By Ben Sylvan, Special to SI.com, SchoolSports.com
Ask Huntington lacrosse coach Paul McDermott about senior midfielder Scott Kocis, and the veteran coach gushes while painting a saint-like picture of his star Blue Devil by spitting words like "selfless" and "tough" or "intelligent" and "shy."
And who can blame him? McDermott has coached the Blue Devils since 1990 and had never won a Suffolk County title -- let alone a state championship -- until Kocis (pronounced KOS-is) helped carry Huntington to a 21-0 record, the Suffolk championship and the Class B state title last spring by scoring 40 goals and handing out 37 assists on the season.
Kocis shrugs off most of his coach's praise as if he were 50 Cent getting yet another top hit on "TRL." But shy? That one stops Kocis in his tracks.
"I wouldn't really call myself quiet," says Kocis, a US Lacrosse All-American. "I'm actually pretty loud if you get to know me. I talk a bit of trash. I don't go out of my way to talk trash, but I'll definitely return it.
"As a freshman, I was pretty shy because I was the only freshman on the team," Kocis adds. "But after playing for (McDermott) for four years, I've opened up to him. I'm surprised he said that."
Don't get it twisted -- Kocis isn't arrogant and he surely doesn't have the rep of, say, Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin as a supposed superstar who talks a bigger game than he plays. Kocis' trash talking is more akin to Duke star baller J.J. Redick, which makes perfect sense considering Kocis has signed with Duke's powerhouse lacrosse program.
Much like Redick, Kocis doesn't solely lead by example. He's more of a get-in-his-teammates'-faces, badger-refs-all-game-long type of leader.
"If my team isn't playing up to its potential, I'll try to get us fired up," says Kocis, a top five national recruit.
That approach sure worked in his time on the Huntington football team.
After taking sophomore and junior years off from football in favor of golf, Kocis returned to the gridiron as a senior this past fall. Although he played safety for the Blue Devils -- not exactly as glamorous a position as his role as a high-scoring middie in lacrosse -- his shut-down defense was an integral factor in Huntington's Division III Long Island football title.
"The football coach said to me the lacrosse state championship sparked a winning attitude for the football team," McDermott says. "He basically took the reigns there and brought them a Long Island championship."
Kocis traces his vocal propensity and leadership skills all the way back to middle school when he was the captain of his ice hockey team. And he traces his winning mentality to a childhood spent idolizing Michael Jordan (of course, once he's at Duke, he'll need to keep that on the down low).
But he traces the rest of his success to his upbringing in the first family of Long Island lacrosse.
Like some sort of bizarro-world version of Love & Basketball, Kocis' parents, Michael and Christina, met while playing lacrosse at Hartwick College in upstate New York. Whereas many parents raise their kids to play the national pastime of baseball, there was never any question the Kocis clan would grow up toting lacrosse sticks. Especially since the family settled down in the lacrosse-crazed town of Huntington, which staged a parade for its high school team after it won the state title last spring.
