{"id":385310,"date":"2026-07-24T17:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/385310\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T17:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:21:10","slug":"cooper-beaty-after-big-sophomore-season-leads-plano-as-two-way-threat-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/385310\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Beaty, after big sophomore season, leads Plano as two-way threat \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cooper Beaty stood out at a 7-on-7 Tuesday, sporting bright green sneakers with his gray Plano<\/a> T-shirt and purple helmet and shorts.<\/p>\n

Beaty\u2019s a hard kid to miss.<\/p>\n

With his 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame, he hardly looked or played like a sophomore on varsity last fall. Beaty led Plano in tackles with 85, 12 for loss, and also caught two touchdowns and ran in one.<\/p>\n

A Plano defender (right) goes after an interception Tuesday, July 21, 2026, during a game in the 7-on-7 event at Kaneland High School in Maple Park. (Mark Busch)<\/p>\n

Beaty is a beacon of promise for a Plano team that kicks off its third season under head coach Kyle Tutt Aug. 21 at Ottawa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want a team that plays tough and energetic and with purpose. Cooper does that every day,\u201d Tutt said. \u201cHe\u2019s interested in being the best version of himself. Our kids see that and want to be like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaty and the Reapers relished competing in the 7-on-7 environment at Kaneland, two weeks before fall practice begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our first one of the summer, good seeing how we work together. I thought our team did very well,\u201d Beaty said. \u201cAs of right now we\u2019re a younger team, we lost a lot of seniors. Get that chemistry down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaty will be busy this fall.<\/p>\n

Tutt said he could line him at running back, tight end or receiver offensively. Linebacker, he\u2019s not leaving there on defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy defensive coordinator said \u2018I don\u2019t care what you do with him offensively as long as we have him on defense.\u2019 He will continue to be a voice over there,\u201d Tutt said. \u201cHe is physical, quick, knows where he needs to be, he\u2019s a playmaker. When you have kids like that, teammates rally around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaty, whose dad played football and basketball in high school in southern Illinois \u2013 Cooper gets the tall gene from him, and whose mom ran track at Plano, feels right at home at linebacker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a defensive guy since I was little, love playing defense,\u201d Beaty said. \u201cLinebacker, I just love the energy that you bring. The linebacker is the leader of the defense and I take pride in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll do whatever\u2019s asked on offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved to tight end, I love catching the ball and scoring touchdowns,\u201d Beaty said. \u201cHonestly whatever I can do to help us win, I\u2019m all for it. Getting the ball in my hands, doing what I can do to get the ball in the end zone. I trust in our head coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaty believed he lacked a little in the speed department as a sophomore, so he\u2019s worked to hone that skill.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s done speed work during the offseason at Acceleration Sports Performance, and also trained with Dr. Jeff Schutt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve improved tremendously, definitely shaved time off my 40,\u201d said Beaty, hand timed at 4.65 seconds.<\/p>\n

Tutt said that colleges, including a few Division I schools, have taken notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat goes to show his dedication, the support he has around him, the teammates that support him,\u201d Tutt said. \u201cHe is doing all the little things right, putting the time in the weight room. He\u2019s committed to playing at the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Plano<\/p>\n

Plano head coach Kyle Tutt makes a play call Tuesday, July 21, 2026, during a game in the 7-on-7 event at Kaneland High School in Maple Park. (Mark Busch)<\/p>\n

Tutt wants his Plano team to be disciplined and physical and that starts up front with the offensive line and defensive lines, units he believes will be team strengths. Anchoring the line is third-year starters Quinn Lyle and Niko Bandyk. Junior Amir Smith came up late to varsity last year and showed his potential.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a roster low on numbers, but Tutt likes what he sees as the Reapers look to improve on last year\u2019s 1-8 finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat excites us the most is the willingness to learn,\u201d Tutt said. \u201cWe have a good mixture of good returning experience and younger players competing. The energy has been strong, players taking more ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plano has missed the playoffs the last two seasons, but with playoff expansion this fall the opportunity for a return is greater this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur philosophy is to get better every day,\u201d Beaty said. \u201cWe are coming for the wins. We are not going to back down from anyone in our conference. We want to get to the playoffs and make a name for Plano.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cooper Beaty stood out at a 7-on-7 Tuesday, sporting bright green sneakers with his gray Plano T-shirt and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[135877,586,160,162,161,41688],"class_list":["post-385310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-fnd-kendall-county","tag-high-school-football","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-plano-preps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}