ALAMEDA — Like so many other high school reunions, this one comes with a few extra aches and pains.

Amari Cooper and Teddy Bridgewater, one-time teammates at Miami Northwestern Senior High, will reconvene Sunday at the Coliseum — health willing.

Cooper missed Raiders practice Wednesday with a quad injury stemming from a hit the receiver took last Sunday in Pittsburgh. Bridgewater is still working his way through the league’s concussion protocol, but the Minnesota Vikings are optimistic he’ll be ready.

But both are looking forward to seeing each other again: Among the first things Cooper did after the game last week was to reach out to his old QB about their upcoming matchup.

“It’ll be great,” Cooper said Wednesday. “He was a good friend of mine in high school, so it will be great seeing him.”

It’s hard to believe that two future first-round NFL draft picks were in the same prep offense. (Bridgewater was the No. 32 pick last year; Cooper was No. 4 this year.) It’s even harder to believe that Miami Northwestern was so stocked with talent that Cooper once had a hard time cracking the field.

He was a junior during Bridgewater’s senior season, when the Bulls had four other future Division I receivers. Cooper played sparingly that year, returning punts and playing near the end of blowouts. In all, he caught 16 passes for 175 yards and four TDs — enjoying a nice rapport with Bridgewater.

“He was the same way he is now,” Cooper said Wednesday. “He was a really poised player. Really smart. He was just a phenomenal player in high school.”

Compared to Green

In turn, Cooper’s cameos were enough for Bridgewater to foresee better days ahead. The quarterback once compared Cooper to A.J. Green, the All-Pro for the Cincinnati Bengals.

“We knew that he was going to be one of the next great wide receivers from my high school,” Bridgewater told the Montgomery Advertiser last year. “It was just trying to give him a chance with all the talent that we had.”

It took another year, but Cooper emerged as one of the best receivers in school history, which is no small feat at his alma mater. Miami Northwestern receivers over the years have included Antonio Bryant, Brett Perriman and Tony Martin — all of whom went on to produce 1,000-yard seasons in the NFL.

“He was still one of the guys who made big plays for us in those big games,” Bridgewater told The Advertiser. “(We) had that chemistry where, on those deep routes, he was a guy who would always come down with the catch. Very fast, very explosive.”

Catching on fast

There are times this season when Cooper still looks as if he’s playing against high school defensive backs. He has 45 catches through eight games, needing a mere half-season to break the Raiders rookie record for most catches by a wide receiver. (Tim Brown had 43 catches in 1988).

Cooper and Michael Crabtree (47 catches) are also the first pair of Raiders to be on pace for 90 receptions at this point of the season since Charlie Garner and Jerry Rice in 2002.

“If we keep doing the right things in practice, then the right results will show up in the game,” Cooper said.

Cooper is significantly less prolific when it comes to word count. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder is almost comically quiet. It’s another trait he demonstrated back in high school.

The story goes that Billy Rolle, the former Miami Northwestern head coach, picked up Cooper and drove him to school every day. Over the course of three years, Rolle said he heard maybe 100 words from him.

Bridgewater, far more outgoing than his fellow Bulls alum, is also enjoying a solid season. Over his past three road games, he has totaled 772 yards, four touchdowns, one interception and a 95.3 rating.

Since Week 13 of last season, only five NFL quarterbacks have a better completion percentage than Bridgewater’s 67.2 percent.

The quiet demeanor is part of why Cooper remains beloved back in Coconut Grove, Florida. Gary Wilcox, who has known Cooper since the receiver was 5, said the kid’s serious demeanor set the tone on the playground and in the classroom.

When Wilcox watches the Raiders now, his favorite Cooper play isn’t any of the four touchdown catches: It’s the way he simply makes a catch and trots back to the huddle without a fuss.

“It puts me in tears, the way he carries himself. It’s a wonderful thing,” said Wilcox, the sports activities director at The Barnyard, an after-school program where Cooper honed his early football skills.

High on academics

Wallace Aristide, the principal at Miami Northwestern, still credits Cooper and Bridgewater for setting a new academic tone at what had been a sports-focused campus. Aristide said Miami Northwestern went from annually getting “F” and “D” grades in the state’s annual evaluation to becoming the first inner-city school in Miami to receive a “B” grade in 2011.

“People like Amari and Teddy were instrumental in helping us really change the climate,” Aristide said. “When you’re on campus — especially one like ours — the people with the most influence are the football players. Everybody looks up to them.”

With fingers crossed on injuries, Cooper is eager to see his old friend on Sunday. The receiver has some catching up — and some catching — to do.

Follow Daniel Brown on Twitter at twitter.com/mercbrownie.