Senior captain of Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse and sophomore commit to BC, Haley Cogliano is finally ready to take her talents to college after an ACL scare last year. Cogliano began playing lacrosse in the second grade and was hooked on the team aspect of the sport. After making varsity as a freshman, she continued to pique the interest of college coaches until she committed to Boston College in 2015. According to Cogliano, her commit was largely thanks to her coach Julie Olivier. Olivier, who played lacrosse at BC, recognized her interest in the school and took it upon herself to connect with the BC coach. However, Cogliano’s skill was ultimately what allowed her to score a place on the D1 team.

“Haley was the only freshman who started on the varsity team with an entire field of upperclassmen who had played a year or two on the team. Her stick skills and lacrosse IQ have always been at a top level,” Oliver said.

The qualities that make her an excellent lacrosse player are not just based in her prowess on the field. Cogliano herself speaks highly of keeping a positive attitude and staying away from negativity within the team, which allows them to see difficult times through.

“Yesterday we defeated Wayland, and they were actually undefeated this season […] they came into the game thinking that we weren’t going to be much competition, and we just showed them that we showed up and we were ready to play — we had a positive attitude […] we knew we wanted to win,” she said.

However, that sunny outlook took a blow when Cogliano was set back by a torn ACL in her junior year. Although her position at BC was not in danger, Cogliano initally felt dismay and frustration at having to sit out for eleven months — the longest time she has gone without playing. She managed to learn from the painful experience, though, utilizing her time on the bench to study the style of her teammates and help coach the team at times. Her future coach at BC assured her that she would come back stronger for having been knocked out for nearly a year. Looking back on the injury, Cogliano asserts that she was right.

“It was such a shocker. I didn’t even have it on my mind,” Cogliano said in regards to her injury.

“I was just so set back emotionally and physically, but overall, the whole experience made me learn that things aren’t always going to go your way, and you just have to learn to deal with life.”

As she struggled with wanting to play but not being able to do so, her motivation increased so that she was able to take to the field with even more enthusiasm after recovering. This passion for the sport, says Cogliano, stems not just from the years spent playing it but also the presence of a team she can connect with. The words ‘team’ and ‘teammates’ frequent Cogliano’s speech; she hardly acknowledges her own achievements without directing some of the credit to her comrades on the lacrosse field. It was her friends, in fact, who were one of her initial reasons to stick with lacrosse through her elementary school years. Cogliano praises her team at WA as close-knit with an “incredible team dynamic” and keenly aware of one another’s strengths. She especially enjoys being a captain and holding a position of leadership and responsibility.

“Every single day you have to act as a role model, because the underclassmen are looking to you,” she said.

As she moves on to college, Cogliano will no longer have the security and friendship of her WA team, but hopes to make those same sort of connections with her teammates at Boston College. Although she will be an underclassman once more, Cogliano believes that one can bring leadership qualities to the table even without being captain. Looking back on what has ultimately been a successful high-school athletic career, Cogliano stresses the importance of passion for the sport and persistence towards improvement for future college commits and student athletes in general. She alludes to her own experience on the field to highlight the importance of never giving up.

“Just keep playing as much as you can. Don’t ever think that if you do [badly] in one game and a coach sees that, [that] it’s all over […] if you drop a ground ball, they’re going to see: does she hustle to get it back?”