Prep Football Previews: Cooper's returning offensive leader setting higher goals for his senior season | NKyTribune

 

By Terry Boehmker

NKyTribune sports reporter

Cooper senior running back Torrey Cordell-Armstrong is going into the 2015 high school football season that begins Friday with a more positive attitude than he had at this time last year.

“I’m a lot more confident because I actually had an offseason to train,” he said. “Last year, I was just rehabbing and I didn’t get to really progress.”

In the seventh game of his sophomore season, Cordell-Armstrong left the field on a stretcher with a broken tibia bone in his right leg. He said surgeons had to insert pins into the shattered bone and reset his kneecap. No one was sure if or when he would be able to return to football.

After several months of rehabilitation, however, Cordell-Armstrong was back in the Jaguars’ starting lineup last season and he ended up rushing for 1,752 yards and 16 touchdowns.

That was an impressive comeback considering the severity of his injury, but the 5-foot-9, 175-pound tailback is setting even higher goals this season since he got to spend the last eight months in training instead of rehabilitation.

“I want to do better than last year and it’s going to happen,” Cordell-Armstrong said.

“We lost a few starters (on offense), but we’re all pretty much back and I am really confident,” he added. “The thing is, even if they don’t hold a block on a play, my goal is to make a play happen anyway. It’s not always going to be perfect and you’re not always going to have a hole, but it’s still up to you to make something happen.”

After everything Cordell-Armstrong has been through in his young life, it’s easy to see how he developed his grit and determination. His mother died in an automobile accident when he was 7 years old and he moved in with his father. It took some time for the young boy to forge a relationship with his father, but they worked it out together.

The mother Nikki’s last name is Armstrong and his father Correy’s is Cordell. Their son now includes both of their names in his own last name.

Cordell-Armstrong’s character was tested once again by the injury at the end of his sophomore season. But he made a successful comeback and then went back to work to prepare for his senior season.

“Torrey is one of the hardest working football players I have coached,” said Cooper head coach Randy Borchers. “His dedication to the weight room has put about 20 pounds of muscle on him this offseason and he really worked on his speed and quickness, which has drastically improved since his junior year. Torrey is one of those guys you know will do things right even when no one is holding him accountable.”

Edited August 19, 201511 yr by Colonels_Wear_Blue
T.O.S.

I'm a fan! Very good RB! Great attitude!

What impressed me the most is coming back from a horrific broken leg his sophomore year and without being able to work out and prepare for his junior year because all he could do that summer was therapy for his leg he still comes back to lead NKY in rushing yards that season. This from a kid who wasn't totally confident with his leg because he didn't really get to test it before the season.

 

Now he is ready and anxious for the season to start and has worked his butt off this offseason. I hope for a healthy season by Torrey so he can enjoy his senior season to its fullest.

Great article on the young man. I'd like to see good things happen for him, though it would be alright with me if he sits out the Boone game (not through injury, though).