Prep football: Atascadero’s Elijah Cooks feels he’s unstoppable; could he be right?
Elijah Cooks stood out at the Atascadero High School football team’s practice Thursday.
It wasn’t because of his speed, reliable hands or 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame, but because in 82-degree weather he was wearing heather gray sweatpants and dancing between plays.
Apparently when you’re having the type of season Cooks is, you can do whatever you want.
“Confidence this year is at an all-time high,” Cooks said. “I feel like I can do anything. I feel like nobody can guard me. It’s not cocky or nothing.”
Through seven games, the senior tight end/wide receiver hybrid has been building confidence with one big game after another. He has 11 touchdowns and set a school record for catches and yards with a 12-catch, 178-yard, two-touchdown performance against Stockdale in the third game of the season. In total, he has 37 catches for 573 yards (15.5 avg) and eight receiving touchdowns, tops for receivers in the PAC 5.
It’s not just the numbers that jump out, it’s the way Cooks is going about it. Last week against Righetti, he hauled in a one-handed touchdown catch. He’s taken short screens for scores, and against Madera he returned a punt for a touchdown.
And many times, it’s come against double coverage.
“It’s not just big catches, it’s the normal catches,” Atascadero head coach Vic Cooper said. “At times, when the offense wasn’t necessarily firing on all cylinders, he was able to carry us a little bit. Him and Carson (Rinkenberger, quarterback).”
Atascadero has been battling the injury bug all season with losses to key skill position players, which has forced Cooks onto the punt team and to play safety on defense. But as the Greyhounds shuffle running backs and defensive linemen, the senior combination of Rinkenberger and Cooks has been steady and helped Atascadero to a 4-3 record. Rinkenberger has more than 1,200 yards passing this season and 13 touchdowns.
“Carson has been throwing great all year,” Cooks said. “Even through all our injuries, he is still getting other guys the ball.”
Cooper said it’s a difficult balance between going to Cooks too much versus getting other players involved. Last week, Rinkenberger got Atascadero’s other big, 6-foot-5 tight end, Garrett Raminha, involved. He had a season-high four catches and two touchdowns in a win against Righetti.
Cooks, who has already received an offer from Wyoming, has also garnered interest from Hawaii, San Jose, Fresno and UNLV. Cooks is taking his time in deciding where he will play next year and focusing on the crucial three-game stretch to end the season. It begins Friday against San Luis Obispo before two league-title-type-deciding games against Arroyo Grande and Paso Robles to end the season.
That’s when we’ll see if anyone has what it takes to stop the man in the gray sweatpants.
This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Prep football: Atascadero’s Elijah Cooks feels he’s unstoppable; could he be right?."