UNE graduate lands ‘dream job’ with pro hockey team

How Zander Kosmala went from graduating from the University of New England to landing a job as the head athletic trainer for an American Hockey League team in just four years is a kind of Cinderella story that Kosmala shrugs off to luck.

But the fact is, Kosmala (Athletic Training, ’20) did all he could to get the clinical experience needed to get promoted this summer to head athletic trainer with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League, including to leverage the professional-sports connections provided by his UNE professors.

“It’s crazy looking back on it how it happened,” said Kosmala, hailing from Kennebunk, Maine. “I’m really lucky to be where I am. It’s crazy the opportunities I’ve had.”

Getting a head athletic trainer post with a pro hockey team just four years after graduating from college is certainly an accelerated pace, said Wayne Lamarre, M.Ed., LAT, ATC, director of UNE’s Athletic Training Program and a clinical professor in the Westbrook College of Health Professions. But, Lamarre said, in addition to academic success and superb hands-on clinical skills, Kosmala possesses the kind of dogged work ethic that’s key to getting on the fast track to a job with a pro sports team.

“For students like Zander who are willing to put the time in early and often, they’ll quickly develop the hands-on skills that are needed. That’s what happened with Zander. I’m sure his supervisors and employers at Wilkes-Barre saw the same thing: This guy knows his stuff and understands how to do it.” said Lamarre, who has served on the medical staff for the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team at international competitions, including the Beijing Olympics.

Kosmala knew he wanted to work as an athletic trainer on a professional sports team since he was in high school. When he suffered a shoulder injury in high school baseball, he sought treatment from several athletic trainers and physical therapists in southern Maine. All of them impressed Kosmala with their clinical expertise and innovative treatments. Many of them were UNE graduates, which is why he decided to attend UNE.

“It’s always been my goal to get into pro sports. Going through the program at UNE, I thought, ‘I could possibly do that,’” Kosmala said. “I just kept hearing that I had pretty good skills. It gave me confidence.”

All Athletic Training majors at UNE must complete at least 900 hours in clinical rotation to graduate. Zander racked up more than 1,000 hours.

Starting the spring of his sophomore year at UNE, he worked every semester as a student athletic trainer, first at local high schools, then at Bowdoin College, and finally for the Portland-based Maine Mariners, an internship Kosmala secured with help from UNE’S Christopher Rizzo, D.A.T., LAT, ATC, CSCS, a clinical professor and coordinator of clinical education.

Then Kosmala went to graduate school at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, chiefly so he could pursue a graduate assistantship as an athletic trainer with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ affiliate, another pivotal post he secured.

After earning his master’s degree, Kosmala continued to work part-time for the team while cobbling together other odd jobs. He’d work for the Penguins from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. when the team played at home, then pick up part-time shifts as an athletic trainer at a local college from 4 to 9 p.m.

The brutal schedule paid off: The next year, the Penguins brought him on as a full-time assistant athletic trainer.

“It was a miserable year,” Kosmala said. “But if I wanted to work in pro sports, I had to do it, and hope for the best.

For all of it, Kosmala credits his UNE team of mentors: His advisor, Kristen Bailey, M.S., LAT, ATC, a clinical professor and veteran of the Athletic Training faculty, coached Kosmala in how to balance a full slate of classes and clinical rotations while in school; Lamarre provided invaluable insight into working with professional hockey players; and Rizzo helped Kosmala get the key internship that positioned him for a job in the AHL.

“Looking back, I don’t think I would have stuck it out as well as I did if I hadn’t worked for the Maine Mariners. That showed me I can do this work, and that I’m good at it,” Kosmala said.