Week Seven
Hey Blazer Fans! I was thinking long and hard of what to write about and my wife came up with a great idea…Why don’t you write about your helmet and how it came to be?
It all started when I the Blazers picked me up from the dispersal draft. I knew I had to come up with a pretty cool design to keep up with the other goalies in the league. I toyed with a few ideas like having popular Boston streets names and signs plastered all over the helmet, a Boston sport tribute where I would have all the Boston professional team logos scattered on the helmet or something to tribute the amazing history that Boston has. I came up with the concept after looking at a few helmet designs on the Internet. The one that stood out was one that had been painted to resemble an actual old school soldier’s helmet. I thought why not a firefighters helmet? It fit with our team name and I have always an infatuation with this profession. For instance, as a child, I would constantly ride my bike after fire trucks following them as far as I had to. If I weren’t a teacher, this is the profession I would have gone into.
I also thought it would be a good idea to pay tribute to the firefighters who put their lives on the line to save others. I see firefighters as a being part of a team, working together to achieve one goal. This commonality between lacrosse and this selfless profession is a perfect fit. When I ran this concept by my painter (Kyle Langlois of Auto Tattoo) he loved it. He loved it so much that he even went to a local firehouse and asked them to take several pictures of firefighters wearing their helmet with a haz-mask on. This gave him the inspiration to create a design that I absolutely loved. His realistic design captured everything a firefighters helmet would look like, all the way down to small hoses and knobs. Then he placed flames over the bottom of the helmet, which made it look like it was actually being worn in a fire. This guy is good!! To personalize the helmet, I used small features like having Boston Fire and my number on the plate of the fire helmet, my nickname and team logo on the back plate of the mask and of course a tribute to my family in stick people. The rest is history. I have had several complements about my helmet, but one has stuck with me. A Boston area firefighter and his family, who often comes down for post game autographs, shook my hand and he sincerely thanked me in recognizing firefighters. I am glad a simple gesture could bring a sense of pride to the Boston community.
Off to the All-Star Game with Rubs, Daws, Shoot & CP,
Coz
Week Six
February 12, 2011
Hey Blazer Fans! Sports and superstitions go hand in hand. For myself, this statement is extremely true. My routines are not just for game day. It typically starts the week before a game. As my wife can attest, preparations and the order in which they occur consume a lot of my time.
At the beginning of the week, I dedicate an hour to watching the game we just played a couple nights before, taking notes and breaking down our mistakes and goals I thought I should have had. This sets the mood for the week and allows me to mentally prepare and refocus. This night is also dedicated to watching the next opponents’ highlights and stats from their previous game. This is important because Tuesdays are my nights to work on areas I thought I could improve on from previous games. Without the opportunity to have team practices during the week, a group of 8 or 9 NLL players and local Jr. players get together to get a run and workout in. Even during this little shoot around, certain progression must happen which I will touch upon a bit later.
Wednesday nights are family night, but it’s important to start to eat right for the weekend. My wife or myself prepares a large meal with tons of vegetables and little carbohydrates. This acts as a cleanse for me and Wednesday is a great day to give your bowels a kick!
Thursdays are my heavy protein, opponent’s game film and get packed up for the weekend night. Dinner must be a high protein an carbohydrate night. I find that this replenishes the system and gets me ready for the weekend. After I put my 8 month old so to bed, I sit in front of the computer and begin to study tendencies of individual players as well as analyze the opponent’s offensive trends.
Fridays are travel day and practice day. I make sure I get a pasta meal in me, drink lots and lots of water and get a good night sleep.
Saturday is game day. It starts off with a big breakfast and typically have a shoot around as a team. Once again, I have a large pasta meal and take a little ‘to go’. My pre game nap can only be an hour long because if it’s longer I find my body sluggish. Quietly I leave my hotel room and go for my 25-minute walk of fresh area and a green tea. Before I leave to go to the arena, I call my wife to check in at home.
When I arrive at the arena, my true game superstitions take over. I drop off my bag in the dressing room and begin to set up my stall. I go to a new room to remove my suit where it’s always left foot starting my movements…left shoe off, right shoe off…left pant, leg right pant leg, ect. Going back into the dressing room I begin to put on my shoot around gear where my left foot routine continues. I tape the shaft of my stick always in the same direction, grab my gloves and go out to the floor to begin my warm up. My light warm up and stretch routine remains the same every single and it has been that way for as long as I can remember. After my light warm up and stretch I go into the dressing room by myself and begin to put on my goalie gear. Left side routine applies here as well. Everything must be left first! When all my gear is on I run out to the net and as I approach the goal do my three-post tap five times followed by 3 outside of the crease jumps on the left and right and finally positioning movements. This is my way of connecting to the net and preparing myself for the game. I do this routine or versions of it every time I approach my net. After the post taps, crease jumps and positioning, I have one of our players, Downing warm me up with routine shots. The order and timing in which these occur are crucial to my routine. This pre game warm up routine is repeated a second time during our official warm up and once more prior to the game.
Here is a quick glimpse into my weekly routines. Although these are not all them, they kind of provide you with the awareness of how important routines are to me and my lacrosse career.
Hope to see you on Saturday when we try to “Mask” the Mammoth
Coz
Week Five
February 5, 2011
Hey Blazer Fans!
I have been asked this question many times…how did you get involved in lacrosse and what made you become a goalie? So I thought why not make it my next blog.
As a young kid most of my time was spent playing hockey. Hockey was my life. I loved it so much that for a couple of years I played hockey all year round. When I was 9 years old, hockey was becoming boring and I needed to find another sport that was just as rough and just as exciting. All the sports that I tried previously were just not cutting it. That is until a player on my hockey team named Jason Metcalfe asked me if I wanted to play lacrosse. Never hearing of this sport before, he explained the basics of the game. It seemed like lacrosse was everything I was looking for. I asked my parents if that summer I could try lacrosse and thankfully they agreed. That summer I played for Mississauga Minor Tomahawks Novice C as a player and we won provincials. This summer was the best summer I’ve had playing any sport. I instantly fell in love with the game, as well as my parents. We loved it so much that the following summer the Cosmo family became advocates for a game they had heard so little of, that we starting recruiting fellow hockey players to the sport. Lacrosse continued to be a big part of the Cosmo family’s life as I grew through the Mississauga Minor system, Junior and now Pro. My Family still advocates for this great game, recommending it to anyone who will listen.
During my second year of Peewee, our goalie quit, which left our rep team high and dry. Our coach decided that the best way to solve this problem was for every player to try a game in net to see if they would enjoy it. When it was my turn in net, I seemed to naturally catch on to the movements required by a goalie. Most importantly I wasn’t afraid of the ball. We won that game and I only let in 4 goals. My coach praised me saying that I should be the goalie for the remainder of the season. I was hesitant to take on this role because I knew my dad wanted me to continue to playing as a player. Two or three games went by and everybody had their turn in net. The rotation thing was just not working and it was time for someone to step up to become the permanent goalie. I can remember my parents getting a call from my coach asking if I would be interested in being the goalie. My parents graciously declined the offer, even though I wanted to try it out once more. My parents were not attending the next game and my dad firmly warned me that if I went I net, I was staying there for the rest of the season. I did…and the rest is history. Sorry Dad!
See you on Saturday where we need an answer for the Rock,
Coz
Week Two
January 21, 2011
Hey Blazer fans,
Just finished hanging out with my little boy Cooper. Mom has brought him upstairs to put him down for the night. With the new addition to the Cosmo family, lacrosse routines have changed drastically through the week. I am still trying to figure out the juggling routines between work, lacrosse and family. It went from watching game tape three-times a week to now only one. So far, I feel as if it is a good balance, but as Coop gets older he is going to need more time and may have to adjust again.
The home opener went well. I thought we had a decent crowd and as always the noise made it seem like the Blazer dome was full. We started off slow, as we are still adjusting to our new teammates, trying to find chemistry. We also have to adjust our warm ups because these past two starts have not been up to the intensity that the Blazers are accustomed to. With this parody in this league, you can afford to give a team the upper hand early in a game. As a team, we will continue to learn what makes us a cohesive unit.
Although we highly depend on the ‘Big 3’, this game showed how important it is for other guys on our offense to step up. Cotter was big, scoring 3 huge goals. He was able to take advantage of the space and time Dan, Casey and Josh provided. It was awesome to see Mitch score as a defensive guy. You may not know but Mitch called this goal during half time. He recognized that Edmonton’s draw man was continuously lobbing the ball back to goalie and Mitch said he was going to go pick it off, a heads up play by #85. This goal was the swing of momentum that we needed to put Edmonton away. It was also good to see McNulty, our newest addition, get his first goals as a Blazer. Hopefully he can continue dropping one or two goals for us each game. Defensively, once again I thought we played a strong game, limiting Edmonton’s transition game and keeping many of their top shooters at bay. This will be the backbone of team this year and in the first two games they have proved to be outstanding.
This weekend is huge! Huge might even be an understatement. Toronto in my eyes is the team to beat. They are the most balanced team in our league. Coming off one of their best years since they won it all in 2005, this team is extremely good. Their offense is deadly, their defense doesn’t give you an inch and their goaltending is hall of fame material. This is a tough task and hopefully we are ready for this challenge. Then the next day back at home against Rochester…another great team. Although some may think with the loss of Jr. that their offense may not be as potent as it once was. With the addition of offensive rookie stud Jamieson and former Bandit Accursi, along with their already proven offense, this team has potential to do more damage on the score board then ever before. Lets not forget that Rochester has also picked up the leagues best goaltender, Vinc. This team is good!! It is always tough coming to game 2 on a back-to-back weekend. Not to mention the two teams we need to face. We need to find our legs for the first 10 minutes and try to take control.
Thanks Blazer Fans.
Home Opener
January 14, 2011
Hey Blazer fans!
Just finished putting our 7th month old, Cooper, to bed and now its time to switch gears and start thinking lacrosse. We are just coming off a great week enjoying a big win against Philly starting off the season on a high. The ‘Big 3’ did not disappoint!! They did a great job of putting the ball in the net and our secondary scoring was on the money. Our defense showed, why we are built around the concept of defense wins championships. Even more, we proved to ourselves that we can play up to the high expectations we and the organization has put on us. But that was all last weekend.
Thoughts now turn to an excellent opponent in Edmonton. Led by one of the best two-way players in the game, Brodie Merrill, last year this team was one goal away from possibly making it to the finals. This team is balanced from their goaltending to their coaching. They have all played in big games and know what it takes to spoil a home opener. As I sit here watching game tape from the Torornto game, it’s evident that we need to pay special attention to their first-rate transition game and try to make this team beat us 5v5. Offensively, they move the ball well and play the pick and roll game very well. Ward has an excellent outside shot, which we are going to have to respect. At the same time, we are going to have to keep this team out of the middle, limiting their scoring chances. This team is going to take all 23 players for us to win at home.
I’m excited to show the fans the altered 2011 Blazers. You can expect a high intensity game where arguably the top 3 offensive players in the game will wow you with highlight reel goals and plays. Players will go head first into the board for a ground ball. The boys throwing around their bodies as the opponents offense cuts through the middle.
If you enjoyed the games last year or if you are a brand new Blazer fan, expect one of the most exciting sporting events you will probably see. As always, we need you, the best fans in the NLL, to help us make the Blazer Den the toughest barn to steal a win in. With our incredible fans and the expectations of a championship city, this home opener is going to set the tone for the rest of the season. Can’t wait to see you and hear you there!