Taciturn Cooper a rising star

Dean Juipe

Thursday, April 20, 2000 | 9:18 a.m.

Unlike most fighters, Melinda Cooper has yet to master the art of the self-serving oratory.

The 15-year-old Chaparral High School freshman is quiet and speaks softly, limiting her pronouncements to a single word or two. She's the type of person who is content to let her actions do the talking for her.

"She's shy," her trainer, James Pena, said of his protege. "She never brags. And she's a joy to be around. She's like a daughter to me."

Cooper, 106 pounds, spent last weekend in Midland, Texas, where she became the first female from Nevada to win a USA Boxing National Championship. She won all three of her bouts, the latter by first-round knockout, in raising her amateur record to 15-2 and adding to the national Golden Gloves title she won last year in Augusta, Ga.

"I was kind of surprised," she said of winning her division in the USA tournament. "But it wasn't so hard."

Cooper began boxing four years ago when she strolled into the Nevada Partners gym and ran into Pena.

"I was wondering what the place was," she said. "Then I was asked if I wanted to box and I said 'yeah.' "

Pena recalls the meeting and how he didn't realize Cooper was a girl because the hood of her coat was up over her head.

"There was a group of kids there," Pena said. "I asked them all if they wanted to box but no one really wanted to. Then I said to Melinda, 'How about you?' and she said she'd try it.

"It wasn't until the next day I realized she was a girl."

From those humble beginnings a star may have been born.

"She does everything my male boxers do, and more," Pena said. "She walks into train every day, right on time. She's dynamite. She's not a problem child and she does well in school. I wish everyone I worked with was like her."