Tigers open against a 5A team coming off (8) wins in ’25 having played for two (2) of the past three (3) titles
We are going to do something a little different this year with this post. Sometimes, we are going to provide a scout of a team’s opponent, like we are doing this week. Christian County games are difficult to handicap, after all, this is the team’s inaugural season. Still, we are the best in this business and capable of about anything (HB assures us). This is our look at Cooper and what it brings to the table in the opener at the Stadium of Champions. For those of you who see me in the hallways and want to be upset about the pick; remember, this was put before the editorial committee and fleshed out there. That doesn’t mean I agree with it (necessarily). Here is how we see it (but a position with which I don’t necessarily agree).
Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Assistant Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
This week’s article is brought to you by Lasaters Coffee & Tea. This feature is brought to you each and every Tuesday morning. Around the KHSAA, Tuesday morning is the perfect time to wake up and smell the coffee or tea brewing.
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Big Ass Fans Large School Football Team Reveal Show
First of all, let’s look at the Cooper Jaguars…
COOPER JAGUARS
2025 SEASON: 8-4 record, lost to Scott County, 55-34, in second round of Class 5A playoffs.
STARTERS RETURNING: 4 offense, 4 defense.
DISTRICT: Class 5A, District 5 with Boone County, Conner, Dixie Heights, Scott.
HEAD COACH: Adam Begley (first season as head coach)
Cooper has lost a ton of talent. Many of these players were instrumental in the historic run or success which saw them go to Kroger Field, two straight years, and play for a 5A title.
So how do you replace all those players who have gone on to college in the last three years? That is a fair question. How do you replace the only head coach your school has ever had in its 18 years of football? Fair question number two.
After last season, the Jaguars watched record-setting quarterback Cam O’Hara move on to Western Kentucky after three exciting years. O’Hara was a Big Ass Fans, Large School All-State QB who threw for more than 11,000 passing yards in Union.
New coach Adam Begley was asked that very question by a rival publication up in Northern Kentucky. Here is a link to that article from which we have borrowed liberally in our article here.
“We’re not rebuilding, the foundation is set,” says Begley, who moves up from freshman head coach and is a battalion chief in the Florence Fire Department, where he’s a 20-year veteran.
“I’ve heard the talk,” senior safety/wide receiver Corey Freihofer says. “A lot of games we’ll be the underdog . . . we kind of like that.”
“The best athlete on our team,” Begley says of Freihofer. Not an exaggeration to say he might be the best athlete on any team in Kentucky as the defending state champ in the pole vault and a top wrestler.
“The speed,” Freihofer says of the biggest carryover skill his pole vaulting offers the 6-foot, 185-pounder. “And then there’s the leverage you learn.” Freihofer, the third in his family to lead Jaguar teams after older sisters Kay and Liz helped Cooper hoops to back-to-back Sweet 16s, is comfortable taking the lead for this team.
After a physical scrimmage at Lloyd, will this be a new-look Cooper team that hangs its hat on defense? “Not necessarily,” Freihofer says. “We’ve got a lot of threats on offense.”
Start with Zach Kostopoulos, a sophomore who succeeds O’Hara at quarterback. Kostopoulos is a different tye of QB than was O’Hara but different isn’t always a negative, even where the former player was an All-Stater.
We’re not rebuilding…the foundation is set.
Coach Adam Begley, Cooper High
A slim 160-pounder, Zach says “I don’t think about it, we just play the game.” And that game is . . . ? “Next man up,” Zach says. He just happens to be that man, a team leader by virtue of the position he plays.
“He’s a smart kid,” Begley says of the quarterback who’s among “a bunch of newcomers.”
“Stay consistent, keep working,” Kostopoulos says, “we just gotta’ step up,” of this team that returns just four starters on each side of the ball.
But a Class 5A team that’s not exactly tiptoeing into this season with three games against 6A schools including the opener on the road at the new Christian County High School in Hopkinsville as well as early games against rival Ryle and Campbell County along with state 4A power Highlands.
Don’t downplay the offense, Begley says. They are five deep at wide receiver after Freihofer led by returnee Talon Johnson and an offensive line that should be a strength with Carson Clark, Manning Dawson, Trevor Johnson and Brayden Neal. Leading the defense up front are Cole Suesz and Owen Flamm with outside linebacker Parker Tveten.
Of how the first-year head coach is doing thus far, wide receiver – and the coach’s son Aiden Begley, a slim 6-foot “130-ish” pound sophomore – says “He’s doing great, it’s not different at all. He’s always been a coach for me, he treats me just the same.”
Now Begley has an entire Cougar varsity team to coach. He also has a big, talented, and athletic Christian County Tiger team to overcome.
On a neutral field, Cooper may win this game; but, in Hopkinsville, that’s a long bus ride!
Jumpin’ Jack-Flash
How the Tigers stack up:
CHRISTIAN COUNTY TIGERS
2025 SEASON: Inaugural Season
STARTERS RETURNING: NA
DISTRICT: Class 6A, District 1 with McCracken County, Henderson County, and Daviess County
HEAD COACH: Dustin Lopez (second season, went 7-5 with the Hoptown Tigers in 2025)
Coach Dustin Lopez gets the newly consolidated high school for its maiden voyage through the 6A classification’s first district. Lopez, in Hoptown’s last season, guided the former Tigers to a seven (7) win campaign and a loss in the second round to a 6A finalist.
Jasiah McCarley (’28) will have to hold off a charge from Nehemiah Bailey (’29) at the QB slot but McCarley is a proven commodity and has shown himself capable of making good, mature decisions with the football. Tremayne Clay (’27) maybe as good of an athlete as you will watch in 2026 at any level of play.
We like Stephen Lovan (’27) along the trenches and believe both Deasian Harris (’27) and Tristin Dillard (’27) will be very helpful on the new roster assisting returning RB, Jeremiah Smith (’28). The triumvirate looks to hold down the offensive backfield at the all important, RB-slot.
Everyone in Kentucky will be curious as to how this will unfold. Keep an eye on Mychael Pulley (’29). Pulley’s the son of a Mr. Football winner (Curtis Pulley, 2004) and has the pedigree, speed, and athleticism to burst out onto the scene this coming season. This will be a dangerous team to have to play.
How we see it: The Cooper Jaguars project as 7-point favorites over the Christian County Tigers for their regular-season opener at the Stadium of Champions on August 21, 2026. Cooper’s established offensive consistency gives them the definitive edge over a Christian County team still working out the kinks of a massive school consolidation and attempting to run offense minus mistake and pre-snap penalties.
Join us next week as we either scout another opponent or return to honor a weekly prize winner. Until then, get on down to one of our Christian County Area locations and remember, our products are superior and one of kind; just like the Christian County Tigers’s.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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