Cooper Coats (born 6 October 1996) is a Canadian

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and sevens player, who plays for the Canada Sevens national team and Halifax Tars RFC.

Career

He began playing rugby at 16 years old at

Citadel High School Citadel High School is a high school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The school opened in September 2007 on the site of the former Bell Road Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. Its location bordering Bell Road, Trollope Street, and Ah ...

, he was an originally a

soccer player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

but his

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

program required another sport. He decided to give

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

a try. Within six months he was playing for Canada's under-18 side. He went on to feature in the Canada under-20 side before attending

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly Undergraduate education, undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some Postgraduate education, graduate programs at the master's level and one at the Doctorate, doctor ...

on a soccer scholarship. He played club rugby during the summer with the Halifax Tars and Nova Scotia Keltics and in 2017 was drafted into the senior

Atlantic Rock Atlantic Rock, also known as The Rock, is a Canadian rugby union team based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team plays in the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) and is intended to draw most of its players from the rugby unions of Ca ...

team for the

Canadian Rugby Championship The Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) () was a Canadian amateur rugby union competition, partially funded by the World Rugby. It was the highest level of men's domestic rugby in Canada. Four representative teams from regions across Canada compete ...

. Coats played for the

Ontario Arrows Toronto Arrows R.F.C. was a rugby union club based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that played in Major League Rugby. The Arrows team was an independent off-shoot of the Ontario Blues provincial programme and was funded by a group of private invest ...

in their spring exhibition campaign in 2018. He led the Nova Scotia Keltics to an

East Coast Super League The East Coast Super League (ECSL), is an ice hockey league in New South Wales, Australia. The league was formed in 2002 by New South Wales Ice Hockey's amalgamation of the former Junior and Senior A leagues. It is Australia's second highest lev ...

title and then topped the

in scoring. He made his debut for the

Canada Sevens The Canada Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held every March. It is one of the stops on the World Rugby Sevens Series, and is played the weekend after the USA Sevens. Canada secured a four-year deal to host to event from the 2015� ...

team traveling to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

for the 2018 South Africa Sevens. He made his debut for the Canada national team in a 68–12 loss against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

where Coats scored his debut try.

References

External links

* * *
Cooper Coats
at

Rugby Canada Rugby Canada is the national Sport governing body, governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amate ...

* * * 1996 births Living people Canadian rugby union players Canadian rugby sevens players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Canada international rugby union players Rugby sevens players at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Canada Rugby sevens players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Halifax, Nova Scotia Atlantic Rock players New Orleans Gold players Rugby union players from Nova Scotia {{Canada-rugbyunion-bio-stub