Edina senior Cooper Anderson still pictures the scoreboard from his team’s 2024 Section 6 championship loss to Eden Prairie. The defeat helped fuel Anderson’s offseason work as he vowed never to repeat that feeling in his Hornets career.
The 6-foot-4 offensive midfielder, who will play Division I lacrosse at Providence College next spring, demonstrated his prowess as one of Minnesota’s purest playmakers in a standout senior season. Just three years after Edina finished 5-9 in 2022, Anderson led the Hornets to their first state championship. That helped Anderson become the Star Tribune’s All-Minnesota Player of the Year in boys lacrosse.
“These last four to five years have been my most fun years playing lacrosse,” Anderson said. “We’re playing at such a high level and winning a lot more games.”
Anderson first picked up a stick after walking away from baseball as an elementary schooler. He fell in love with the sport and later joined the area’s top club squad, Team Minnesota.
Anderson’s club experience gave him a glimpse at the speed of East Coast play. He couldn’t get enough, training tirelessly to compete among the nation’s top prospects. The extra hours paid dividends, with Anderson receiving several Division I offers as a junior and breaking Edina’s career points record as a senior.
Ultimately, the opportunity to play at Providence proved too golden to pass up.
“I love Coach Bobby Benson,” Anderson said. “The campus as a whole; that place is so beautiful. I wanted to play at the highest level, and Providence gives me that in the Big East, one of the hardest conferences in college lacrosse.”
Five years ago, Edina coach Andy Lee included his current’s team’s three top scorers — Anderson, attacker Drew Stocco and attacker Eli Busse — as eighth-graders on varsity. They’re seniors now, and their communication can go unspoken.