Pahrump’s Little League opens season in style

It might not have been the hero’s welcome he received when he came home from the hospital after being shot in the line of duty last year, but Bryan Cooper received a pretty cool honor Saturday from the Pahrump Valley Little League.

It was opening day for the league, which of course did not have a 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the PVLL decided to go all out to celebrate the start of a new season this year. Part of that meant bringing Cooper, who at the time of the incident was a five-year veteran of the Nye County Sheriff’s Office, to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Not that they told him about it ahead of time.

“I got a text the night before from our lieutenant, the SWAT commander, and he was asking people to show up to the park and come in SWAT gear because they wanted to do a first responders thing,” Cooper said. “Once I got there, I saw a couple of people that I knew and they said they want you to throw out the first pitch, and I said no.”

The shooting occurred when Cooper and his partner, fellow detective Logan Gibbs, who were assigned to the street crimes, narcotics and gang unit, went to the residence of a suspect in a stabbing during a robbery attempt. The suspect, who had a criminal history, came to the front door and fired at Cooper with a shotgun.

He fired three rounds and was standing over Cooper when Gibbs came from around the house and fired 13 times, hitting the suspect 12 times. Cooper himself was able to return fire but was not successful in stopping the suspect, and he wanted Gibbs to get some of the attention that was directed toward him on opening day.

“I wanted them to get Gibbs to throw out the first pitch,” he said. “He was my partner who saved my life that night. Have Gibbs throw out the first pitch, I said. He’ll throw 12 strikes out of 13.

“I just want him to get the same recognition I have.”

That Cooper is able to joke about that says a lot, as he is still in pain a full year after the shooting. He said he completed the physical therapy part of his recovery Thursday, coincidentally the one-year anniversary of the incident.

“I was in bed for two-and-a-half months, couldn’t walk,” Cooper recalled. “They said in the beginning it was going to be 12 months to 18 months of recovery. I’m a physical guy, I went back to the gym in May in a wheelchair. It was more for like the mental side of it.”

Cooper said he was doing well mentally, except when he thinks about the pain. He said thinking about the recovery process, the pain he has been through and the effect the shooting had on him and his wife have been the roughest parts of his ordeal, even more than recalling the night of the shooting.

“I’m back to light duty-work,” he said. “It’s still been painful. About a month ago some of the pain started dying down. It’s been a long road, and I want it to be done.”

For Pahrump Valley Little League board member Renee Jones, one of the best parts about honoring Cooper was that it was a surprise.

“We had him in a SWAT vehicle, and he didn’t even know what he was going to be here for today,” Jones said as the Majors opened their season later that morning at Ian Deutch Memorial Park. “He got teary-eyed when he found out he was throwing out the first pitch.”

Even getting the ball to Cooper was a major event.

“The helicopter — Mercy Air — donated their time,” said Jones, who is the concession manager for the PVLL. “They dropped the ball for the first pitch.”

And Cooper had at least one thought that almost everyone in that situation has, at least briefly.

“I was nervous about making a bad throw, especially in front of the town,” he said. “I feel like the community has always been behind me. They’re real supportive here.”

Another thing in his favor Saturday was his familiarity with the park. The 2004 Pahrump Valley High School graduate has been there often in the past.

“I used to coach Little League at the same field,” Cooper said. “I played baseball there when I was a kid, and I coached for about five years, maybe 2005 to 2010. I coached two different teams, there or four hours a night, all day Saturday, worked the snack bar. Asking me to do that was a privilege. I felt at home there. You see familiar faces all the time.

“I’ve been through at least five opening ceremonies, and that was pretty spectacular with the helicopter and everything.”

“People were saying it’s the best opening day in 15 years,” Jones said. “It was great that we included the community, and another thing that was really good was that we honored the veterans and first responders. Because of COVID we couldn’t have a season last year, so we kind of went over the top this year.”

Going over the top meant a very detailed schedule that included everything from welcoming the parents at 8:03 a.m. to readings of the Little League Pledge starting at 8:45 a.m. to thanking veterans (8:52 a.m.) and first responders (8:54 a.m.).

Another reason to celebrate a little more this opening day is the outstanding success the league has had in bringing people on board.

“This year we were able to have three coaches and one manager, where last year we had two,” Jones explained. “We have more than 160 volunteers that signed up to help the teams — coach, manager, snack shack, all of the above. Everybody wanted to help this year, which is great.”

There even was an increased number of people lining up to be the most-hated person at any baseball game.

“We have 18 umpires,” Jones said. “Usually we only have six. They took a class. Mark Broedling is our umpire in charge. He held two classes the past two weeks to teach them all, and they all came. A lot of them are teenagers.”

Broedling and league president Richard Swingle were on the bases for the opening game of the Majors season, but there are plenty of games to come.

“We have 22 teams total, 313 players,” Jones said.