Earlier this month, at the Frozen Four hockey tournament, in Boston, Mass, where the NCAA crowns its hockey champion, Oakville’s Josh Kosack was recognized for his incredible work in his University’s local community. Of all the players across the United States, Josh was picked as NCAA's Hockey Humanitarian of the Year.
“It started with a fist bump and ended with building a house,” says Josh, or that’s how the former Oakville Blade summarizes his journey from merely being on the Union College hockey team to creating a space for kids to go and escape the distractions of their challenges at home.
“When I went to Union, I had no plans of doing anything,” proclaims Josh, who found himself in Schenectady, New York’s Union College, where he intended to keep his head down and his attention on his studies.
However, upon his arrival at the prestigious school, his experiences in the greater community brought an abrupt end to his relaxed attitude.
Having grown up in the comfy confines of West Oakville, his privilege became immediately apparent.
“I’m pretty damn lucky,” he told Oakville News, “and then meeting all these kids, I’m like, things I took for granted, coming home for an after school snack, or, ‘oh I’m not doing well in math!’ so my mom will get me a tutor. Like, my parents would pay for private lessons, that kind of stuff that I took for granted,” and immediately Josh sprang into action.
The Fist Bump
It’s common to see kids and fans swarm around the tunnel to the dressing room as players step onto the ice. For many players, the razor-sharp focus that keeps them prepared for games allows them to see past the shouting kids and only see the glowing white surface of the rink.
For Josh, who dons the Captain’s “C” at Union, he’d already been around the block. After two phenomenal seasons with the Oakville Blades and another with Green Bay in the USHL, he could be forgiven for taking in the atmosphere and reaching out and connecting with the fans before he stepped out onto the ice.
There was no possible way that Josh could have known that Patrick Toner was attending his first hockey game. He reached out to the young man with Down's Syndrome and gave him a simple acknowledgment of support and respect.
The simple gesture made an immediate impact on Patrick. It made him an instant fan of not just Union College hockey but of his new hero Josh.
Patrick’s mom immediately reached out to the school’s President, David R. Harris, to praise Josh and the school for what seemed, at the time, like such a simple and insignificant moment.
That simple fist bump would be the start of something truly incredible.
From there, the spark was lit. Kozack connected with Will Rivas and his after-school program called Children of Our Community Open to Achievement (C.O.C.O.A.). Union College then began providing free tickets to the kids after seeing how impactful Patrick’s experience had been.
Things took off when Josh made his way down the road to the C.O.C.O.A. location.
Going to meet the kids at the C.O.C.O.A. House, Josh’s eyes were opened when he glimpsed into the lives of young people less fortunate than himself.
One of the first things that Josh noticed was that the after-school program is located three miles from Union College’s Campus and how it only made sense for the two organizations to build a stronger bond.
Will Rivas, the Director of C.O.C.O.A. House, Kozack describes as “a superhero,” going on to say, “He’s the most incredible guy I’ve ever met.”
Rivas went from a hardscrabble youth to guiding young people into making solid life choices.
“He got himself straightened out, and now he’s running this to keep these kids on the right path because he’s lived it, and he doesn’t want them to have to go through it.”
After meeting Rivas and the kids, Josh jumped into action and started a fundraising campaign across his social media channels. “we didn’t hold an event or anything!” he exclaims.
“Meeting all these kids really just put things in perspective for me about how lucky I was growing up; how other kids weren’t dealt the same hand in life.”
In the first year of fundraising, Josh raised $10,000, which was spent on iPads and tablets for the kids to assist in remote learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic. For 2021 he set an even higher goal to raise $20k.
When it was all said and done, Josh raised just around $50,000. It will help pay for the construction of a new teen empowerment center. The main homework area will be called Kosi’s Kids Lounge. After the renovations were all paid, $10,000 was spent on Christmas presents for children in the Schenectady, New York area. Whatever money was left was put into a fund to cover unexpected costs.
For Josh, the award is great, but his motivation was never to be recognized for what he was doing. It had everything to do with touching the lives of the people around him. Josh explains it was “leaving a lasting legacy on kids in that area, a community that I wasn’t familiar with, and now I go back and I call home.”
This isn’t the first time Kosack has been honoured for his contributions. Last year, he won the Derek Heins Unsung Hero Award, and the Eastern Collegiate Athletics Conference Student-Athlete of the Year this season.
He has just graduated and will move to Santa Monica, California, to begin his new job in Real Estate Investment. He says he’s already found a beer league to play in once he gets there and definitely wants to keep playing hockey, work schedule permitting.