After an injury threatened to take his leg in 2007, one former Northview Chief is accomplishing his dream of playing football at the collegiate level.

Austin Cooper, a graduate of Northview High School, has agreed to take his game to Huntingdon College where he will be an offensive lineman.

Cooper has been recruited to play offensive guard for the Hawks and has a strong shot at making their traveling team.

The former Chiefs guard and tackle said the opportunity to play college football is something that has him excited, and added Huntingdon seemed like the right fit for him.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Cooper said. “I chose Huntingdon because it’s a lot closer to home than my other choices, and I really enjoyed the campus. The coaches really made me feel comfortable when I took my visit.”

Since he has chosen to attend Huntingdon, Cooper has already had the opportunity to hit the weights with his future teammates.

Cooper said when he worked out with some Hawks players, he found out how different it is from his days as a Chief.

“Working out at the college level is a lot different than in high school,” Cooper said. “It’s more high-paced and high-tempo than what I’m used to, so I’m going to have to get accustomed to how they workout.”

While earning a chance to play college football is something that Cooper has always wanted to do, his journey to Huntingdon has been anything but simple.

To this day, Cooper is thankful that not only he can still play football, but that he still has the ability to walk.

On Oct. 9, 2007 during a Figure-8 drill in practice at Northview, Cooper’s left femur completely snapped in half. Two weeks prior to that he has been dealing with swelling and pain to his left knee.

The next days, weeks and months were trying on Cooper and his family as he underwent surgery to repair the femur along with possiblity that he could have bone cancer. It was later determined that his broken femur was the result of a stress fracture that had been misdiagnosed.

Cooper had surgery to repair his broken femur on Oct. 13, which resulted in the placement of a titanium rod inside the femur along with one screw.

The femur would become the least of Cooper’s problems as his oxygen levels coming out of the surgery were low due to a blood clot that had formed in his leg. A portion of that clot broke and traveled through his heart and into his lung causing the low levels.

After his parents said no to a surgery called a “clot buster” Cooper spent 15 days in the ICU. He survived the clot and the damage it had done to his leg and began working with a physical therapist and eventually was able to walk again.

The time spent in ICU with the clot took its toll on Cooper as he lost a lot of weight.

Janet Little Cooper, Austin Cooper’s mother, was with him day-in and day-out and said seeing him go through that experience was miserable.

“Austin lost more than 30 pounds,” Janet Little Cooper said. “It was difficult as a mom to see this great, big, strong boy drop down to a frail, weakened body. As the blood clot threat lessened, doctors feared he may loose his leg due to damage from the clot – yet another battle. And again, God blessed Austin’s life by protecting him and eventually healing him. A physical therapist was brought in on a daily basis to start working with Austin.

“I documented Austin’s progress in a small notepad throughout this process. It was heartbreaking to see him not be able to walk. I remember the day when he walked from his room to the nurses station – some 100 feet. All I could do was cry. It was a slow walk and a painful walk for Austin, but the smile on his face was huge. All of the nurses and doctors stood at the nurses’ station cheering for him.”

During his time in the hospital, Cooper said he did what he could do to remain optimistic despite missing out on his first season as a varsity football player.

“It was hard not being able to get out on the field with my team,” Cooper said. “I kept strong by focusing on getting back out on the football field and playing the game. I also had a great support group with my friends and family.”

Cooper was released from the hospital at the end of October and upon visiting Sacred Heart, doctors found what they thought to be two more clots in his leg. The next trip to the hospital for Cooper would be one to UAB in Birmingham where a vascular surgeon determined the problem to be an aneurysm, which was fixed by surgery.

The final problem for Cooper was the screw in his femur was too long and it began protruding from the bone into tendons and muscles around his knee. Another surgery cured the ailment finally allowing Cooper to be free of some pain.

In 2008, Cooper returned to the football field to start for the Chiefs in their opener against Pensacola Catholic.

Cooper said his return to the field was dramatic because he was returning to the game he loved so much.

“Getting back on the field was an emotional thing for me because I had missed the game,” Cooper said. “It was a tough game to return in because we were beaten 48-0, but it was great to be playing again.”

Now Cooper will make his way through his college years with the opportunity to accomplish a lifelong goal, play college football.

He will also embark on the chance to further his education and has found what he wants to study.

Cooper said he plans to study sports medicine once he begins college.

“I plan to go into sports medicine and go into physical theraphy,” Cooper said. “They have a great program for that at Huntingdon.”

A fitting career choice for an athlete that’s been through ups and downs as will many of his future patients.