Debra Cohen didn’t intend for her daughter Ady Cohen to play hockey. She wanted to teach Ady how to skate because it’d be a fun thing to do. Ady wasn’t even old enough to be in elementary school and she already found what she loved.

Except it was on the other side of the rink.

“‘I want to do that,’” Debra Cohen recalls her daughter saying when Ady Cohen saw people playing ice hockey.

Ady Cohen was born in Serov, Russia in June 1998. She was adopted by Syracuse alumna Debra Cohen seven months later. The latter brought Ady Cohen to New York and then to Boynton Beach, Florida three years after that. The past stops and Debra Cohen’s influence have shaped the freshman as she settles into Syracuse’s (0-2) third-string goalie spot.

Her hockey career began with playing alongside boys despite her male teammates’ doubts about her ability. Although it was nerve wracking for her mother since the boys were so much bigger, she admits in the long run it has likely helped Cohen’s play. They shot harder and played physical, but Cohen was always up for the challenge in net.

In her first few years, Cohen played forward or defender. But she was enamored by what goalies wore.

“I liked the equipment, that was my reason for starting (to play goalie),” Cohen said.

Growing up in Florida, she was often caught cheering on the NHL’s Florida Panthers. Cohen also rooted for the Los Angeles Kings and saw a game in person during her middle school years.

“One day I woke her up just like any other day getting ready for school, but then we drove to the airport and got on a plane and watched the Kings play in the playoffs in L.A.,” Debra Cohen said. “Ady even got to meet (Kings goalie) Jonathan Quick who she loves to watch.”

By the time Cohen was in eighth grade, she was given the opportunity to play hockey at Gilmour Academy in Cleveland, Ohio for the next four years. She took the chance to play at an all-girls high school in the north, even after spending her eighth grade year playing on a high school team.

Accompanied by her mother, Cohen moved to Cleveland and enrolled in Gilmour ready to attack the transition from playing with boys to girls for the first time.

“It was a big change for me,” Cohen said. “The whole environment in Cleveland was a lot different than Florida so it took a year or two to settle in. The guys are obviously more physical so I was always getting knocked around. With the girls I saw a lot of better playing time.”

Once she was at Gilmour, Cohen started to receive more attention from colleges looking to recruit her, including SU. What Syracuse’s coaching staff didn’t know, though, was that Cohen’s mother received her doctorate from Syracuse in 1996. She and Ady disagree about who first led her on to Syracuse — Ady claims she started to look at Syracuse without her mom telling her, but Debra says she guided Ady toward SU.

“I thought it would be a good idea for her to visit Syracuse and she really felt Syracuse was a good fit,” Debra said.

Published on October 4, 2016 at 10:21 pm

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