A Franklin native is a martial arts World Champion.
Having earned a North American Sport Karate Association title last year, Cooper Rogers has been hard at work in 2025, traversing the globe in search of its most prestigious competitions. In Swansea, Wales, recently, he earned an international gold medal.
“I guess some highlights would be getting invited to Team USA, going to the training, and then obviously my trip to Wales and then winning over there,” said Rogers of his favorite exploits of the past year, culminating last month in the International Combat Organization World Championships. Competing across four days for Team USA in karate point fighting, which awards points for successful kicks and punches in two-minute rounds, Rogers earned a world title in the 13-15 age group.
“We had 14 competitors, so it was four matches,” he said. “The first two I was kind of [meeting] the point spread pretty good, and then the next two – the Semifinal and then the Final – ended up going to overtime. … Over there they would do if you were tied at the end of the two minutes, they would add a 30-second clock as your overtime. And then if you were still tied after that it would be sudden death, so the next point would win. … [in] the Semifinal I went to sudden death.”
After winning his first two matches handily, Rogers nearly met his match in the Semifinal, eventually defeating a Welsh fighter 11-10. With a 14-12 win over an English foe in the Final, Rogers earned an ICO gold medal.
“I was pretty excited,” he said. “It feels good, but at the same time that doesn’t mean I can just slack off now. I still have to come in and practice, or else I’m going to go back to being no good.”
After winning a North American title last year, the ICO World Championship was a crowning achievement for Rogers. But while it brought his 2025 to a fitting end, it was far from his only medal at the event.
“I kind of branched out a little bit because I did the 16-17 division over there,” said Rogers, 15. “I did open weight; I did my age and weight, which is 13 to 15 black belt, 60 to 65 kilograms; and then I did a weight class above that, which was 65-plus, 13-15. And then I did 16-17, 60 to 65, and also team fights. … [In team fights] you have teams of three and you’ll decide an order to go in, and so you’ll basically do normal rounds of what you’d do in a regular division, but the score is cumulative across matches.”
Competing normally in the middleweight class with fighters from roughly 132 to 143 lbs., Rogers also tried his hand against foes of higher weights and ages, earning four bronze medals along with the gold. In addition to the hardware, he’s also collected other mementos from around the world.
“Lots of the people that I didn’t know on [Team USA] were in my divisions,” said Rogers. “[Teams] will bring extra stuff that’s from your country, and you can do a jersey swap like in basketball – you’ll trade out jackets, you’ll trade out your sparring shirts, or whatever. … I’ve got an England sparring shirt, I’ve got England track pants and then I have a France track jacket.”
“The kid that got second to his first, [Cooper] has been talking to him, and he’s from England,” said Cooper’s father, Eric.
Upon returning home from Wales, Rogers settled into a well-deserved mini-offseason, ahead of another busy schedule next year. At various tournaments across the country, he’ll try to maintain his place on Team USA.
“I think they had around six [qualifying tournaments in 2025], and this was the first year the U.S. was part of the ICO worlds,” said Rogers’ mother, Meagan. “I actually went and represented [Team USA] in Georgia at a tournament; it was based on each division and it had to be advanced and they had to be 10 and up, and then if they placed first they got an invitation to compete with us on Team USA.”
Starting with the Mardi Gras Championship in New Orleans in February, Rogers will begin another busy year of competition, ahead of the ICO worlds in France next October. With help from his longtime coach Danny Antoine, Rogers will continue to hone his speed on the mat, as well as the all-important mental aspect of the sport.
“To be a world champion I’d say it’s all about what’s going on in your head, because sometimes you can be physically really good, and that was me for a long time,” said Rogers. “I was physically better than a lot of kids, but mentally I would get scared and not perform as good as I should have, and so it’s all in your head.”
“If you want to do it you’ve got to really go after it – that’s got to be what you’re thinking about all day long, and you’ve got to be training real hard. You can’t just say, ‘I want to be a world champion,’ and then not put in the work to do it.”
Between countless hours of travel, competition and training, an ICO gold medal makes the family’s sacrifice worthwhile. While his skills will no doubt come in handy during a fistfight, Cooper said self-defense is far from their only use.
“I would say it makes a lot of other stuff feel easier,” he explained. “When other people are complaining, it’s like, ‘Well, this kind of ain’t nothing compared to what I was doing in karate practice yesterday.’ It just helps you get through that type of stuff because in comparison, doing my school work is like, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to sit here in the air conditioning and type some stuff in.’ … And then it also gives you a feeling of, ‘I’ve done something that other people obviously can’t do.’”