Sports

Cohen Loving Decision to Play at Harvard

The former Syosset H.S. lacrosse star is getting national acclaim as part of a building program.

In the military it's often referred to as "getting smoked," a level of physical training that one figures had to be devised by Hannibal Lecter and Pinhead during a blind date.

For Jeff Cohen lacrosse success starts not on the field, but in a pool, in full sweats, treading water. That's part of the preseason regimen under Harvard coach John Tillman, who has a former Marine come in to oversee a couple of days of hell.

"He puts you through, like, all these impossible tasks," explains Cohen. "It's one of those things where we can look back and say, 'We got through that, we can get through whatever we have to during a game.'"

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It's no shock that Cohen doesn't mind forgoing the path of least resistance. After setting the Long Island record for career goals scored while at Syosset High School, he could've written his ticket to a perennial powerhouse. Instead he followed older brothers Steve and Greg's lead and chose Harvard, which to put it politely doesn't hold the lacrosse pedigree of some of its Ivy League brethren...yet.

Cohen, a sophomore, and third-year coach Tillman have something brewing in Cambridge. As a freshman Cohen led the Crimson to an upset win at highly-touted Duke. He was recently named to the watch list for the Tewaaraton Award, lacrosse's equivalent of the Heisman. But he's more likely to talk about his coach bringing in the No. 3 recruiting class in the country last year. He thinks he would've attended Harvard even if Tillman hadn't been changing the culture, since he enjoyed the area so much while visiting his brothers. But he adds that it did weigh into his decision.

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"There is definitely a sense of personal pride," Cohen says. "It's something that we started and we're building. If you go to another school that has already had that tradition, it would still be unbelievable to win a championship, but it would be sweeter here."

Cohen knows that kind of success from Syosset, where as a senior in 2008 his team went all the way to the New York State title game.

"That run my senior year was a great way to go out in high school with the friends from my class; we really grew up playing lacrosse," Cohen says of the experience, which included the legendary team pregame meals from Mario's Pizzeria. "Every time we won it meant we got another chance to play lacrosse together."

He wants to share some similar experiences with his Harvard teammates, and has firmly set a national championship run as a career goal. As for the pregame meals, he can still get his chicken parm.

"There are a couple of places up here," Cohen says, "but they're not as good as Mario's."


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