Cooper Buck persevering through serious injury as the Sarasota Sailors season continues

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - This week’s ABC7 Athlete of the Week is Sarasota High School’s (SHS) Cooper Buck. He’s a senior and linebacker for the Sailors football team.

On paper, this group should be one of the better high school football teams on the Suncoast this year.

“We’ve got a lot of commitment here,” Buck said. “There’s not really a lot of guys skipping practice. No one’s really late. We’ve just got a group of guys that want to come out here and perform everyday.”

On the defensive side, they really get after the football. Buck says that he believes this is the best group he’s been able to play with so far during his high school career.

“I think we’ve got a really good group of guys, especially on defense,” Buck said. “I think we’re coming together. We’ve got good communication going on. We’ve got some good players. People are willing to come hit. People are willing to make tackles. I’ve got faith in my guys. I think we’re going to do well.”

Buck is not playing right now though. He suffered a broken wrist in the team’s preseason matchup a few weeks ago. When the injury happened he said knew something wasn’t right.

“I could tell something was wrong,” Buck said. “It went numb. I was more frustrated than anything to have a season pausing injury.”

Buck is now recovering after surgery on his broken wrist, and says he should be back in action soon. “I’m only out for about 3 or 4 weeks,” Buck said.

Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for himself, he’s with his team. His coach. Amp Campbell, says this means a great deal to the team.

“He’s a guy that guys look up to,” Campbell said. “We truly, truly admire him. We miss him as a defense. He’s also continuing to bring leadership with him being out.”

Buck says when he does return to gameplay he will be better than he was before. “Everyone’s got to overcome certain things,” Buck said. “I’ve got to come back. I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to play better.”

We’ll keep you updated on when Buck returns to gameplay as he continues his recovery.