Parents can have a great influence on their children when it comes to sports. For senior biology major Mason Cosgrove, the need for a stress reliever inspired her to take up soccer at a young age.
“My parents had me do ballet and gymnastics, and I didn’t really take to it,” Cosgrove said. “With soccer, it fit. I enjoyed every second of it. I would get mad at my parents if they were late home from work and I was late to practice. It was my outlet of stress growing up and how I made friends.”
Cosgrove lettered all four years of high school in soccer and was the player of the year in 2014.
“I didn’t really get a super competitive drive until I was around twelve, because I got put in a premier league,” Cosgrove said. “I think that’s where I got my love and drive for soccer.”
Cosgrove plays as a dual athlete for both the UD women’s soccer team and women’s lacrosse team.
“I found out that they didn’t have enough girls on the team, and I didn’t want to keep them from having a program,” she said. “I offered to sit the bench and it turns out I was able to actually help the team.”
Cosgrove played 21 soccer matches in 2015 which is a UD record. She also started in all 19 matches in both 2016 and 2017, and earned the team MVP in 2017. The time commitment and high volume of games played in both soccer and lacrosse has made her academic pursuits challenging.
“It’s really hard to manage your time, especially as a freshman,” Cosgrove said. “It’s hard to balance the rigorous school work here as well as the physical and mental exhaustion that you get from playing sports. You really don’t have time to do anything besides sports and school.”
UD women’s soccer head coach Lexi Stinson and women’s lacrosse head coach Destinee Johnson both have had a big impact on Cosgrove and her teammates, putting their players in the best position to excel on the field.
“We prepare in the locker room; we get ready with music, and then our coach comes in and gives us a rundown of the team we’re expecting to play,” Cosgrove said. “She tries to get us in the right mentality and mindset before we head out. Same thing goes with Coach Johnson. She tries to joke around with us to lighten the mood as well.”
Cosgrove has won several awards for soccer, including being named All-SCAC Second Team in 2015, chosen to the SCAC All-Sportsmanship Team in 2016 and receiving an All-SCAC Honorable Mention in 2017 as well. Cosgrove has enjoyed every minute of her distinguished athletic career at UD.
“During the soccer game my freshmen year, I scored the winning goal against Schreiner University, and I got player of the week for that which was really cool, especially as a freshman since I was super intimidated,” Cosgrove said. “I think traveling with the team contained some of my favorite memories. Seeing the younger players come up and the non-starters play was really cool as well.”
