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When former Southeastern running back Sean Cooper hung up the football shoes after a stellar college and professional career, he was far from through with the conditioning and training that goes into being a successful athlete.
He realized he had much more to give.
Following a stop back at Southeastern Oklahoma State University as the running backs coach and the program’s first Director of Sports Performance, Cooper, with wife Amanda, recently opened C4 Performance and Fitness in Durant.
“C4 is about developing people, developing athletes, developing adults to go be explosive players on the field and explosive adults in life,” Cooper said. “When you think of C4, you’re thinking of explosives. We believe our four C’s add up and can give you the tools you need to go and live an explosive life and be an explosive athlete.”
And for Cooper, Durant is just the place to have his facilities.
“Durant has been home to me for a while now. When I came here to play football at Southeastern, Durant was always good to me and treated me well. In the offseason, when I came back from Germany and the GFL, my girlfriend (now wife) was here and so I spent a lot of time here. And it just became home to me.”
Having C4 in Durant also means athletes don’t have to rack up miles traveling for quality training.
“Doing C4 here, I’ve met a lot of people here throughout the community who were driving their young athletes to Dallas, or McKinney, or Oklahoma City or farther once or maybe twice a month to get training. And I thought, ‘There’s something missing here. There’s a gap.’ And I knew I had the expertise and the skills to provide the young athletes and the parents what they needed to develop them and to go on into competition in their fields.”
Cooper is a native of Pittsburg, Texas. He was a running back on the Southeastern football team for four seasons, winning Lone Star Conference North titles in all four years, and also was named an All-Conference performer.
He then went on to play professionally in the German Football League. Cooper led the league in rushing as a rookie with more than 2,000 yards and in his second year set the GFL Rushing record with 3,089 rushing yards and 44 touchdowns and was the GFL MVP in 2010. His professional career spanned five seasons.
Cooper, an International Sports Science Association (ISSA) certified strength coach, and also Certified Applied Performance Enhancement Coach CAPEC through APEC one of the Most Distinguished Certifications for Athletic Performance which is led by another Southeastern Graduate Nike Master Trainer Bobby Stroupe who owns and operates APEC in Tyler, Tx and newly opened Ft. Worth.
Cooper has already trained many local athletes, with a growing number moving on to much bigger stages, like recent SE alum Franky Okafor.
“Franky is the first player we’ve groomed here that has gone on to the NFL. We prepared him for his Pro Day and his tryouts here. He was with the Arizona Cardinals, and is now a free agent. We helped Frankie get to where he was running a consistent 4.3 in his 40.”
And 2016 Durant graduate Sydney Youngblood, for whom Cooper also had high praise.
Sydney Youngblood
“Sydney Youngblood may be one of the greatest Oklahoma high school athletes ever. She’s a four-time Class 5A state golf champion, and is now playing golf at Oklahoma University. She trained here.
“She would come in prior to school twice a week on top of her regular golf schedule and while still working with her golf coach.”
The list includes Alex Brooks, Alexis Coxsey, Adonis Fox, Skye Lowe, Tyler Stovall and many more including current Southeastern football player, Kaymon Farmer.
“Kaymon Farmer’s story is interesting,” Cooper said. “Part of the reason we’re here in Durant is because not only is there a lot of talent here, but also there’s a lot of underrated talent here.
“I’ve trained Kaymon since he was 13 years old. He’s evolved in our #580Fast system. Kaymon came to Southeastern to play football as a receiver and he did it as a walk-on. He will leave Southeastern as the school’s career leader in receptions.
“He’s also our youth skills performance director. A lot of our young athletes come and work directly with him and he knows our system inside and out. He gives people hope that they can accomplish what they want.
“We give walk-ons and everyone the opportunity, energy and the tools they need to build the confidence they need to go be successful and Kaymon is a walking testimony of that and everything about him speaks C4.”
The term C4 gives the idea of an explosive, which is what Cooper said he wants to get across. But it is important to know what the four C’s stand for.
Southeastern’s Kaymon Farmer. Photo by Dan Hoke.
“We provide what we consider high performance training for athletes and adults. Our training goes beyond just lifting weights and running sprints. We really focus on the mental aspect of things.
“Our first C in the C4 is Commitment. If you’re going to accomplish anything worthwhile, you must commit to it first. A marriage or a college scholarship – the commitment comes before the action.
“Conditioning is our second C. Conditioning is just consistent action. Can you consistently build good habits and take good action? In the realm of lifting weights, you may lift one weight one week and come back the next week and be able to do a different weight or a greater weight.
“And Confidence, the third C, is bred there.
“And once you have confidence through consistent action and consistent habits, you get camaraderie throughout the body. Camaraderie is the fourth C and that is mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“And when you get all four of those components together, you can go out and be an explosive mother, an explosive husband, an explosive wife, an explosive athlete. Or you can just be explosive in the lives of the people around you and you bring life out in those around you through the training we provide here at C4. And it’s much bigger than just lifting weights or running sprints or anything just physically.”
The invitation to visit C4 is extended to everyone.
“Come on out! We have an open door policy for the most part with our schedule.
“You can email us at info@c4commit.com. Set up a success strategy session. Write us a message on Facebook. We have a lot of things going on right now and a lot of people in and out, but we can get you on the schedule. We take people and their schedules seriously.
“And we’re all about helping others. That’s what we’re here to do – to serve.”
You can visit the C4 site at C4Commit.com