Dan Falloon
Cody Mosbeck knew he was going to need to help his Gustavus Adolphus “Golden Gusties” rebound after the highs and lows of a surprise playoff run last season.
The Gusties—ranked 15th entering the NCAA Division III playoffs—saw their Cinderella playoff run fall just short when they were beaten 4-1 by Neumann College in the championship game last March.
But the Emo native, in his second year as team captain, wasn’t aware he would be would be called in to help his teammates deal with a far more serious issue during the off-season.
Gusties’ reserve forward Brendan Loney injured his C4 and C5 vertebrae in a diving accident in July, leaving him paralyzed.
Mosbeck was notified of the injury quickly and visited Loney, along with assistant captain David Martinson, soon after the accident.
“I went to see him pretty early. When I went to see him, he couldn’t even talk,” Mosbeck recalled.
“I’ve never had someone that close with that kind of an injury,” he added.
The 24-year-old defenceman said it was important that he and Martinson visited their teammate together so both men would have someone to lean on right there.
“It was good that we went together because it was kind of like we held each other together, when we got to see him—and afterwards,” Mosbeck explained.
“It was pretty emotional.”
Loney was the Golden Gusties’ 13th forward during their spring playoff run, but remained upbeat despite seeing action in only one game. And Mosbeck is glad Loney has been able to maintain that same attitude after the accident.
“Brendan had so much on his plate, and he just stayed positive the entire time, and just to see that was an inspiration,” he lauded.
The Gusties honoured Loney before their game against division rival Hamline back on Feb. 12, and Mosbeck was selected to present his teammate with his familiar No. 23 jersey.
“I felt privileged to be the one to give him the jersey,” said Mosbeck. “I thanked the coach just for letting me be the one to present it to him.
“Just the smile on his face when I put the jersey on him, it was a pretty awesome experience.”
Golden Gusties’ head coach Brett Petersen praised Mosbeck for his efforts in helping the team understand and deal with the situation.
“All the news runs through Cody, and he was really good about getting guys to the hospital,” praised Petersen. “He was there at the hospital right away, he was the one who called me.”
Petersen noted Mosbeck has had to be flexible in how he reacts to teammates approaching him given their responses to a new situation haven’t been consistent.
“When you have a tragic accident like that happen to your team, it affects everyone a little bit differently, and Cody was really in tune to the fact that some guys dealt with it on their own pretty good and some guys needed a little more one-on-one,” said Petersen.
“He did a lot of work behind the scenes with the guys, especially right after the accident occurred.”
Mosbeck agreed, saying he’s been doing his best to tailor his approach to each of his teammates’ needs.
“I just tried to be a sound board,” he remarked. “If guys need to chat, or whatever, if they need help, or if we’ve got to go out and have a good time and loosen up, I just need to try to be open to anything.”
Mosbeck also pointed out that he has not been alone, saying the entire Gusties’ locker-room is full of players willing to lend a hand.
“We have such a great group of guys and they’re so close that you find out when something’s going on, and it’s not just me who has to take care of it or deal with it when somebody needs help,” he explained.
“We help them out, and it’s not just one guy helping out, it’s everybody,” he stressed.
The whole experience also has made Mosbeck realize how lucky he is to be in good health and be able to play the game he loves.
“It really makes you appreciate what you have. Our coaches said it’s a privilege to go to school here, it’s a privilege to play hockey. Don’t take it for granted,” he advised.
“Then we have a friend who has a situation like that and it’s just a privilege to be healthy and move, let alone play the game.”
On the ice, Mosbeck has two goals and eight assists as the Gusties sit ranked seventh in NCAA Division III after splitting with MIAC division rival Hamline, who are in eighth, on Feb. 12-13.
“Cody’s a ‘dependable as the day is long’ kind of defenceman,” said Petersen. “He logs a lot of minutes for us on the blueline, and has here for four years.”
While the Gusties have made sure to learn from their surprise run a season ago, they’re not letting the defeat in the championship game bring them down.
“It made for a long summer but once everybody got back, you can’t really dwell on a loss, championship game or not,” Mosbeck maintained.
“You’ve got to move on from it.”
The Gusties had all but three players return for this season, so the core of the lineup was another year wiser this season after gaining heaps of big-game experience last spring, including upsets over higher-ranked Wisconsin-Superior and Wisconsin-Stout en route to the championship game versus Neumann College.
“We have the majority of the same group back, and we know that we have a chance to do something special again, here, so you move on to what’s next,” Mosbeck reasoned.
He felt the biggest difference between last year’s squad and this one is an added swagger that comes with a comfort among teammates and a defined team identity, which Mosbeck said has developed since the start of the 2008-09 campaign.
“At the start of the season last year, we had an idea of what we could do, but we hadn’t really played too many games off the start,” he noted.
“It’s almost like we were feeling our team out.
“It’s almost like coming into this year, we knew what we could do coming in,” he stressed. “We expected a lot more out of ourselves and we’ve been able to keep ourselves at a higher standard for a longer period this year.”
Mosbeck recently hit his 100th game with the Golden Gusties, but was surprised to learn he had reached the milestone.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate,” he admitted. “I’ve been able to stay pretty healthy the last four years, and as a freshman, I was just able to come in and play, which was awesome.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
