GREENFIELD — Lose. Cooper Noehre despises the word.
Taking an L has various meanings for the Greenfield-Central senior wrestler. From dropping a match to surrendering an offensive point, an L is an assault, and Noehre never hesitates to strike back.
Greenfield-Central wrestling coach Josh Holden and his 39-year-old body felt it firsthand the past four years, and no more so than this season.
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Holden spared with Noehre routinely during practice, and each time, the ice packs came out later that night.
“His body was hurting after the season was over,” Noehre joked. “You have to ask him how bad.”
Holden won’t sugarcoat the truth.
“I’m all kinds of beat up, man,” Holden laughed. “I’m hurting still.”
Holden and any other Cougar unfortunate enough to catch Noehre off guard momentarily inside the Greenfield-Central wrestling room, knew what was coming next. Payback.
“He does things the right way, but he’s not invincible, obviously. In the room, we have some good kids, and they might catch him every once in a while. I might get a takedown on him, but he’s not happy when that happens,” Holden said. “If someone scores on him, you start defending yourself a little bit because you don’t know what’s coming or where it’s coming from.”
Noehre’s philosophy was simple: work hard, improve each day and never give up, even when you don’t win.
The two-time state-place winner lived up to the reputation in the face of adversity in 2019-20, and it earned him Hancock County Wrestler of the Year honors.
“This season taught me, I have grit in me. I can keep going when stuff gets hard and never stop. Just keep pushing, pushing and pushing no matter what,” Noehre said. “I don’t have any regrets. I’m happy with that. I’m happy I don’t have anything to look back on and think, I wish I did that better as a wrestler.”
Noehre finished fifth overall in the state at 160 pounds in his final season. He was state runner-up at 152 his junior year. He ranks second all-time in career takedowns, behind Cougars’ Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee and former state champion Josh Farrell.
His career record of 138-30 is second best to Farrell and his 63 career pins is seventh best in program history. However, as Holden says, he’s still human, but Noehre’s response to obstacles and mistakes is what makes him unique.
After violating a team policy that kept him sidelined for a few weeks to start the regular season, Noehre owned up and vowed to make up for his lapse in judgement.
True to his word, Noehre, a Purdue recruit, ran out to a 36-3 finale, losing just once during the regular season and twice in the state tournament.
“I know I let some people down early, but I wanted to make up for it this year. I was still practicing and going hard, I just couldn’t compete in a meet. It was humbling,” Noehre said. “You can’t take it for granted. It’s kind of like all this virus stuff going around. Stuff can change in a matter of a day or less than that. A snap of a finger.”
Grateful for every opportunity, Noehre powered his way towards a Hoosier Heritage Conference Tournament weight-class title, and despite a late-match 3-2 loss to Cathedral’s Elliott Rodgers during a regular-season dual meet, the wins piled up behind 24 falls overall.
Noehre’s sectional title this year was his first in his career and led to a regional repeat before a third-place finish at the New Castle Semistate.
His only other loss before his second straight appearance at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis this past February came against Rodgers by decision 3-0 in the semistate semifinals.
“You have to learn off your losses and keep moving forward every match, win or lose really because people are going to keep coming after you and try to beat you. You have to make sure you’re improving just like they are,” Noehre said.
Noehre was set to do just that until he was halted by the flu five days before the state finals on Feb. 21. Unable to practice until 24 hours before opening night, Noehre wasn’t himself, but he wasn’t backing down either.
He nearly fulfilled his childhood dream as a junior before losing to Rodgers for the 152-pound championship. Sick or not, he wasn’t passing up another chance.
“I was in the seventh grade. I went to watch the state finals. I remember taking a photo. It’s still on my Instagram. I took a picture of the finals and said, I can’t wait to be there one day. And my first year being there as a wrestler, I got under the lights,” Noehre said. “That was pretty cool.”
In his second go-around, he lost once, again, in the quarterfinals to eventual state runner-up Noah Hollendonner of Crown Point by decision 6-2.
“I was sick all week, obviously, and my lungs were hurting. After the first period, every match, it was hard to breath. Really, it was a matter of my heart because my body wasn’t 100 percent there,” Noehre said. “It was just me and my mind telling me to go, go, go, instead of stopping. I had to dig deep every match.”
Holden and those who’ve seen Noehre compete in the past knew something was wrong. Slowed by fatigue and an upper-respiratory illness, Noehre didn’t give up another loss after that point.
“He wasn’t coming off the flu, he was in the heart of it. He never said a word about feeling bad. But, you could tell he didn’t feel fine,” Holden said. “People up in the nosebleeds looking at him were saying, that ain’t the same kid. Cathedral’s coach came to me after his first match on Friday and asked me what’s wrong with him? He said, that’s not the same kid.”
Noehre wasn’t at his best, but an 11-4 decision followed by a 10-8 decision in the consolation bracket solidified his legacy.
“He came back, and he stayed focused. He wanted to end well, and again, he didn’t make any excuses,” Holden said. “I knew he was focused and was going to do the best he could. Did we want to win? Yes. But given the circumstances, fifth is pretty good. He fought hard.
“What makes him different is how he approached it. There was never a woe is me attitude. There was never a surrender in him. He didn’t make excuses. When you have that kind of attitude, you can do a lot of great things.”
Noehre achieved more than enough, earning his place on the Cougars’ wall of state qualifiers twice, and if things went differently, it could have been more.
“People don’t realize how close he was to being a four-time state qualifier. He lost a round-to-go freshman year, a round-to-go sophomore year, and then makes it to the finals in his first trip ever to the state tournament,” Holden said. “Obviously, this year didn’t go the way he wanted it to, and some people call it a disappointment, but I don’t it’s a disappointment. He was in the toughest weight class in the state.”
Ranked fourth this season, Noehre’s top competition each placed in the final four at the state finals with top-ranked Eli Dickens of Evansville Mater Dei defeating Hollendonner by decision 9-3 in the finals.
In his career, Noehre beat Dickens three times and lost once. He knocked off the fellow senior during the state semifinals in 2019-18 by decision 4-2 to face Rodgers, who was ranked in the top-five this season and finished third as a senior at 160.
Rodgers beat Prairie Heights’ Isiah Levitz, who was ranked in the top-four, by fall in the third-place match. Noehre never lost to Levitz in his career, but he and the others knew any of the weight-class’s top wrestlers were contenders.
“I didn’t really reach my goal in high school,” Noehre said. “It bothered me for a couple of weeks, but that’s life. I had to move on and keep getting better. Sometimes things happen for a reason.”
Noehre believes that reason will reveal itself once he’s able to get started in West Lafayette as a Boilermaker.
“Big Ten wrestling is a tough challenge, and to be part of that is awesome,” Noehre said. “I’m going to be one of those competitors, hopefully, on that NCAA stage and at the Big Ten tournament. I’m pumped.
“I’ll get beat for a while, then I’ll start learning a little more. You won’t be the big dog anymore for a little bit. I’m excited for it, though. I like getting pushed.”
Driven by his older brother Carter Noehre, who was 108-18 in his four-years at Greenfield-Central for 15th all-time in wins, Cooper thrives when things seem insurmountable.
“It makes me feel good inside (to be part of Cougars’ history), but I’m just happy that people are going to remember me,” Noehre said. “Let’s say in 10 years, kids are going to look at my name on the wall and coach might be able to tell them a story about me or give them something I did really well, like a move. That makes me feel good.”
It will be difficult to forget Noehre’s accomplishments, even if someone tried.
“He’s going to be on the wall a lot in a lot of different places,” Holden said. “I think as far as performance goes, if you just look at that over four years with the successes he’s had, he’s probably the second most decorated wrestler in our history.”
