Cooper Vest has an excellent memory.
The Dixie High senior remembers everything over the last four seasons: from his walk-off home run to win the 2017 3A state title, to what it was like preparing for his final high school baseball game against Spanish Fork.
He even remembers his class schedule from his first day of his freshman year at Dixie High.
"I was definitely late to the very first class of the day," Vest said. "It was Mr. Hanson's language arts class and I just was like, 'oh, here we go.'"
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That was just the beginning. Vest still had math, physical education and biology.
It was a rough start to Vest's high school career, but, much like his walk-up song by Robert Randolph and the Family Band, "Ain't Nothing Wrong With That." For the rest of his high school career, Vest was always there when the Flyers needed him.
From state title-winning walk-offs to sub 1.00 ERAs and batting averages over .400, Vest has staked his claim as one of the best baseball talents in Dixie High baseball history, as well as one that won't fade from Region 9's memory anytime soon, either.
It's all because he found his place, and always focused on the task at hand.
"I've lived for baseball," Vest said. "I think just how much baseball has meant to me the last three and a half years that I have here at Dixie, just because it made me a better person as a whole."
Finding his role
Vest's first day as a freshman at Dixie was difficult, and it's easy to understand why. He had just moved back to St. George from Spanish Fork.
He went from a one-story junior high building to a three-story middle school building at DHS.
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Getting lost at school wasn't the only thing Vest needed to navigate, either. He was also trying to figure out how to navigate the chemistry and makeup of the Flyers' baseball team.
"I moved in about two months before tryouts and I didn't know a single player on the team," Vest said. "I just had a lot of role-playing, and I was just feeling out what the team was like."
Building a team relationship from the ground up proved to be one of the things Vest loved the most about his time at Dixie. Even now, he'll get mission emails and wedding announcements from teammates when he was that freshman for the Flyers.
Those relationships weren't just forged by being teammates. Vest cultivated that during the time he put in to be a better player, bonding with fellow underclassmen and the talented upperclassmen while taking ground balls and pop fly balls year-round, whether it was rainy and 60 degrees in the winter or hotter than 100 degrees in July.
"It was just going to be really up to him in regards to being able to put forth the time and the effort to continue to improve upon those skills," Dixie baseball coach Danny Ipson said. "He did that."
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That freshman season culminated in a state championship, where Vest hit a 3-run, walk-off home run to beat Snow Canyon 6-4 in the 3A title game.
In his very first season in high school, Vest lived out a moment about which every kid who ever picked up a bat has dreamed. It was also a product of Vest playing the role he's been given, which is the part of baseball he loves the most.
"That's been my favorite part about baseball every year," Vest said. "Every individual team I've played on, it's just finding my role and playing my role as best I can."
That was somewhat of a struggle in his sophomore season, where Vest tried to do too much as a player. In reality, with players like Tyson Fisher, Hobbs Nyberg and Kayler Yates, Vest just had to get on base. One of those three, who all play college baseball, would drive him in.
Vest batted only .157 his sophomore year but made up for it on the mound with a pristine 9-0 record and a merciless 0.26 ERA in 10 appearances. Dixie finished 2018 with a second-straight state title and would play in a third straight in 2019.
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It speaks volumes when a program can deal in years as opposed to singular seasons. Players like Vest are why the Flyers were on the cusp of a three-peat, and it's hard to say that Dixie didn't have a great chance to be in the 2020 4A title game with Vest leading the lineup.
Vest was a role player with players like Fisher, Nyberg and Yates just two years ago, and was leading players like Reggie Graff, Hunter Knighton and Breiten Oaks this year.
"It takes a lot to get to a state championship of game," Vest said. "Only 40 guys get to do that every year in this classification, and only 20 of them get to be in that dogpile at the end of the year."
Building his own reputation
Snow Canyon's Reed Secrist is a little torn about seeing Vest leave Region 9.
To be the best, you need to beat the best, but Secrist's Warriors were knocked out of the playoffs in both 2017 and in 2019 by a Vest walk-off home run.
"It's good that we don't get to see him, but at the same time you want a crack at a kid like that," Secrist said. "I'm pretty sure Cooper would say it'd be great to beat the heck out of Snow Canyon again and hit another walk-off home run against us."
Dixie went 8-1 against Snow Canyon with Vest in its lineup, with that loss being one of only six the Flyers have taken over the last four seasons to Region 9 opponents.
Vest was great on both the mound and in the field. But that wasn't the only thing opposing coaches took note of when it came to Dixie's best.
"We'd just meet as a team before practice, and it was multiple occasions where I talked about Cooper Vest and a lot of the times it wasn't about his ability to be a great baseball player at all," Crimson Cliffs baseball coach Justin Abbott said. "It was more about the type of person Cooper is."
Abbott taught at Dixie High before taking the baseball coaching job at Crimson Cliffs, and saw how Vest could be as a person, first-hand. He said the person Vest could be off the field carried over into how he played the game.
Secrist agreed.
"He's shoved up our butts a lot, but he still kept his composure," Secrist said. "It's always fun playing against kids like that. You root for kids like that."
Part of what made Vest fun to watch was also how he made his love for the game of baseball visible.
He didn't just take the field, he would sprint to first base when the Flyers were on defense. When he walked up for a plate appearances, he would walk past home plate and took an emphatic practice swing before stepping into the batter's box.
Vest said he hoped to leave Dixie in a better place than when he started, and he tried to do so by setting an example. He wanted to show underclassmen how to treat their teammates, treat their classmates and appreciate everything while they can.
It's a sign of maturity beyond his years. It was also something Ipson noted. It wasn't just the excitement of playing the game, but Ipson said Vest had an understanding of how important it was to do the little things, like cleaning the field after a game.
"He was the last one there," Ipson said. "Seemed like I was always waiting for him so I could lock up the gate."
Finding his role all over again
It wasn't the way he wanted to end his high school career, but Vest knew in the back of his mind his pitching start against Spanish Fork on March 12 might be his last.
He didn't want to leave with any regrets as he took the mound at Flyer Field for what turned out to be the final time.
"That's exactly what I did," he said.
He struck out 20 batters for the first time in his career in a complete-game win, a kind of dominant performance that wrapped up Vest's career as he prepares to move on to play college baseball at BYU.
In his four years at Dixie, Vest batted .364, had an on-base percentage of .513, won 22 games on the mound and struck out 252 batters.
Ipson said there isn't any doubt that Vest belongs in the conversation as one of the best players to put on a Dixie uniform in the last decade, and expects him to have success when he takes the diamond at BYU.
"He has that competitive spirit about him that you have to have at that level," Ipson said. "Sometimes, that's the difference between being successful and not."
Still, moving on to play for the Cougars means Vest will have to start all over again.
A new team means new teammates, new relationships to forge and a new role to play. Vest is excited, and not just because he'll finally play for the program he's been committed to since playing on the U14 USA Baseball team.
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He'll get to hear stories from the BYU upperclassmen who went to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. He'll get to pick players' brains about what they did that worked, and what didn't. He'll get to be the young guy on a team again, and make some more brothers for life.
If Vest could leave any lesson behind as he moves from St. George to Provo, he hopes younger players know that singular moments move quickly but relationships last forever.
"Always be where your feet are," he said.
The Spectrum & Daily News would like to recognize all spring sport seniors whose final months were cut short during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If any high school athletes would like to be recognized for their respective athletic careers, send a name, photo and any athletic achievements to CKwiecinsk@thespectrum.com, or text it to (435) 414-3261.
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