On April 5, 2002, a new era began in Adelphi sports when James Cosgrove was named the 11th head coach in Adelphi history. Coach Cosgrove comes to Adelphi from Endicott College, which is a small division III school just 20 minutes outside of Boston. Endicott was Cosgrove's 1st coaching job and won the school 2 conference championships out of the 4 years, which he was there. As a player for St Anselm (1984-1987) Cosgrove actually played Adelphi, however this was his only link to the school before the coaching job.
In his 5 months at Adelphi so far coach Cosgovre says he loves the school. "Its been a great situation for me, the people here are great and the kids on the team are fabulous." The Coach is also happy with the recruiting which was done on the team, and the sports program here at Adelphi. "Everybody's told me about the challenges and the expectations" said Cosgrove when asked about the Adelphi tradition of excellence, however he is more concerned with his own expectations and his own challenges for this years team.
Two years ago, under the leadership of superstar Ryan McCormick, and the guidance of new coach Jim Ferry, the Adelphi Men's Basketball team went undefeated and won the NYCAC tournament. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that that was one of the most exciting seasons in Adelphi sports, in years. Last spring however, the Jim Ferry era at Adelphi came to an abrupt end as coach ferry left to become the head coach at LIU.
With coach Ferry out of the picture, the slot was now open for head coach on the Panther squad. This is where Cosgrove comes in. With the losses of key leaders like Eddie Williams and Kendell Craig, coach Cosgrove has placed the leadership roll on Tony Kellman (#10) and last years leading scorer Wayne Nelson (#23). Kellman is a great defensive leader for the team, and Nelsons all around talent is something that coach Cosgrove hopes will motivate the team and help players like Thomas McCormack (#20), Juma Allen (#50), and Dwayne Thompson (#33) step up from their smaller roles on prior teams, and become go-to guys. This is the "nucleus of the team" along with the younger players who are going to help build this team into a competitive force, that "comes in every night to compete, and by the end of the year we are able to put ourselves into position to play for the conference championship, which is what Adelphi has been doing for the last 8 or 9 years."
When asked what they key to this teams success would be, coach Cosgrove replied, "I think the key will be 2 things, how well we defend and how well we come together as a unit with our 7 new players." No one team will be getting any special treatment from Adelphi. "Night in and night out we are going to have to be preparing for each game we play," says coach. Their non-conference schedule this year is extremely tough with Bentley, Merrimack, and UMASS-Lowell, which are 3 of the hardest teams in the North-East 10 conference, along with a difficult line up in the NYCAC conference as well. The Panthers season starts on Friday November 22nd at the Bentley tournament. Their 1st home game is against Bridgeport on November 26th. With a coach whose excited to be where he is, bringing in an attitude to give 110% night in night out, there's no telling what the Panthers will be capable of this year. "Everybody's coming after Adelphi," says coach Cosgrove, and that is what makes the season even more exciting to be a part of.
