By Joe O'Leary, For The Mountain Times
Sprinting with all his might, the only thing Sandy High School senior center fielder Cooper Hibbs is focused on is hawking down a ball hit his way in center field. It looks like he isn’t going to make it, this ball has base hit written all over it – until he lays himself out to snag the ball. There isn’t much more the hitter could have done, the only mistake he made was hitting the ball in Hibbs’ general direction.
“Baseball is very hard. You fail a lot, that’s my favorite part. It takes a lot of mental capacity to play, to move on from so many mistakes that get made and not live in the past. It teaches you a lot,” Hibbs said. Playing since he was in early elementary school, Hibbs admits his freshman year was when he fully fell in love with the sport.
“That was when I was like, ‘yeah I want to play college baseball,’” Hibbs said. Hibbs is currently committed to continuing his baseball career at Mt. Hood Community College, alongside two of his senior teammates, utility player Max Green and middle infielder Kobe Sparks. However, the entire senior class of the baseball team has a unique bond.
“We’ve all been playing together for like a decade. I’ll definitely miss the brotherhood,” Hibbs said. “It’s going to be fun to have Max and Kobe going with me. I’ve been playing with them since I was eight. It’s pretty awesome we get to play in college together.” On the field, Hibbs has a knack for hitting situationally. He can smack the ball for extra base hits when the team needs it or hold back and work counts to simply get on base. Hibbs possesses high-end speed both on the basepaths and in center field. Playing sports his whole life, Hibbs credits his speed as a more natural skill, but not all of the tools he has in his toolbox came this way.
“I think giving 100 percent goes a long way. Doing what I need to do to get stronger and better in the offseason and being a team guy and picking others up [on the field],” Hibbs said. Off the diamond, Hibbs is a pretty unassuming guy. Like many in Sandy, he likes to spend his free time fishing, a sport that stands in stark contrast to the high leverage action of baseball; Hibbs seems to enjoy it for the exact opposite reason he loves baseball.
“I fish for anything, man. Just as long as I’m out there, I’m at peace,” Hibbs explained. As his senior baseball season continues and Hibbs proceeds in his development as a player, it will be interesting to see not only how he performs, but how the entire SHS baseball team does throughout the season. With the team ranked 15th in 6A Prep Baseball Oregon preseason polling, Hibbs hopes that high expectations will serve as a motivator for the squad.
“We want to win conference. We want to make a state run, show everyone what Sandy can do in the playoffs,” Hibbs said.