Former San Diego Charger Stephen Cooper on Wareham: 'This community built me'

WAREHAM — Their childhood dreams of making it to the NFL started on the fields in Wareham.

They took different paths and faced different challenges, but both Stephen Cooper and Josh Onujiogu made those dreams a reality.

Cooper played nine seasons with the San Diego Chargers. Onujiogu recently signed a two-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks.

The pair returned to Wareham High on Feb. 16 to share their stories and inspire others as part of “A Night to Remember,” presented by Wareham High School and Simply You Productions to benefit the Wareham High School Booster Club.

“There was a lot of support from my community, my coaches and my family that helped me become a great student-athlete and a football player to play at the NFL level,” said Cooper, a 1997 Wareham High graduate. “To get that opportunity, it’s all a testament to my community and my family and my friends.”

‘THIS COMMUNITY BUILT ME’

Cooper moved to Wareham when he was seven years old and grew up in a single-parent household.

“Don’t think that you can’t be successful going through those circumstances,” he said. “I would do anything in my power to help myself get out of the situation I was in and to better myself as an individual and live the dream I set forth for myself.

“It is not easy. If it was easy everybody would do it. Who doesn't want to be a professional athlete?”

Before his dream of becoming an NFL player, Cooper aspired to play at Wareham High.

“I was the kid that would go to every game on Friday night,” Cooper said. “I used to be at the gates when they walked off the field, giving high fives when they were sweating and bleeding.

“I know Wareham is a small town and people don’t give us a lot of recognition, but when I watched those guys play, that’s who I wanted to be. We were little Tigers wanting to be Vikings when our time came.”

More:Two Wareham graduates made it to the NFL. Now they are coming home to inspire others.

The “hard love” Cooper received from players ahead of him helped prepare him for the road ahead.

“Nothing was ever given to me,” he said. “They always wanted to push me to the brink of exhaustion.

“Every single time I trained throughout college and every time I saw an NFL scout come into the office, I would hear all those words in my head from the older dudes that came before me that wanted the same thing I wanted. I would hear their voices and use that as motivation to help me lift those weights, help me run faster, do the extra rep and give the extra effort to get to where I was at San Diego. I appreciate that.”

Cooper said the close-knit community in Wareham was instrumental in his growth as a person and player.

“That’s what made me into who I am today,” he said. “Everybody knows each other’s business. It’s the truth and it helps because you can lean on each other. I know growing up, this community built me.”

Looking back over his playing days — from high school to the NFL — Cooper fondly remembers his time at Wareham High.

“The highlight of my career probably had to be the Super Bowl in 1995,” he said. “The reason why is because I got to win with the guys I grew up with, the guys I got to play Tigers with, the guys we had offseason with and the guys we did everything together. To be able to enjoy that moment with those guys was real and authentic.

“This experience here at Wareham was some of the funniest times of my life. It doesn’t matter how much money I made and that I’ve traveled all over the world. That doesn’t mean nothing to me because it isn’t authentic. This is authentic.”

'I WANT TO BE A ROLE MODEL'

While Onujiogu’s dream of playing in the NFL began when he was seven years old, seeing that Cooper made it from Wareham inspired him to try to do the same.

“We always knew of Stephen Cooper and I always walked into the gym, looking at his jersey,” said Onujiogu, a 2016 Wareham High graduate. “The first thought is I want to be there one day. I can say he pushed me to be in the NFL today.

“I truly don’t think I’d be in the position now if I didn’t have the community like Stephen Cooper was saying.”

Onujiogu says he comes back to Wareham often to give talks and volunteer with the Pop Warner program.

“I like talking to the youth and telling them what they’ve got to do and be that role model that I didn’t have,” he said. “I want to be a role model to you guys.”

No matter what others said, Onujiogu knew he had what it took to make it his dream come true.

“What motivated me was everyone saying I was too small, I was too slow,” he said. “That just drove me.

“My advice is to put your head down and work. It is a hard task. I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy, but if you put your head down and work and truly believe in yourself that you can do it. A lot of people are going to look at you and say, ‘You know how hard that is 1%?’ Just know that you can be that 1% of that 1%.”

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Cooper and Onujiogu share NFL success stories with Wareham