Fri, Nov 27 2009
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Published June 27, 2009 04:01 am - Roberta Cozad tried to make the Geneva softball team into a family in her two years at the helm. Family first With her daughter, Joslin, needing more of her time, Roberta Cozad has made the call to step down as Geneva softball coach BOB ETTINGER Star Beacon Roberta Cozad tried to make the Geneva softball team into a family in her two years at the helm.
After some careful consideration, Cozad is stepping away from the team for her family. Her daughter, Joslin, who will be a year old on Tuesday, was born with shoulder dissocia and her left arm was left temporarily paralyzed. She had surgery to move a nerve from her foot to her shoulder and March 20 and is required to undergo therapy two or three times a week. “I was missing therapy,” Cozad said. “We’d schedule an appointment and a game would get rescheduled and rescheduled again. “(The decision) was easy in that I knew what I had to do for my family. It was difficult to walk away from the program that we as coaches were trying to build.” The need of a mother to do everything she can for her daughter is Cozad’s only reason for walking away. “I want to focus on Joslin,” Cozad said. “I don’t want to look back and say, ‘If only I’d done this or been there for that, it would’ve made a difference.’ The doctors say on the far extreme, she might be able to lift her arm to brush her hair.” Cozad, who compiled a 20-27 record over her two seasons, regarded her tenure at Geneva as a success. “Maybe I’m wrong, but my philosophy is that I don’t think you have to have a good won-loss record to have a successful season. I know that’s old fashioned. I saw the kids grow by leaps and bounds from the first day of practice two years ago to the last day this year.” Those leaps and bounds included the Eagles reaching heights they themselves never knew possible, though Cozad and her staff believed they would. “(The best part of coaching) was getting the girls to reach goals they didn’t think were achievable. They would reach one of those goals and look at and be just shocked. I’d look at them and I say I’d known the whole time it would happen, just like the rest of the coaches, you just had to believe.” One of those goals was securing a sectional championship win, 1-0, over Northeastern Conference power Edgewood at the Warriors home field following a seventh-inning double by Jennie Avsec in 2008. “Those moments are special, not because I’m coaching and get a win,” Cozad said. “It’s the looks on their faces. You look at them and see the pleasure on their faces. That’s what it’s all about. You watch all the hard work and dedication pay off, like when they’re outside fielding fly balls in a parking lot in the snow. At the end of the season, the payoff is what it’s all about for me.” Cozad enjoyed the relationships she formed with her girls. “It’s such a cliché, but you form bonds with the kids. I’ll feel a little twinge of jealousy when I see them start to form those bonds with another coach.” 
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