By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher Cooper Gallagher will be heading to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall this weekend as one of the best wrestlers in New Jersey. He has a 36-1 record this year in the 182-pound weight class and won District 32 and Region 8 championships. No doubt he will have a large fan club making the trip to the state championships. His parents, Joanne and Pat, will be on hand, as will classmates, teammates, friends, cousins. The Cooper Gallagher fan club has grown exponentially, as the 18-year-old Ocean City High School senior has put together one of the best seasons in school history. But there is one special member of his fan club, and she doesn’t even know where Atlantic City is. That’s because Alyssa Castellini is only 3 years old. Alyssa is the daughter of Red Raiders coach Dave Castellini and wife Kelly, and it’s safe to say wrestling is in her blood. Right after she was born, coach Castellini, himself a former star wrestler at Buena Regional High School and Rutgers University, had to run off to the district seeding meeting. Alyssa attends every Ocean City match and knows all the wrestlers and coaches by name. But there is one name on her mind more than any other: Cooper. 
Alyssa Castellini, the 3-year-old daughter of Ocean City wrestling coach Dave Castellini, has been the biggest fan of 182-pounder Cooper Gallagher during his memorable senior season. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “Since he’s a senior she’s been around him the most, but it also has to do with his parents. They have been absolutely spectacular for the last 3 years,” Kelly said. “As soon as we jump in the car to go, it’s ‘I can’t wait to see Cooper at …’ whether it’s the orange gym, the red gym, wherever we are going. She’s really excited. When we are in the car, depending on which way I turn, she knows which gym we are going to.” “It’s just adorable. As soon as she sees him she lights up,” Joanne Gallagher said. “My mom always says that it always touches her when he’s done with a match he will go right up to her and give her a high-five, and after he showers he will go over and pick her up and hold her. He is a good kid like that. “You know what’s cute about Alyssa is she will say, ‘am I going to see Cooper in the blue room? Am I going to see Cooper in the green room?’ She knows every high school’s colors. If you ask her what school she will know what color (their team) is.” Cooper said he is glad to have such a devoted fan, even if she is only 3 years old. “Her personality has really developed this year. She’s really started to come out of her shell and not be so shy. She’s a blast,” Cooper said. “She brings a fun energy to the whole environment.” Kelly said that she really enjoys the way the Ocean City wrestlers have embraced her daughter as almost a good luck charm of sorts. “They come in as 14-year-old freshmen and you get to see them grow into these young men ready to go out into the world, and to see them interact with a little girl, it’s just adorable,” Kelly said. “I don’t want it to sound too emotional, but she really looks forward to seeing them. She knows every single one of them by name, she knows what all the points are for. It’s a lot of fun.” Alyssa is Cooper’s biggest fan. During matches, she sits on Pat Gallagher’s lap while he videotapes the bouts and chants “Go, Cooper!” And it doesn’t matter if Cooper wins or loses. To her, he will always be the best. “No matter what happens during the match, Alyssa goes right to him and puts her arms out and he puts on that smile and picks her up and throws her high in the sky. And that’s exactly what she says, ‘Cooper, please throw me high in the sky.’ And she’s so happy,” Kelly said. “Cooper is the nice kid you see when you talk to him. That’s what he is like anytime I have ever seen him. After practice, after a match, win, lose, whatever. He is just that great of a kid and his parents really have instilled that in him.” 
Every time Alyssa sees Cooper, she asks him to toss her “high in the sky.” The relationship Cooper and Alyssa share really is a microcosm of the tight-knit wrestling family Ocean City enjoys. Being the wife of a high school wrestling coach and mother to a rambunctious toddler isn’t easy for Kelly, who also works full time in the Vineland school district, but she said knowing how important it is to her husband, as well as seeing how her daughter has taken such a liking to the sport and the athletes, makes the long days much easier to deal with. “I think it makes it easier for him knowing that when I bring her to all the matches she is really accepted by all the parents and wrestlers. I think it makes it easier for him knowing that when he’s down there on the bench that Alyssa is there and is excited to be there … and knowing that he doesn’t have to worry about her because there is a wrestling family that is really raising her, too,” Kelly said. “(The wrestlers) have been wonderful since Day One. They make such a big deal about her and are so warm and welcoming. She’s yelling and cheering, and we bought her a little camera so she can take pictures of all the wrestlers. “And for me, knowing that Dave is spending so many hours at wrestling, to know she is so accepted in what is so important to him makes it easy for me to support him through this (long season).” Alyssa also has helped strengthen the bond between wrestler and coach, as well as families. “Having such a close relationship has brought me and my coach together and both our families. It’s brought my parents closer to coach and Mrs. Castellini. (Alyssa) is a fun little girl. Even the one match I lost this year she was there to make me happy when I wasn’t,” Cooper said. “She’s awesome. She’s never in a bad mood at any of our matches. She’s smiling at me, running at me with open arms wanting to give me a hug. She’s an adorable little kid. She loves me and my whole family. Every time she sees me she says, ‘Cooper, where is your mommy? Where is your daddy?’ She even knows my grandparents.” The bond between Cooper and Alyssa also tells a lot about the wrestler. Here Cooper is in the midst of an outstanding senior season that demands a lot of his time, energy and focus, yet he is aware that he is a very popular high school athlete and that his impact is far reaching. And yet, he is not arrogant or boastful. Sometimes star high school athletes can develop a lofty attitude as they reach new heights of success. But Cooper has remained grounded. So much so that his mother only this week found out that he had befriended a special needs student and sort of taken her under his wing during gym class. To Cooper it probably doesn’t seem like a big deal. He’s just being a friendly guy. But in the bubble of the high school universe, a highly regarded athlete showing a special needs student respect and dignity can mean a world of difference to a student who doesn’t possess the same athletic talents. Cooper’s mother, Joanne: “I said to him, ‘Coop, you don’t know how much that means to her when you acknowledge her in gym class or the hallway. It’s a big deal.'” “I’ve never really excluded anybody. I feel like I’m friends with everybody in the school. I’ve never shunned anyone. I’m always open to see what somebody is about, but then again, this whole school is like that,” Cooper said. “I try to stay as humble as I can. I never want to seem like ‘that guy’ (who has an attitude). I try not to let anything go to my head if I do well in matches. With my success people have noticed me, but before this season it never really happene
d. So it’s kind of new to me. I’m still the same as I’ve ever been.” Whether he knows it or not, Cooper has become a folk hero of sorts in Ocean City. Adults, classmates, teammates, junior wrestlers from Upper Township, they all seem to be drawn to him. Little kids, especially, revere the muscular wrestler in the black-and-red singlet. Cooper said that he enjoys being someone who little kids can look up to, and he tries his best to be a positive role model. “It makes me proud of myself. I’m happy that I’m someone they can look up to,” Cooper said. “I’ve always been sort of a role model for my little cousins. I’ve always tried to stay out of trouble and I’m glad I can set an example for these younger kids. I’m glad I can have that kind of impact.” “I really think it’s his warm personality,” Kelly said. “His little cousins come to matches and I think he just has that personality that draws little kids to him. They aspire to be like him. He really has impacted a lot of the kids, and not just little kids like mine but also the kids on the team. He’s going to be greatly missed next year, that’s for sure.” Perhaps the person who will miss seeing him wrestle the most is the cute little 3-year-old girl who jumps from the stands and runs to Cooper after every match. “When we started this she couldn’t even talk and know we know exactly what she wants, and it’s usually to get down to Cooper as soon as she can after the match,” Kelly said. “That’s her big brother. I think that would be the best way to explain it.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
The Cooper Gallagher fan club includes one very special member
