he’ll be a very successful individual in life. People wanted him there to play baseball, because of his skill, but people will want to employ him and he’s going to be a leader in the community, because of those same attributes off the field,” Morgan said. The signing was held at the district office for Marlow Public Schools, and Smith’s family, baseball coaches, teammates and friends were all there to witness the moment.

It was obvious as Morgan spoke, how much respect he has for the young man who will graduate Friday during the Marlow High School Class of 2023 ceremony along with senior teammate Cole Pettit.

“Cooper’s had a massive impact, but a bigger impact on our program as an individual as how he went about his business every day. He’s the same guy, good day or bad day, that did his job and that should show a lot at least to young guys coming up, guys in the program now that’s how you are supposed to go about your business.”

Smith moved to Marlow during his 8th-grade year, along with his parents Randy and Tara, and brother Brisco. (Randy is also a coach with the Outlaw Baseball team, as is Trey Coffman and Eddie Herchock).

Speaking with Cooper, his positive qualities were evident and backed up what his coach had to say about him.

“This year he took a leadership role, from clubhouse to the field. Without Cooper Smith we may not be that successful and if he wouldn’t have had a bat or thrown an inning, just because of his impact with others, and his team and how he went about practice, we were more successful.”

Smith’s year has been great, but Morgan said it’s not just one good year, but four.

“I had a walk-off at the home game against Mount St. Mary and had a perfect game at Madill (in March). It was exciting,” Smith said. He admits he’s probably a better pitcher than hitter. Before heading off to NSU in the fall, Smith will be playing baseball with a traveling team, MVP, this summer. He said that he learned from the coach that the harder he works, the more luck he’ll have.

“Cooper has been our 1st baseman, been a guy that has taken the mound, even as a sophomore in big games, situations – thrown us in state tournaments, thrown in games to get us to the state tournaments, thrown in games while we were at state. It was never about what he said, it was what he did – his actions.”

The Outlaw Baseball team finished the season with a 27-11 record. Morgan noted that was a “mighty monumental task” especially considering they were playing 4A with a mostly inexperienced team.

“The last 3 years played a tough schedule and this year even though we had a lot of inexperience out there on the field, we didn’t back off on the schedule. We won in 4A, that’s a totally different classification in competition level. (from football). It’s a very elite classification to be in – it’s deeper than 6A, now 6A teams are talented, but there’s more depth in that 4A, 2nd in district, championship we split, ended up going to Tuttle, Cooper gave us a great chance to win, and gave up 2 earned runs and pitched his tail off and did a great job and with his leadership, the rest of them followed suit. In every aspect, he was our cog, on the mound, field and locker room,” Morgan said.