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South Border's Connor Kosiak galloping into the playoffs

maxwell o'neill, the jamestown sun, n.d.
·5 min read

Oct. 21—WISHEK N.D. — After a year off from football due to an injury, South Border's Connor Kosiak came back this year and is on a mission.

"I was dying to get back," Kosiak said. "I knew I could definitely help out the team. So, it was tough watching but I was excited to get back."

In the first half of last year's season opener, Kosiak suffered a grade 3 acromioclavicular (AC) joint separation.

Last year, Kosiak came back for the Mustangs basketball season and played the entire season. Early in the season, Kosiak said his shoulder flared up but he was fine as the hoops season went along.

As one of eight seniors on the team, Kosiak said he knew he and his teammates were building to a special season this year.

During his time off with the shoulder injury, Kosiak said he learned a lot about the sport as he talked to the coaches throughout the games. Mustangs head coach Evan Mellmer said Kosiak became a position coach for the running backs and wide receivers during his absence last year. Kosiak said he is thinking about being a coach when his football career ends.

This year, the senior running back has played quarterback, running back, wide receiver and cornerback. Kosiak has completed 15 of 16 passes for 136 yards and one touchdown. He has carried the ball 139 times for 1,428 yards and 21 touchdowns. He also has nine receptions for 73 yards and three touchdowns. On the defensive side of the ball, Kosiak has 20 total tackles, six tackles for loss, five interceptions for 32 yards and one fumble recovery.

"I think Connor came into this year after he missed last year," Mellmer said. "He was really really motivated to have a big year. We had a lot of plans to use him last year, use him all over the field, you can play him at receiver, you can play him at running back. He's super talented and to have him get that season cut short, he definitely came in with a chip on his shoulder and appreciated every opportunity he has this year. He thought he had two years of football left and to get one taken away from him, I think really made him appreciate this season a lot more. He's making the most out of every opportunity."

His 21 rushing touchdowns are a single-season program record and he is 230 rushing yards away from setting the all-time single-season rushing yards record in program history. Kosiak set the touchdowns record during his team's game against Kidder County on Oct. 6. Kosiak said he'll be excited when he sets the rushing yards record and thankful for the help his offensive line and coaches have given him.

"It's pretty cool, a lot of that, I have to give props to my line because without them I would be nothing as a running back," Kosiak said. "So, it's huge help from them guys of course. It's pretty great, the rushing offense we have is really cool, we have three guys we can utilize back there and it's just great that Mellmer's utilized me for sure out of all of them and put the ball in my hands a lot of the time."

Kosiak is not the only record-setter on the defensive side of the ball as his fellow defensive back Levi Buchholz has also set the single-season interceptions program record with seven. As a result, Mellmer said teams are not specifically game-planning against Kosiak.

As a receiver and a defensive back, Kosiak said it helps him to know what the player on the other side of the ball is thinking.

"We play zone so it's a little different than a lot of other teams," Kosiak said. "But, breaking away off your route, when you hit your break, I've learned a lot on how to position your hips and sell your eyes and little stuff like that, that a lot of people don't think as a receiver that you need to do."

The Mustangs are the No. 3 seed in the 2023 NDHSAA 9-man playoffs. They open the playoffs at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, when they host Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood. Mellmer said his team needs to rise to the occasion against the Mavericks or their season will be over.

"I think they're gonna put a lot of guys in the box, which isn't anything that we haven't seen," Mellmer said. "I think they're gonna bring us a lot of blitzes. I think they're just gonna try to disrupt and try to get us out of what we do. We want to line up and we want to run power and I think they're bring a lot of people and try to fill those gaps and make that hard at the point of attack. We're gonna have to be really sound up front and take care of that."

After his freshman year when the Mustangs went 1-6, Kosiak and his teammates have combined to go 24-4 over the last three seasons as of Oct. 19. This year the Mustangs are 9-0 and have outscored their opponents 436-119. This season, the Mustangs won their first Region 4 title since Wishek and Ashley became a co-op in 2007.

"Two years ago, we flipped South Border's football history around from really bad to pretty decent," Kosiak said. "So, that was our group of guys, we were definitely a big help in that. It's been great to see the team adapt and evolve over these two, three years, so finally having this one big last season here it would mean everything. Especially for this group of guys and our coaches that have put so much time into this program."

Mellmer took over in 2021 and has helped guide the Mustangs to the aforementioned 24-4 record, including their 9-0 record this season as of Oct. 19. Mellmer said this team is the most complete team he's had since he became the head coach.

Kosiak said he has not decided whether he wants to play college baseball or football next year yet but he is deciding between playing club baseball at the University of North Dakota and either baseball or football at the University of Mary.