Before Manteno senior Cooper Monk was a football player, he was a baseball player and a basketball player.
It makes sense that he played a variety of sports because he comes from an athletic family. Dad Andy played baseball at Kankakee Community College and Olivet Nazarene, mom Jenny played basketball at Olivet, sister Madie played softball at Illinois Wesleyan and brother Carson played basketball at Aurora.
Monk gave up baseball after eighth grade, but kept playing basketball and figures he could have continued in the sport at a small college.
Football was a late addition to his athletic resume. “My dad’s like, this could be fun,'” Monk said. “‘Might as well give it a shot.'”
Good call. Now a 6-6, 260-pound offensive lineman, Monk is heading to Illinois State to play Division I football.
It makes sense. “I was built for football,” he said.
Illinois State also makes sense. Redbirds assistant coach CJ Irvin, who played at Manteno, got in touch with Monk early in his career.
“They were the first ones that really reached out to me,” Monk said. “I was willing to go decently far (for college), but I want my family to be at my games.”
Illinois State checked all the boxes.
“The coaching staff was really genuine,” Monk said. “I’ve got a lot of connections there. They had told me it’s a great place, the education is good.”
And there’s stability in the program. Brock Spack, the winningest coach in Redbirds history, is heading into his 17th season.
Manteno coach RJ Haines expected Monk to have college football options because of his size.
“It’s about the measurables,” Haines said.
But it’s the portal era, when college coaches look increasingly to the transfer portal to restock their rosters. As a result, it’s increasingly tough for high-school players to get recruited.
Monk made himself stand out, though.
“Cooper is a perfect example of going through the process of being successful,” Haines said. “He did everything he should have done in the offseason.”
Besides doing his work in the weight room, “Cooper is a very smart kid,” Haines said. “Picking up on things schematically was never an issue. He’s very coachable.
“I think when he realized how big and strong he is, that mentality changed. He realized how good he could be. That gave him the confidence to break out of his shell.”
Now he’s ready for the next step, going to Illinois State to major in occupational safety and health and be a major-college athlete. He’s come a long way since joining the Panthers program as a freshman.
“I didn’t think of playing D1 football,” Monk said. “I was just doing it for fun.”