In Iowa's farm country, small towns rally around a native son in football's biggest game In the farm town where Cooper DeJean drew up football plays in elementary school and taught classmates to run them at recess, residents plan a huge party to watch the town’s native son in the Super Bowl.
Only a handful of athletes from the small towns of the Western Valley Activities Conference go on to compete in any sport at a major university, making DeJean’s path from Odebolt to the Iowa Hawkeyes and now the Philadelphia Eagles one of the most improbable ever taken in this part of Western Iowa.
Ever since DeJean began flying around the football field at the University of Iowa, “the support around this community has been just crazy,” Jason DeJean said.
DeJean's intense work ethic is a common thread that ties him to legendary athletes from other parts of the state such as former Iowa Hawkeye and WNBA star Caitlin Clark, from West Des Moines, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, from Burlington, who played in high school in Cedar Rapids.
On Sunday they’ll gather in the Odebolt Community Building for a Super Bowl watch party they’re calling the “Cooper Bowl.” Many plan to wear special Eagles green T-shirts printed up for the occasion that feature DeJean’s No.
