ORANGE COUNTY BOYS ATHLETE OF THE YEAR 2024-25
Name: Cooper Stearns
School: Irvine
Year: Senior
Sports: Basketball, golf
Notable highlights: Cooper Stearns averaged 20 points, 13 rebounds and six assists a game for the Irvine boys basketball team.
That’s not his best sport.
Stearns is going to Stanford on a golf scholarship.
For his two-sport prowess, Stearns is the Orange County boys athlete of the year for the 2024-25 high school sports year.
Stearns also was named the Orange County Athletic Directors Association boys athlete of the year and the Pacific Coast Conference athlete of the year.
Stearns, who has a 4.2 grade-point average, was All-Orange County second team in boys basketball. He was selected to the All-CIF Southern Section Division 2A team.
Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40) shoots a free throw during the second half of a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game against Northwood at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40) shoots the ball under pressure from Northwood’s Justin Liu (21) during overtime of a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40), left, looks to pass the ball while under pressure from Northwood players during the second half of a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Irvine senior Cooper Stearns scored 16 of his 31 points in the first quarter of the Vaqueros’ 64-42 victory over Bishop Amat in the opening round of the CIF-SS Division 2A playoffs Wednesday, Feb. 12. (Photo by Martin Henderson) Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40) misses a possible game winning free throw during overtime of a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game against Northwood at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40), right, reacts after being called for a foul during the second half of a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game against Northwood at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40) reacts after winning a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game against Northwood at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) Cooper Stearns scored 26 points as Irvine defeated Sage Hills, 66-37, in a battle of the top two teams in the Pacific Coast League on Friday, Jan. 24. (Photo by Martin Henderson) Show Caption1 of 8Irvine’s Cooper Stearns (40) shoots a free throw during the second half of a Pacific Coast League boys basketball championship game against Northwood at Portola High School, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Irvine, CA. (Photo by William Liang, Contributing Photographer) ExpandHe could shoot from deep, if required. His 31 3-point baskets were third-most for the Vaqueros. His brother, sophomore Holden Stearns, made a team-high 51 3-pointers.
Irvine’s boys basketball team went 10-0 in the Pacific Coast League for the school’s first boys basketball league championship in 34 years. Stearns averaged 24 points a game in the CIF-SS playoffs as the Vaqueros advanced to the 2A semifinals.
Vaqueros coach Harry Meussner said Stearns had, at 6-5 and 205 pounds, the size and athleticism to excel in basketball but it was commitment and desire that was most responsible for the player’s success.
“For four years he put in countless hours of work,” Meussner said. “He was very serious and very measured on how he worked on his game.”
Irvine boys basketball was a struggling program until Meussner was hired to coach the program before the 2021-22 season, Stearns’ freshman year.
“We started as a bad basketball program,” Stearns said, “and we changed it into what Irvine basketball’s all about now. It was a very special team. I had so many good friends on the team, some of them friends since childhood.”
Stearns is the top-ranked Orange County senior by the American Junior Golf Association. He also is the No. 16 high school senior in California in the AJGA rankings and No. 205 in its national rankings of high school seniors.
In golf last summer, Stearns won the Los Angeles City Junior Championship, a third-place finish at the 2024 AJGA Clovis CVB Championship and a 20th-place finish at the 2024 AJGA Mizuno West Coast Classic.
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