The Steinbach Pistons want to congratulate their equipment manager Riley Kosmolak on his two silver medals with Team Manitoba over the past two weeks.
Kosmolak has had the time of his life working together with Hockey Manitoba at the Men’s U16 Western Championships in Calgary and then most recently at the Women’s U18 Championships in Huntsville, Ontario.
“These last two weeks have been awesome,” said the 18 year-old Kosmolak. “I don’t have one overall highlight that shines over all the others. I enjoyed the whole trip to Calgary and Huntsville, and making it to the championship game in both tournaments.”
Over the past two weeks Riley spent time doing equipment manager duties; sharpening skates, cleaning the dressing room, doing laundry and anything else that the team needed behind the scenes.
His experience all started when the Pistons reached out to the community looking for someone to help around the room at the start of their 2012/2013 season. At that time, Kosmolak was only 15 years-old, and he jumped at the opportunity.
His role started as a dressing room attendant, but that quickly grew as the Pistons saw his work ethic and dedication. The recent Steinbach Regional Secondary School graduate still fills water bottles, but now sharpens skates, keeps the dressing aligned, manages the team’s equipment and stick inventory, plus many other miscellaneous tasks associated with the role.
“The Pistons helped me get to this point in my career by allowing me to expand from the team’s dressing room attendant my first year, to start doing the equipment side of things the following year,” he said. “Also, Paul [Dyck] has passed my name to Craig Heisinger of the Winnipeg Jets, which has led me to getting to participate and experience an NHL training camp.”
The saying hard work pays off is evident in Kosmolak’s story as his countless hours of volunteerism are helping him reach new heights. The Pistons organizations want to again congratulate Riley and thank him for all the service he does on a regular basis.