Cooper DeFatta Named Player of the Week

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As a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, Loyola quarterback Cooper DeFatta is a shoe-in to attend college, but getting into his school of choice brought on plenty of nerves.

"Well, I'm sure any high school senior can tell you it's pretty stressful. You send it all your stuff and then you just have to wait for a while, but I just found out at the beginning of this last week that I got accepted into (Texas) A&M and it was just a huge relief because that's been my dream school since I've been a little kid."

Both of his parents went to Texas A&M and he says their guidance was instrumental.

"They've pushed me since I've been a little kid. They always said, 'you want to get good grades, you want to get good grades, you want to get good grades,' and now that I've had to go through the college application process I can definitely see why. It makes it a whole lot easier once you get to this point."

DeFatta plans to major in Mechanical Engineering while in College Station and says a childhood toy laid a foundation, brick by brick.

"When I was a little kid I used to love playing with LEGOs and it's just kind of grown from there. I was able to take an awesome engineering class while I've been at Loyola and that just kind of kept pushing me to towards engineering."

While his career choice is still under construction, DeFatta believes he’ll be built for success.

"I really don't know exactly what I want to do yet, but Mechanical Engineering encompasses a lot of stuff. Definitely engines, airplanes, even just this microphone right here. They build just about everything."

Cooper is one of the nominees placed on the Nation Football Foundation McNaughton Chapter's Scholar Athlete Watchlist.  Each week KTBS will select an athlete from the list and award a scholarship to one of the fourteen players of the week at the end of the season.