By Jonty Ralphsmith
Over the Christmas period, the Star News’ sports team will be re-sharing some of the most popular stories from over the course of 2023.
Thank you for supporting our newspapers over the course of the year. We hope you enjoy the selection and have a wonderful holiday period, however you choose to celebrate.
“You aren’t who you are without the people you surround yourself with.”
Pakenham basketballer Cooper Lanting found out on 24 May that he would realise his childhood dream.
After years of hard work, weeks of waking up in the middle of the night to communicate with his prospective coach and months of cautious optimism, the Warriors youth league player had signed with Dawson Community College in the United States to play college basketball.
The 18-year-old posted that quote to his Facebook page 17 days later, along with a series of ‘thank you’ messages.
That belief applicable to many journeys of success and particularly pertinent to Lanting’s story.
At the end of year six, he boldly affirmed to his parents that he wanted to pursue basketball.
Everything thereafter was tailored towards achieving that goal.
Even prior to that, people in his life had unconsciously shaped chapter one of the Lanting story.
Now a Warriors youth league player, he serendipitously stumbled upon the sport when friends of his older brothers, Josh and Riley, encouraged them to play.
He became that young tacker knocking around at the stadium with a ball in hand and a dream – that memory remains lucid for both him and people around the Warriors.
He aligned that with a vision when he sat down with his parents on what became a sliding doors night in his career.
His first conscious step in that direction was when, barely into his teenage years, he was among 100 players to try out for the Rowville Sports Academy, which would have an intake of 12.
Identified as a talent, his schooling taught him the habits required to make it at the next level, and facilitated their application in an elite level environment.
He craved a professional basketball career and soon married that up with the attachment to each building block that was going to formulate his narrative.
“Rowville was amazing,” Lanting said.
“The coaches have all played a high level so I was going to school everyday and being influenced by players who have done what I want to do, and that really had an effect on all of us.
“Fridays were shooting days, Mondays were athletic development, we were encouraged to get into the gym at recess and lunch.
“They were systems that just worked, so going to a sports school every day surrounded by people who are there for the same reasons you are really helped and focused my mindset.”
That work ethic is now positively inexorable with the emerging star who is said to take off from basketball training for the gym even if he doesn’t arrive until 10.30 at night.
Current youth league coach Braden Venning has seen Lanting’s growth for almost a decade.
“You could tell there was clear potential in him,” Venning said reflecting on him as a junior.
“He lived and breathed basketball, so it’s not really a surprise this is happening with him.
“He’s tenacious. He’d just get after it. He was this really blonde kid throwing himself around the court getting after every ball, so he’s always been a kid on the radar.
“He’s a bull at a gate. You give him feedback and things to work on, and he does it.
“He’s quick and agile he’s long so he fits into lanes well.”
A shooting guard for Venning last year, frustration would have emanated for some players about being starved of opportunity in a lineup dominated by league MVP Michael Johns.
If anything, he salivated at the opportunity to share the court with such a high quality teammate, as well as others including Dylan Jenkinson and Josh Norton who he grew-up idolising.
It’s seen him develop into the main man for Venning this season, averaging a team-high 17 points in 2023.
“This year he came in knowing what was expected of him,” Venning said.
“This year he has clearly come in and listened to the coaches’ advice and turned himself into an elite shooter.
“Last year he could shoot but it would never translate into a game. This year he’s confident, taking his opportunities and shots when they’re there and he’s improving defensively.
“For him, individual stats are nice but he just wants the team to win. He’s happy to do the little things, he’s constantly looking to improve and he completely buys into the culture and team success.”
That level of maturity emerged as a 15-year-old when he missed a Pakenham under-16s firsts team he thought he was certain to make.
Seen as too small and not yet ready for the increased competitiveness, those around him drew on the positive: instead of being an auxiliary firsts player, he could be a leader in the seconds, and he listened to those voices.
He won MVP that year.
“I was really embarrassed because I made the Victorian teams in under-14s and considered myself good and all of a sudden the Warriors released the team lists and I was in the twos and I was like ‘what?!’” Lanting said.
“That whole week I took off school because I didn’t want to see my friends who went to Rowville and made the ones.
“(Seconds coach) Matt Darcy pulled me aside after making the twos team and said ‘Cooper I think we both know you could have made the ones but I’m glad you’re in the twos team and can be a threat and a key player.’
“Without that season which changed my ways of being a leader and vocalist and being a guy who can do things other than just scoring, I might not have got the opportunity in Braden’s team last year.”
After being 5’5” in that year, he returned as a top-aged player with 6’0” of size which saw him transition from a point guard to a shooting guard/small forward.
Speaking less than three weeks after finding out the news, he has rationalised it, intent that this will be an early chapter of his journey.
The 191cm player is pursuing the National Junior College Athletic Association pathway.
That means it’s a two-year commitment, and will give him more game time early on in his college career than through the typical National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) pathway, thus enabling him to pursue professional opportunities at a younger age.
The stimulus, encouragement, support from his network which fostered an environment for him to thrive has him ready for the immediate challenge, 14,376 kilometres away in Montana.
When he takes off, he’ll be entering the country for the fourth time, having vacationed there throughout his youth with Disney-loving family.
Perhaps this tale of a little boy with a can-do attitude should be given to Disney script writers because it has the tropes of a fairytale.
