Ocean City wrestler Cooper Gallagher has some unfinished business

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher Luke Demore has, thankfully, never come face-to-face with a great white shark. If that encounter were to occur, however, Demore would be familiar with the stare. That cold, heartless glare through black marble eyes. He sees that same type of stare every day in the Ocean City High School wrestling room in the eyes of workout partner Cooper Gallagher. Gallagher is on a mission. He has unfinished business. Last year, the current 182-pound Red Raiders senior was on a course that would take him to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, site of the high school wrestling state championships. The Valhalla of New Jersey wrestling. But in the district semifinals he tore his left oblique muscle. Gallagher tried valiantly to keep his dream alive, placing second in districts despite the torn oblique and advancing to the region quarterfinals, where he finally had to take an injury default after a week in excruciating pain. This season, Gallagher has been wrestling with a fury and a purpose – when he has had the chance to wrestle. He went undefeated in his first 12 bouts this season but had only wrestled seven times. Five forfeits, as opposing teams tried to avoid him. Ocean City 182-pounder Cooper Gallagher, right, is undefeated this season and is one of the best wrestlers in his weight class in South Jersey. (Glory Days Magazine photo/Dave O’Sullivan) And with good reason. The normally mild-mannered, polite 18-year-old off the mat turns into what Demore, a junior 160-pounder, calls “an animal” when he dons the red-and-black singlet. “Off the mat we are best friends. He likes to joke around and act like a little kid, but when it comes down to it, and when he needs to be, he acts like a man. He’s really mature,” Demore said. “When it comes to wrestling he turns into a whole different person. It’s almost like he zones out. Even when I’m drilling with him, you can look into his eyes and it almost seems like he is looking right through you. Almost like a shark, his eyes are just like that, black marble. “He’s an animal on the mat but he’s a gentleman off the mat.” “Definitely, a coach loves to have that kind of wrestler. His personality is great and then on the mat and in the room he’s a hard worker,” said Ocean City coach Dave Castellini, himself an accomplished wrestler at Buena Regional High School who went on to wrestle at Rutgers University. “That’s what you need in wrestling. It’s a tough sport. You need to have that heart and that desire.” Gallagher, who remains unbeaten, can’t quite explain the transformation he goes through once he steps on the mat. It’s almost like something out of an Incredible Hulk movie. “I’m a bit of an adrenaline junky. I always go all out in whatever I do,” Gallagher said. “It’s just a different side of me. I don’t really know where it comes from.” Demore said he is constantly amazed at the motor, drive and determination Gallagher has on a daily basis. “I’ve never met somebody who goes at it so hard for so long. He will not stop until he physically cannot keep going. It doesn’t matter if he is out of breath, he’ll just keep going until he falls over,” Demore said. Unfortunately for Demore, he usually is the victim of Gallagher’s lathered up adrenaline rush every day at 3 p.m. in the wrestling room. “It makes me feel like crap during practice. Sometimes I feel like I’m not getting any better and that I haven’t gotten anything done, but then when my coaches say switch partners and go with somebody lighter I can feel the difference,” Demore said. “It’s crazy. He’s only 182, but it’s almost like the equivalent of wrestling a 220. He’s a brick. Solid muscle.” “This year is my senior year and I want to win the state tournament, I really do. Having that in my mind, I want to leave a mark on this school in some way. I want to have my name put up on the wall in the gym,” Gallagher said. “I just have to keep pushing myself. I keep a high tempo in practice. Every morning I go running, I work out after practice, I eat really well. I just have to keep that up and keep wrestling as hard as I can and keep asking the coaches as many questions as I can about the things I don’t know.” Castellini said Gallagher was pretty upset about having to withdraw from the region tournament last season, but that has only served to fuel his desire even more this winter. “That’s what you strive for during the season. He made regions as a sophomore and then made it again. When you come to regions you want to make it to Atlantic City. It’s a tough loss, but he has this year to make up for that,” Castellini said. “He’s a very tenacious kid. He’s just going to come back and want it more. He just keeps working harder and harder every year, and this year he’s stepping it up to a whole new level. He definitely wants to be on the podium in Atlantic City. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be.” Demore has just as much confidence as Castellini that Gallagher will be putting his skills on display at Boardwalk Hall in March. “By the looks of it, the district is wide open for him. I don’t even think he will get scored on in the districts,” Demore said. “In regions, last year, I felt like he could have kept going, until that injury. I think he has a really, really, REALLY good chance of going to states and maybe even winning it.” For Gallagher, winning a state title isn’t just a pipe dream. For him it’s not just something to say in the locker room to sound cool in front of his buddies. It’s a goal he is chasing down, relentlessly. The proof is in the results. Of the seven matches he wrestled coming into last weekend, six of his wins were by pin. Opponents are something he just needs to get out of his way as he speeds toward March. “I was hoping to make it to the state tournament last year and my main goal this year is I want to win the state championship. I’m doing the best I can. I’ve put a lot of hard work in. I’m working out before school and after practice,” Gallagher said. “I wrestled a lot in the fall and worked my butt off and came into this season stronger than I have ever been.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays