All-Delco Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year: Season in Utah reaffirms Cooper Mueller’s connection to Radnor
RADNOR — Cooper Mueller knew his first stop upon returning home.
It was the spring of 2021, and Mueller had just finished his sophomore year. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing Radnor to remain in remote learning much of the year, Mueller’s parents decided the youngest of their three children would be best served relocating for school. The family had a house in Park City, Utah, so the Muellers decamped for Cooper to attend in-person classes.
A few months in the fall led to a basketball season, led to a spring of lacrosse, led to questions of if the promising athlete who learned the game in Radnor’s renowned and tight-knit community lacrosse program would ever make it back to his roots.
Mueller’s school year in Park City ended early, he and the Miners losing in the final of the Utah state tournament. When Mueller found out that his buddies at Radnor had made the PIAA final on the second Saturday in June, Mueller moved up his flight home, landed at PHL and, luggage in tow, bolted to West Chester East.
“I got there midway through the first quarter and watched that whole game,” Mueller said. “I stormed the field with all the Radnor kids after the game, hugging my friends, first time seeing them in a while. It was great.
“In the moment, I felt so happy for them. It was just pure bliss, and right after that, I was like, alright, it’s my turn. I was hungry for the next one.”
Mueller would get the next one. And the one after that. And a few other ones along the way.
Mueller found his sense of home that day and has spent the last two seasons collecting history there. Two Central League titles, a District 1 Class 3A crown and two state championships later, Mueller can add the Daily Times Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year to that list.
Joining Mueller on the All-Delco team are Raptors teammates Colin French, Michael Savadove, Luciano Chadha and Nick DeCain; Haverford School’s Ryan DiRocco, Ben McCarthy and Gavin Cooper; Ridley’s Owen Bosak, Tyler Gougler of Springfield, Marple Newtown’s Brian Box and Kris Henning of Garnet Valley.
All are first-timers after last year’s all-senior team. Box, Gougler, Mueller, McCarthy and Savadove were second-teamers in 2022. Box and Cooper are on there as sophomores, Gougler, McCarthy and Savadove as juniors. The All-Delco team is selected in consultation with local coaches.
For a defensive midfielder to be Player of the Year, to be regarded by Central League coaches with near unanimity as league MVP, is about as unprecedented as a states three-peat. D-middie is a non-glamorous, unheralded role; none of the flash of a pole, none of the glory of an offensive midfielder. It’s a position often noticed only when its occupant errs.
But Mueller subverted that. He made plays with such regularity as to demand attention. So often, midfielders would dodge at him in seemingly innocuous plays only for Mueller to relieve them of the ball and jet the other way. Mueller speaks of the position not just with pride but gratitude. Finding defensive midfield made him not just a Division I player but a blue-chip prospect.
Mueller had played some long-stick midfielder in middle school, but he’d mostly been an end-to-end middie with middling offensive punch. His year in Utah exposed him to a different brand of lacrosse, more wide open and centered on athleticism than the skill-focused Pennsylvania game. (Park City has won the last two Class 5A Utah state titles).
Restocking after the 2021 PIAA title, Radnor was humbled by La Salle in the 2022 opener. Something in the personnel mix wasn’t right, so coach John Begier approached Mueller with a new assignment.
“Coach Begier pulled me in and he was like, ‘you know what, I think I’m going to pull you at D-middie. I think we can get you on the field there a little bit more, and we can use you there,’” Mueller recalls. “It was a game-changer. I call it the ‘Begier effect.’
“That was the pivot in my lacrosse career, just turned me into a whole different player.”
Defensive midfield suited Mueller perfectly, with his 6-4 frame and defensive aptitude from the basketball court. The footwork carried over seamlessly, and Radnor’s reverence for defense means the position is afforded unusual import. Mueller and the unit dubbed themselves the SEALS. Said Mueller: “D-middies are always kind of a little screwed up in the head, a little jacked up guys, so we have our little team environment.”
The move led to a whirlwind recruitment last spring, in which Mueller followed a family legacy to Princeton. Other schools – bluebloods like North Carolina and 2023 national champion Notre Dame – pursued. But Mueller followed his dad, Kit, a basketball standout before a European pro career, and sister Ellie, a lacrosse and basketball All-Delco who plays lacrosse there. Cooper’s close friend (and 2023 Daily Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year) Jackson Hicke will play hoops there.
The commitment led to an historic senior season. He started on a basketball team that went 29-1, winning the Central League and District 1 Class 5A titles and reaching the PIAA quarterfinals. All told, Mueller’s teams went 99-11 in his junior and senior basketball and lacrosse seasons, including 52-4 in 2022-23.
Mueller helped Radnor to its third state title 2022, scoring 12 goals and 17 assists. He added 13 goals and seven assists this year, as Radnor won its fourth PIAA title, passing Conestoga and La Salle for the most since 2009. The Raptors went 23-3, falling to Episcopal Academy in the opener and Long Island’s Garden City.
They dropped the District 1 final to Springfield, 10-8, which led to an emotional reset. Mueller led a team conversation about its “states or bust” pressure and how that got the best of them. The soul-cleansing helped the Raptors make mincemeat of four states opponents, by a combined score of 47-9. The capstone was an 8-1 dose of revenge over the Cougars in State College, bringing them to 3.88 goals allowed per game to better the 2021 team’s mark.
Community has been at the center of Mueller’s teams, from playing for the memory of longtime youth lacrosse steward Peter Samson to the basketball team warding off private-school recruitment. Mueller has seen the world outside Radnor and returned, which only affirms how strong his bonds are.
“I changed environments for a whole year, and I come back here and I’m like, ‘these are definitely my boys,’” he said. “You spend a lot of time with some other people and maybe you notice some people you don’t like anymore, but I think all those guys that I spent lacrosse and basketball with this year, you just know that for sure, you’re going to love these guys.”
