JACK OF ALL TRADES Meet Adam Cooper Kyli Dimmitt

“Jack of All Trades”

Meet Adam Cooper

Kyli Dimmitt, Reporter & Designer

“Adam, he’s like a machine sometimes, he just puts it in gear and goes,” Chris Miertschin, music instructor and band director, said.

Adam Cooper grew up southwest of Buhler. Cooper went to Buhler grade school and graduated from Buhler High School in 2018. He’s been in band and choir since the fifth grade. While attending Buhler High School, he was involved in pretty much all of the music ensembles he could be in - marching band, choir, jazz band, and Buhler Singers. After graduation he kept that tradition and is currently in many music ensembles offered at Hutchinson Community College. Cooper is currently involved in Jazz Lab Band, Concert Chorale, Wind Symphony, and Pep Band on campus.

Cooper claims he has “perfect pitch” and lives up to and proves these claims every day. He could think of a song and just start playing it on his trombone without any piece of music in front of him. He also knows when a song is being played in a different key.

“When I was nine years old,” Cooper said, “I had an old clock radio that I had set to a certain station. One day I noticed a song that usually played on it and it sounded a little different. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was at the time but a year or so later, I realized that it was being played in a completely different key signature.”

One may think Cooper is majoring in music based on how prodigious he is in the art, how many music classes he’s in and how long he’s been involved with music, but he is actually majoring in Automotive Technology.

Cooper really only started becoming interested in cars his senior year of high school. For his senior project he thought he would work on his grandpa’s 1985 GMC pickup.

Cooper said, “As I was working on it, I was thinking to myself, ‘I’d like to learn more about this pickup.’”

When Cooper started attending HutchCC, his friend who was in the automotive program said to him that it’s a great program and if Cooper was interested in it at all he should go

▲ Photo by Kyli Dimmitt ▲

Adam Cooper, Buhler, poses outside the Stringer Fine Arts building for a picture in his shop uniform.

for it. So he did.

“I got to bring my own truck in,” Cooper said, “And I got to learn more about it. The more I learned about my own car, the more I wanted to learn about other vehicles.”

Cooper is currently working on two projects - one is the 1985 GMC.

Cooper says, “It cracked cylinder heads last October when I was driving to the first choir concert of the year. I couldn’t get any further than Lorraine Street and had to take it to the nearest parking lot.”

The second project he’s been working on since July.

“It’s a three quarter ton work truck. I’m working on swapping out the motor. It’s my first engine swap so I’m learning as I go,” he said.

Cooper wants music to always be part of his life and that he plans to continue furthering his skills in music but automotive technology is where his career lies.

“The fact is that at the end of the day,” Cooper said, “When I get done with everything and I start up the engine and it runs or even runs better than it did before, I think to myself, I did this with my own two hands and head, I did this. I just think it’s the coolest thing that I can do that and bring something back to life.”

▼ Photo by Kyli Dimmitt ▼

Cooper takes time out of his day to practice his Trombone for pep band in the instrumental music room.

▼ Photo by Kyli Dimmitt ▼

This is part of Cooper’s uniform he was given for his automotive shop classes. He even has an embroidered name tag on the other side.

▼ Photo by Kyli Dimmitt ▼

Cooper works on his car, He needed to put motor oil in it before he left for the day.

MOONLIGHT MADNESS

Outdoor Movie Fun

Azia Colvin, Designer

Students set up their lawn chairs and threw out their blankets on the football field of Gowan’s Stadium on October 6. They gathered for a Moonlight Movie Night where they watched a scary movie on the big screen. The movie was voted on through a student survey and prizes were handed out during the event as well as hot chocolate, caramel appl sundaes, and popcorn. The outdoor movie allowed students to social distance and still have fun during the campus event.

Photos by Dylan Shah

Photos by Myranda Stika