Article published Sunday, November 23, 2008
IN THEIR WORDS: COSIMO FIGLIOMENI
High school hockey was passion
 

In Their Words is a weekly feature appearing Sundays in The Blade's sports section. Blade sports writer Zach Silka talked with Cosimo Figliomeni, co-founder of the Northwest Hockey Conference and the St. John's Jesuit hockey program.

A native of Canada, Cosimo Figliomeni, of course, has always had a passion for the game of hockey.

So when the opportunity arose to be the first hockey coach at St. John's and spearhead the creation of an area high school hockey league, Figliomeni didn't think twice about it.

With meager beginnings, the Northwest Hockey Conference was established in 1977 with just a handful of teams.

Now, 31 years later, the conference has developed into one of the premiere prep hockey leagues in the state, with 18 teams spread over three divisions.

And while he retired in 1989, Figliomeni was still able to watch his Titans capture their first state championship in 2007 after laying the groundwork that allowed them to get to that point. He led St. John's to its first four state semifinal appearances in school history during his tenure there.

Figliomeni resides in Toledo with his wife, Mary. They have five sons: Michael, Frank, Paul, Mark, and Cosimo, Jr.

"HOCKEY STARTED on the high school level in 1972, and then from there it evolved to a few more teams. It took a while. St. John's didn't have a program at that time. I was working with the St. John's athletic director at the time, Joe Czernicki, who was a big supporter of hockey. He comes from Cleveland originally. Between the two of us and also with some help from parents and everything else, we started the program at St. John's and at the same time organized the league. They both ended up real well.

"WE HAD TO JUMP over some hurdles, yes. We needed help because we didn't have any funds. We had no school support at that time because hockey was kind of a foreign sport to most high schools in the area. We kind of had to put our heads down and convince the administration that it was not only a good sport but it was also going to help the school in general through participation. If St. John's had a good program, then naturally it would be kind of a little magnet for them. We started out in those days when the only ice hockey facility was the Sports Arena. They had just started the Ottawa Park rink, so those were the only two facilities that we could go to at that time.

"WE HAD A GOAL really that we were going to make hockey equal to or better than basketball or football. We felt that if we could achieve that goal, then the administration would pretty well be forced into recognizing it as a varsity sport and from then on we could get a lot more support.

"MY WIFE MARY HELPED with the program so much as well. Preseason every year, we used to have a dinner at our place where the whole team used to come together. We had one of the priests from St. John's, he used to come over and say Mass at our home. With all the team here, we organized team breakfasts as well. It was kind of a camaraderie that knitted everybody together.

"ONCE WE WERE SUCCESSFUL over there [at St. John's], St. Francis started looking at it as well and the different schools in the Sylvania area. Basically that's what it amounted to. We put our head down and just didn't give up until we achieved our goal.

"I'M ORIGINALLY from Canada, northern Ontario. Naturally it's hockey country up there. I played up there, and I coached up there at the high school level as well. Then we came down here in 1958. Then through a few meetings here and there, I met Joe Czernicki. Then there were a few others we contacted, like Marv Dunn in Bowling Green and Mike Root in Findlay. We put our heads together, and we decided that hockey was a sport that we were going to promote.

"I WAS KIND OF fortunate in a way because we had five sons of our own, and they all went to St. John's, so I had kind of a personal interest in making sure that the program succeeded. In the early years, we were probably a little better program than some of the others, both on the ice and off the ice due to the fact that we, like I said, had a personal interest in it and everybody associated with the program at St. John's were big supporters. So we kind of succeeded in that regard. We did a little traveling. We started looking at the Cleveland area, which already had hockey as a primary local sport. We started competing back and forth with them. Naturally in the early years, we weren't so successful on the ice in terms of wins and losses, but as time went on, the students realized that they could do better than what our record indicated. So they started kind of looking at hockey as a serious way for them to compete. Through that, the program just took off.

"FROM THEN ON, all we did was promote it. We promoted through the school, we promoted through the student body, and they were very receptive. Then they started coming to the games, and once we had the student body behind us, then it was kind of an easy thing to sell after that.

"IT'S JUST BEEN a joy to watch them really, the way things have come out. We started with just the four teams originally, and now we have 18 teams in our conference, plus other teams in the area. Now we have hockey in places like Anthony Wayne, where hockey wasn't even dreamed of in those days.

"DURING MY TIME there [at St. John's], we had four years that we went to the [state] final four, we just didn't get over the top. But we did get to the final four, and that certainly was significant for the program. After I retired, I just watched them grow. Mike [Hayes] took the reins over, and he just kept pushing it and finally they did win the state title, which was quite a feat. Looking back, it was tough work and sometimes it was discouraging, but it was worth it, well worth it."

Contact Zach Silka at:
zsilka@theblade.com.