ODEBOLT, Iowa (AP) — In the farm town where Cooper DeJean drew up football plays in elementary school and taught classmates to run them at recess, residents plan a huge party to watch the town’s native son in the Super Bowl.
The Philadelphia Eagles defensive back has lifted spirits in Odebolt, Iowa, a town of 920 people once known as the Popcorn Capital of the World.
Residents say he’s also inspired children in the four towns that make up the local school district in this remote region of Western Iowa, where he played quarterback in stadiums carved out of cornfields.
“People want to root for him because of how he carries himself,” said Larry Allen, who was DeJean’s high school football coach.
“Cooper is so unassuming, and he doesn’t talk about himself, he doesn’t showcase himself. He’s a very humble young man, and he did most of his talking on the field of play.”
On Sunday fans will gather in the Odebolt Community Building for a Super Bowl watch party they’re calling the “Cooper Bowl.” Many plan to wear special Eagles green T-shirts printed up for the occasion that feature DeJean’s No. 33. It's also a birthday party for DeJean, who turns 22 on Super Bowl Sunday.
“The whole town is just ecstatic,” said Cory Duff, who owns The Bolt Drive-In, a local restaurant.
“I would say it has brought a renewed energy back to the community,” he said. “It has definitely uplifted everybody around here.”
Duff said he’s a die-hard Denver Broncos fan “and I even bought his jersey.”
“Everybody around here has their own team, but whenever the Eagles are playing, everyone’s watching,” Duff said.
DeJean’s father, Jason, said he was touched by a video that school employees made featuring dozens of children and teachers wishing his son the best in the Super Bowl.
“They all got on the playground and spelled out ‘Cooper,’” Jason DeJean said. The nearly 5-minute video is infused with cuteness, with one scene showing elementary school students making hand motions to imitate birds as they sing the team's fight song, “Fly Eagles Fly.”
Ever since DeJean began flying around the football field at the University of Iowa, “the support around this community has been just crazy,” Jason DeJean said. “Now you see Eagle jerseys and 33 and all that stuff. It’s great to see, and you couldn’t ask for any more support than what this community gives.”
After winning back-to-back state football championships in his final two years of high school, DeJean went on to a stellar career at the University of Iowa where he was named an All-American. In the 2024 NFL draft, the Eagles selected him in the second round.
Only a handful of athletes from the small towns of the Western Valley Activities Conference go on to compete in any sport at a major university, making DeJean’s path from Odebolt to the Iowa Hawkeyes and now the Philadelphia Eagles one of the most improbable ever taken in this part of Western Iowa.
“It’s not very often a kid from a town of less than 1,000 people gets to go to the Super Bowl,” Duff said.
DeJean's intense work ethic is a common thread that ties him to legendary athletes from other parts of the state such as former Iowa Hawkeye and WNBA star Caitlin Clark, from West Des Moines, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, from Burlington, who played in high school in Cedar Rapids.
DeJean's path to the Super Bowl has cast a spotlight on Odebolt, but it was the dirt he played on that helped put the town and its surrounding farmland on the map.
A two-lane highway winds down from the Loess Hills on Iowa’s western edge, past giant wind turbines and fields of corn and soybeans to get to Odebolt.
A 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of the road, Iowa Highway 175, connects the towns that send students to DeJean’s old high school: Battle Creek, Ida Grove, Odebolt and blink-and-you-miss-it Arthur, population 222.
In this wide-open area, farm animals outnumber people by a wide margin. The county that includes Odebolt is home to about 46,000 cattle — more than four times the human population of 9,800, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The rich, black soil surrounding Odebolt was seen as ideal for growing popcorn and led Chicago's Cracker Jack Co. to choose it to supply the popcorn for its Cracker Jack snacks.
Cracker Jack Co. Executive Vice President E.R. Shields praised Odebolt’s early pioneers, who created the town from wilderness. And their descendants were “shining examples of strength, fortitude and foresight that has made your community ‘The Popcorn Center of the World,’” he wrote in 1938 in the Odebolt Chronicle.
Residents who know DeJean say they see that same strength and fortitude in him. They speak highly of his work ethic in sports, but also his personality traits in life.
“The kid is insanely humble, and he’s not going to forget where he comes from,” Duff said.
FILE - Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean (3) in action against Rutgers during an NCAA college football game, Sept. 24, 2022, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
FILE - Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean (33) takes down Washington Commanders wide receiver Jamison Crowder (80) during the NFC Championship NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr., File)
FILE - Philadelphia Eagles' Cooper DeJean walks off the field before the NFC Championship NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
