Gryphons land Cosby
The Guelph Gryphons football team wasn’t messing around when it welcomed Emmett Cosby to its program Thursday afternoon at Notre Dame.
On hand to witness the Grade 12B student signing his letter of intent to play for the Ontario University Athletics team were four members of the coaching staff and Niagara recruiter John Casasanta.
“It says a lot about him and the strength of the program at this high school,” Guelph offensive line coach Mike MacDonald said. “One of our quarterbacks (Marshall McCray) had a successful career here and he has a hugely bright future with us. Coming from a good football program, he has a good work ethic and he knows what it takes. And he has been a winner. We want winners.”
Guelph likes plenty of things about the 18-year-old St. Catharines native.
“I like his film, he likes to finish, he’s aggressive, he can run and I want all my offensive linemen to be athletic. He loves to lift weights which is a huge part of being a successful offensive lineman at the next level,” MacDonald said. “All of those things together made me like what I saw. He has been up for a couple of visits and all of the other coaches were very impressed with his character. He’s a polite young man, hard working and a good teammate and from what I know of him so far he is a good person. We need to recruit not just talent but good people.”
The 6-foot-4 250-pounder only started playing football in Grade 11 at Eden.
“I really fell in love with it my senior year so I knew I wanted to make a push for post secondary football. I knew that if I wanted to do that I had to transfer and Notre Dame just seemed like the right spot to go.”
He received no interest from OUA schools until this past season.
“I was hoping for something and it was our second game when coach Casasanta came up to me and he said, ‘Wow. I saw you and you are a big guy and we would love to have you.’ From there, it was continuous reaching out to schools and schools reaching out to me.”
He described Thursday as a dream.
“When I was younger, my sport was soccer and I always thought that is what I wanted to go to university for. As I got older, I got bigger and I realized football was it. I never thought I would be able to play a university sport and today it is starting to happen.”
The future political science major felt Guelph was an easy choice.
“They hit all the markers for me. They have great education, a great campus and I love talking to all their coaches and getting to know them. They treated me as a priority and that was definitely something that I was interested in.”
He was humbled by the amount of Guelph coaches on hand Thursday.
“I was wondering if it was just going to be local coach Casasanta or if more were going to come down. Seeing four coaches shows that they have hope in me, for sure, and they see me as someone who is going to be contributing to their program.”
MacDonald knows Cosby has a lot to learn.
“We feel highly about him and that’s why we brought him in. There’s opportunity right now because our offensive line is fairly senior. When they move on, there has got to be guys ready to go. He will be developing his first year and learning.”
Next to quarterback, playing offensive line might be the hardest position to learn at post secondary level.
“It takes longer to develop an offensive lineman compared to almost any other position. It is so cerebral and there are so many things you have to learn,” MacDonald said.
Cosby is ready for that challenge.
“Getting my weight up is a big priority because I am light for that position but I am looking forward to learning as much as I can. My first year I am going to be trying to compete at my best and if the opportunity comes to play, I will hop on it. I am going there to take everything in.”
He can’t wait to continue his football journey.
“I am looking forward to Guelph as a community. They told me a lot about how it is tight knit and in political science I am really looking forward to learning about people because I want to be a police officer after school. Learning how people act and why they act will be big for that job.”
