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Victoria Anthony 2009 Inland Division BOYS CIF Champion! Video

BY MICK McCABE 1/22/10
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Dakota Cooley, left and his sister Taylor Cooley, are members of the wrestling team at Chelsea High School. Dakota, a senior, is 30-0 and has accepted a wrestling scholarship at CMU. Taylor is a freshman and is 19-4. (ROMAIN BLANQUART / DFP) A version of this story appears on page 6B of the Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, print edition of the Detroit Free Press.

The Chelsea wrestling team trailed North Farmington by three points with two matches left last Saturday when Taylor Cooley hit the mat for the Bulldogs.

The other Chelsea wrestlers circled the mat, cheering on their freshman teammate.

The Chelsea wrestlers erupted when Cooley pinned the North Farmington wrestler, earning six points for Chelsea, which went on to win the team title at the South Lyon tournament, and the Chelsea teammates high-fived the freshman after the victory.

One of the other Chelsea wrestlers is Taylor's brother, Dakota, the senior captain and the team's best wrestler who has signed a national letter of intent to wrestle at Central Michigan.

"After the match I went over and said good job and we talked about the match," Dakota said. "After I left, I looked back and there were a couple of Pinckney kids over there throwing their game at her."

Throwing their game at her?

Yes, Taylor Cooley is a girl, but this is no dog-and-pony show. She is very much just one of the guys on the Chelsea team, posting a 19-4 record in the 103-pound class.

"She's not just there to fill out a spot," Dakota insisted. "She's actually putting points on the board."

Dakota is also putting more than a few points on the board. He has a 30-0 record and wrestles at 140.

Taylor may only be a freshman, but her wrestling career began when she was 3 after watching her brother practice.

Taylor has had her share of success, winning national tournaments in 2005-06 before taking a break and then resuming wrestling in middle school.

At last year's high school banquet, Taylor told varsity coach Kerry Kargel she wanted to join the team, and he welcomed her with open arms.

The Cooleys' parents -- Karen and Jerry -- have no problem with Taylor wrestling. Jerry wrestled at Alma High, and Karen is a 20-time national arm-wrestling champion and won the 1999 world championship in Tokyo.

"When she started wrestling in middle school, everything was OK," Jerry said. "High school makes me a little nervous, but she's doing well so far, and she has the right attitude."

Taylor's attitude is she wants to win, just like she wants to win in volleyball and softball, her other sports. She also won the election to be freshman class president, and she was the freshman representative on the homecoming court.

The bonus in wrestling is having her brother as a teammate.

Dakota is not your typical senior wrestler. He is one of the state's best. He advanced to the Division 2 state semifinals the past two seasons and finished third last year.

That is why Taylor keeps an eye on everything he does, in practice and in meets.

"I love watching him wrestle," she said. "He's really good, and I've learned a lot watching him. He goes out there and works his butt off. He tries and he tries."

He tries even when it is not wrestling season.

Last summer he was undefeated at the national duals team championship in Oklahoma, and he doesn't take days off during the season.

"Just wrestling in season I can stay average, but that's not really what I'm aiming for," Dakota said. "So I wrestle out of season. I go up to Michigan State to work out. I go up to St. Johns to work out with Taylor Massa and Jordan Wohlfert and Josh Houldsworth from Holly. Every Sunday I'm up there, and we're all working out."

Dakota, a 3.0 student who was a starting cornerback on the Chelsea football team, isn't bashful about helping Chelsea's other wrestlers, especially his sister.

He began giving her tips when they wrestled around their home.

"When we're messing around, we try to keep away from anything expensive or breakable, except maybe a couple of lamps we broke," Dakota said. "Our basement is a good area for that."

Dakota has a genuine concern for his sister's safety, which hasn't been an issue so far.

"I'm always worried that she might get a stronger, more mature type of kid," he said. "She doesn't have the man strength, basically, but she holds her own very well. She's just a competitor."

Being teammates has strengthened an already strong bond between Taylor and Dakota. But there are limits. After all, she is only a freshman and Dakota's street cred is at stake.

"We get along fine, but I'm not taking her places," he said. "It's just that I have my friends, she has her friends."

Not exactly. A bunch of Dakota's friends are now also Taylor's friends.

"His friends joke around with me," she said. "They say: 'Taylor Cooley, will you be my girlfriend?' It's just funny. They're just kidding."

Nick Hill, Chelsea's two-time all-state dream team running back who recently enrolled at Michigan State, isn't surprised at Taylor's success on the wrestling team.

Hill lived with the Cooleys for a time when he was younger and his father's work took him out of state. He can attest to Taylor's toughness.

"We wrestled around then and we wrestle around to this day," Hill said. "She's actually tougher than she seems. She's got it all. She's got the smarts, she's got the looks, she's got the toughness to produce in sports."

Dakota sees that toughness, too, and it is combined with a fearlessness that separates Taylor from some wrestlers.

"I like the fact that she goes out there and gets wins, and she isn't scared to step on the mat with anyone," he said.

Dakota hopes to improve on his third-place finish at last year's Division 2 meet, and he now hopes he isn't the only family member still wrestling that weekend.

"I didn't know what to think at the beginning of the year, but for what she's showing, she competes with every person," he said. "She wrestled a kid who was ranked fourth or fifth in the state. She lost, but she held her own with him. She gave him a tough match. He looked nervous coming out, too."

He was almost as nervous as the guys from Pinckney who were "throwing their game" at Taylor at last week's meet.

"I listened to them," Taylor said with an embarrassed giggle. "It's nice to make more friends through the sport. I didn't hand out my number or anything."

As if her brother would have permitted that to happen.

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