Former BEA wrestler Cooper Gilham takes ‘baby steps’ to return to mat after stroke
Cooper Gilham woke up one morning and something felt off.
It was Oct. 4, 2021 and he had just started his freshman year at Lycoming College. The former Bald Eagle Area wrestler was getting prepped for his first year on a collegiate mat. That day, at just 19 years old, he suffered a stroke while doing homework in his dorm room.
“I would like to say it was very stressful,” Gilham said. “I think the hardest thing for me was taking it slowly and getting back gradually because I wanted to get back right away. I figured out real quick that that wasn’t necessary.”
He was a four-time varsity letter winner at Bald Eagle with a 115-41 career record and two 30-win seasons in the process at 126 pounds. Gilham went 18-9 as a senior and won a section championship, making it to the super regional. That was all behind him. Now, a new obstacle stood in his way.
The road was long, with Gilham taking strides to recover from his brain injury. Priority No. 1 became his rehabilitation. Things weren’t as simple as returning to form after suffering a traumatic event, physically, mentally and emotionally. He’d have to retrain his mind, body and spirit.
“We had to pump the brakes a little bit with him,” Lycoming wrestling head coach Roger Crebs said. “He was extremely eager to pick things up where they left off coming out of high school. But we knew from the medical staff that we had to take this with slow baby steps and go through the process of getting his balance back, his hand-eye coordination back and his footwork back.”
Several months into his recovery, Gilham suffered another tremendous loss. His father and role model, Chris, died on Feb. 17. His father had also been a wrestler at Bald Eagle and was on the 1989 Big 7 Wrestling Championship Team. He loved his father dearly and deeply — as a mentor, a person he looked to for guidance and someone he modeled himself after.
Through the pain, Gilham persevered for his and his father’s sake.
“It was tough when I was down here,” Gilham said. “Coach Crebs let me go home for the week to spend time with my family. It was tough, but I know that he wouldn’t have wanted me to dwell on it for too long. I know ... he would have been the man to just tell me to keep moving on and live my life the way I want to. So that’s kind of what I try to live by and do what I want to do and be successful and go harder at it.”
Back to his roots and returning to form
Gilham yearned to return to the mat as soon as he could. With the itch to wrestle again, he reached out to Bald Eagle Area coach Ron Guenot to assist his former wrestling team as a coach. He joined the staff at the beginning of the 2021-22 wrestling season for Bald Eagle and Guenot was excited to see him bring wisdom to his former squad.
“He’s an outstanding wrestler, but also going to be a great coach someday,” Guenot said. “That was something unique to see. He wanted to get back to the sport at Bald Eagle and help the kids there because he wasn’t going to be able to compete. But he still wanted to be involved with wrestling and that just goes to show you his passion for the sport and the kind of person that he is.”
He went on to coach with Bald Eagle for half of the season before heading back to Lycoming in the spring semester, where he had to work his way back into wrestling.
Crebs and the coaching staff added new pieces to the wrestling room to help Gilham. He added yoga this fall and it helped the young wrestler in his rehab process.
Baby steps.
Not only did Gilham overcome the stroke, but he impressed Crebs with his ability to continue to work hard in class and dedicate himself to returning to the mat. It meant long, strenuous hours with the doctors, athletic trainers and coaches doing knee extensions, stretching his ankles and wrists, core stability exercises, trunk rotations, getting back into the weight room and doing light lifts.
“You’ll see some kids that have an injury or setback and you know and they do the minimum of what’s required by the doctor and think that’s enough, but that’s not the case with Cooper.”
Gilham has returned to the mat in the 141-pound weight class this season and has seen success. His first time competing since high school came on Nov. 6. It was the Lycoming Invitational, a home event. He had an opportunity to show his teammates, coaches and family what he strived to do for nearly two years.
Win his match.
Not only did he win one, but he went 3-0 with two wins coming way of 12-0 and 10-2 major decisions. He wrestled once again on Dec. 12, defeating Oswego’s Billy Piatti by 15-0 tech fall in 6:10.
Even with all of his recent success, his coach is going to continue to push him in a way that’s conducive to his improving his health.
“He continues to grow as a person,” Crebs said. “He’s growing as a wrestler, he’s growing as a leader. The guys in the team are really tight with him, his roommate takes out looks after him a lot. We know that we talked with him every day to make sure medications are being taken at the right time and those types of things.”
Gilham has one piece of encouragement to give to athletes who are overcoming adversity this holiday season and beyond.
“I couldn’t just get out there and get wrestling right away,” Gilham said. “I didn’t need to go out there and hurt myself or potentially do something to like hit my head. You just need to take it slow and mentally just be patient with it and things will come around.”
