Phillips brings home state medal

On Feb. 18, Colfax High School freshman Cooper Phillips took fifth place in the 1B/2B boys 120-lb. wrestling bracket at the Mat Wrestling Classic state tournament in Tacoma.

Phillips was the lone wrestler representing the Bulldogs at the Classic. Phillips medaled as a freshman, already an impressive accomplishment made all the more impressive given the fact that other 1B/2B schools allow eighth-graders to participate in wrestling, while Colfax doesn’t – making Phillips a medalist in a bracket with a year of high school wrestling experience over him.

“It was pretty cool,” Phillips said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say how a lot of wrestlers don’t make it to state as a freshman, so I tried my hardest, I guess.”

In his bracket, Phillips had to go against opponents both familiar and new, and even with the varying levels of knowledge for his opponents, his focus was always on the competitor immediately in front of him.

“I kind of just thought of the match that was right in front of me,” Phillips said. “And when that match was over, I focused on the next match. I just wanted to do the best I can and focus on whatever match was next.”

Phillips final match of the Classic was against Sam Drake of Kettle Falls High School, an opponent that Phillips had faced several times throughout the season. The Colfax representative won by a 16-8 majority decision to secure his medal, and Phillips is certain that not only himself, but his 1B/2B opponent and other rivals will also get better as the years go on.

“I think I’ll get better each year and place higher,” Phillips said. “I know Sam, he’ll have a good season next year, and there’s a couple other kids who’ll have a good season from Warden.”

Although he was the lone representative for his team at the Classic, Colfax and Garfield-Palouse wrestlers (Garfield-Palouse has two wrestlers on the team, both of whom practice with Colfax) had strong showings overall, with multiple other wrestlers getting top five-finishes in districts and strong showings at regionals.

With the stellar seasonal showing there’s hope that Colfax will have more people willing to participate in wrestling come winter of 2023.

“Some people (will join),” Phillips said. “Isaac Nelson would’ve wrestled this year if he didn’t hurt himself playing football... we got a good group of eighth graders coming up next season.”

Phillips would say the upcoming group of soon-to-be former middle schoolers can achieve similar success to him in their freshmen seasons.

“There’s a couple really solid kids coming up from eighth grade,” Phillips said. “They have a really good chance of going on a run of going to state and I think we could have even more people make it to state and place high next year.”

Phillips will hope that part of his potential improvement next season will come as he continues to learn moves and techniques installed by wrestling coach Casey Jones, who took the helm of the wrestling team this past season.

“I could add some more moves into what I do,” Phillips said. “We had a new type of wrestling style that we did this year because we got a new coach. So, I wrestled completely differently this season than what I normally did. We were taught a bunch of different moves and I could only use a few of those moves so next year I hopefully can use more of those.”

With (possibly) increased numbers and participation next season and more time to adjust to the new style of wrestling that Jones brought with him, Phillips and other athletes in the Colfax wrestling program hope to continue to bring accolades and recognition back to the school.