Vikes' Cook excels

The flash of bright yellow that's visible atop the collar of Colton Cook's Viewmont soccer jersey doesn't look out of the ordinary, and if you happened to notice it, you'd probably just assume it was part of his uniform.

But the strip of yellow, which is actually the top of a second jersey, represents what Cook does every time he steps on a soccer field — he plays for his departed best friend.

Cook, a senior, originally wore the jersey a few years ago when he played on a team with his cousin and best friend, Chandler Roman, who tragically died in a motorcycle accident just over a year ago. Since his death, Cook has donned the yellow jersey beneath his team jersey as a way to pay tribute to his close pal.

Cook, who is enjoying a tremendous senior season and is arguably playing as well as anybody in the state, says he "always plays" for his cousin, a tremendous athlete who excelled in several sports and started for Davis High's soccer team the day he died.

"It just means everything," Cook said when asked to describe the indescribable — what it means to play for Roman.

"I always think of him every day. In my car, I have every picture, his ID, all of his school pictures from seventh grade up, all of his season passports to Park City or Snow Basin or wherever he went to. It's all on a keychain, and it says, 'Brothers for life.'

"He would've been my best man at my wedding," Cook added. "Calling him my cousin was an understatement. I hung out with him more than anybody — he was my brother."

Surely, one would think that Roman would be awfully proud to have Cook play for him. Without regard to stats or individual accolades — Cook has scored three goals but doesn't have any idea how many assists he has — the central midfielder has simply dominated the middle of the park to help lead the second-ranked Vikings to a perfect 7-0 start in Region 1.

Viewmont has been a boys soccer power for some time and has played in two of the last five 5A title games, but so far, the Vikings have reached a new level under first-year coach Dave Wigham, who was previously an assistant for Viewmont's boys team and has coached a number of state championship teams at Bountiful High.

And Cook has embodied that attitude. Playing in a possession-style attack that suits him perfectly, the center mid has gone from being a great high-school player a year ago to being one of the state's best players this year.

"We all kind of trust Colton because he's always been our playmaker on all the (club) teams that we've played on," said central defender Tyson Matern. "I think he's comfortable when he's comfortable with the people around him. We all just kind of feed off him, and I think that's given him a lot of success this year.