Spinning His Web: New Canaan’s Cognetta Commits to Richmond Lax

Getting Frank Cognetta to talk about himself is like trying to mine diamonds with a toothbrush. For Cognetta—whether it’s football or lacrosse—it was, is and always will be about the team.

And in the spring of 2016 Cognetta’s team will be the University of Richmond men’s lacrosse squad.

“It’s a great feeling,” Cognetta told NewCanaanite.com. “I think that there’s a lot that I can learn from being a college athlete. I think it teaches people things that they wouldn’t necessarily learn without it, so I’m excited.”

Another person who is excited is New Canaan High School varsity coach Chip Buzzeo, who guided the 2013 team to an FCIAC title in his first season at the helm. Prior to taking over the varsity program, Buzzeo was a volunteer coach in New Canaan Lacrosse Association’s youth program, where he coached Cognetta in 7^th and 8^th grade.

“In many aspects this is my fifth year knowing these boys,” Buzzeo said. “It’s a special feeling to help these kids achieve their goals.”

Cognetta’s road to becoming a Richmond Spider was paved when he took up lacrosse in 3^rd grade after moving from Stamford to New Canaan. The instincts and abilities that would eventually help him become one of the best defensive lacrosse players in the state were evident even then.

“At an early age we thought that he could be a special player, and he has continued to get better every year,” Buzzeo said. “He’s always been one of the best athletes on any field. For people who have seen him play football, he stands out, for people who have seen him play lacrosse, he stands out. He’s got incredible speed, great strength, he‘s very tough … He plays at a level in games that is very unique.”

Cognetta is one of several New Canaan lacrosse players who have either committed to an NCAA program, or have signed their letter of intent—two very different stages of the college recruiting and signing process. A commitment is a verbal agreement between the player and coach that is not binding until the letter of intent is signed during a players’ senior year. Many other sports see athletes and schools change their minds between the commitment announcement and signing day, but Buzzeo told NewCanaanite.com that such changes are rare in lacrosse, even with the present-day acceleration of the recruiting process.

“It’s certainly harder for these kids as 15- and 16 year-olds making decisions,” Buzzeo said. “But it’s just a commitment to the admissions process, it’s not a guarantee. A player has to hold up his end of the bargain: They need to do well in academics, number one, continue to do well on the athletic field, number two, and number three, stay out of trouble.”

The student-athlete approach, with the emphasis on “student” is something Buzzeo and the lacrosse program begin ingraining in athletes as early as 6^th and 7^th grade. Evidence shows many of Buzzeo’s players have bought into the mantra. Foremost among college-bound seniors are Teddy Bossidy (Franklin & Marshall), Harry Stanton and Cole Turpin (Wesleyan), Robby Paul and Grayson Kristoff (Colorado College). Sophomore Kyle Smith recently committed to the University of Denver and Cognetta’s junior classmate Michael Kraus committed to Virginia.

“I wanted to put academics before athletics,” Cognetta said. “It was very important that I put myself in a position to get a great education and set my self up for a good career for the rest of my life. I also targeted Richmond because of its smaller size. I wanted an ‘everybody-knows-everybody’ kind of feel—a lot like New Canaan. You walk around town you see at least five different people you know just getting lunch at Tony’s.”

Although Cognetta has Richmond to look forward to, he and his teammates are not looking past the goals they set for the 2014 with the season set to get underway in less than three weeks.

“Number one, we want to defend that FCIAC championship,” Cognetta said. “We also want to win the state championship. And we want to beat Darien. We want to go out and every time we play Darien we want to beat them and hit them as hard as we can.”