Chris Kowald, writing for AFANA caught up with Mason Cox post-game at Domain Stadium Perth, Australia.
Mason Cox may still have his Texan drawl but his first words when your AFANA correspondent spoke to him was the typical Australian greeting, "G'day mate". Having played nearly 100 minutes of brutal football against the West Coast Eagles, he then offered a typical Australian understatement by saying he was, "feeling a bit sore".
Going up against Nic Natanui, one of the stars of the Australian game could not have been easy for anyone, let alone an American rookie.
AFANA was keen to discover how a kid born in in the Dallas suburb of Highland Village, had made the journey to playing for Australia's Collingwood Football Club in front of 85,000 frenzied fans. Sure Collingwood is a popular club, in some ways it is considered the equivalent to the USA's Dallas Cowboys. However, his debut was in one of the biggest regular games of the year, the ANZAC day game and he kicked the first goal! Mason was both generous with his time and humble as he spoke at length about his incredible sporting journey. As a person he is obviously intelligent and articulate and offers a broad and genuine smile. The majority of Australian non-Collingwood supporters would argue these are not the stereotypical qualities which spring to mind when picturing Collingwood players.
He said he began to take sport seriously when he attended his local high school in Flower Mound, Texas: Edward S Marcus High School. The first sport he played seriously was soccer. Somehow he failed to mention to AFANA that he was a player in the school's soccer team that won the Texas state championship. He then left high school and studied Mechanical Engineering at Oklahoma State University. He grew up in a family of engineers, so to him, the career seemed pretty natural. To keep himself active, he began to play basketball as a hobby. He had never played the game competitively, but in 2011 he was noticed by the coach at Oklahoma St. who asked him to join the team as a walk-on, without a scholarship. From 2012 to 2014, he made good progress and graduated from the role of practice player to actually getting playing time in games. This alone would be considered a major accomplishment at a Division I basketball school. He didn't mention that by the end of the 2013-14 season he had accrued 56 minutes of playing time, with 38 of those minutes in the final five games of the season; or that he had scored 7 points and took 25 rebounds at this elite level of competition.
He graduated in 2014 and had decided to return to Texas to begin a career with ExxonMobil in Houston. Cox said he was planning to leave basketball and establish an engineering career, even though he was eligible to play one more season of college sport. He said basketball opportunities for players like him "were not great" once their college playing career had finished. He said he thought he would have a more secure future as an engineer, rather than perhaps as a player in overseas basketball competitions in countries such as Australia or Spain, "even if he did make that grade in basketball". Unbeknownst to Cox, Australian Football League scouts had seen Cox playing for the OSU Cowboys in a NCAA tournament game against Gonzaga. The Cowboys lost, but Cox had played 10 minutes and the AFL scouts were impressed enough to ask him to attend an AFL combine in Los Angeles. Clearly his athletic ability and size got their attention; as well as his probable lack of a pro-basketball career, which made him a strong prospect. To build his knowledge of Australian football before the combine, Cox did his bit by studying numerous YouTube clips of the game.
Against 20 other participants, he won the combine's 3K time trial in 11:59, which perhaps swayed the scouts more than his ability to source videos of the game. A sub-four-minute time trial indicates the endurance potential required to play AFL. This, combined with his six foot eleven frame and 235 pounds convinced the Australians to invite him to head "downunder" to talk to some clubs. ExxonMobil agreed to release him so that he could follow his "crazy sporting dream". Cox said he appreciated ExxonMobil's cooperation; and that working for them as an engineer is still his "dream job". But for now, that dream is on hold, as he said, "it seems to be the right time to to give 4 years to see if I can make it or not". He has played his first two games of AFL to gather 20 disposals, take 10 marks (catches), win 16 ruck taps - and kick 3 goals (6 points) and 2 behinds (single points). He has averaged 83% of available game time on the field. A long way from being a college team walk-on getting garbage minutes at the end of a contest already decided. To cope with the increased endurance demands he has worked on his running. To cope with the physical buffeting of playing as ruckman, he has added 12 pounds since his basketball days. The first part of his journey has just ended, the major part is about to begin. And what journey it is!
AFANA thanks Mason for taking the time to speak to us.
Mason Cox may still have his Texan drawl but his first words when your AFANA correspondent spoke to him was the typical Australian greeting, "G'day mate". Having played nearly 100 minutes of brutal football against the West Coast Eagles, he then offered a typical Australian understatement by saying he was, "feeling a bit sore".
AFANA was keen to discover how a kid born in in the Dallas suburb of Highland Village, had made the journey to playing for Australia's Collingwood Football Club in front of 85,000 frenzied fans. Sure Collingwood is a popular club, in some ways it is considered the equivalent to the USA's Dallas Cowboys. However, his debut was in one of the biggest regular games of the year, the ANZAC day game and he kicked the first goal! Mason was both generous with his time and humble as he spoke at length about his incredible sporting journey. As a person he is obviously intelligent and articulate and offers a broad and genuine smile. The majority of Australian non-Collingwood supporters would argue these are not the stereotypical qualities which spring to mind when picturing Collingwood players.
He said he began to take sport seriously when he attended his local high school in Flower Mound, Texas: Edward S Marcus High School. The first sport he played seriously was soccer. Somehow he failed to mention to AFANA that he was a player in the school's soccer team that won the Texas state championship. He then left high school and studied Mechanical Engineering at Oklahoma State University. He grew up in a family of engineers, so to him, the career seemed pretty natural. To keep himself active, he began to play basketball as a hobby. He had never played the game competitively, but in 2011 he was noticed by the coach at Oklahoma St. who asked him to join the team as a walk-on, without a scholarship. From 2012 to 2014, he made good progress and graduated from the role of practice player to actually getting playing time in games. This alone would be considered a major accomplishment at a Division I basketball school. He didn't mention that by the end of the 2013-14 season he had accrued 56 minutes of playing time, with 38 of those minutes in the final five games of the season; or that he had scored 7 points and took 25 rebounds at this elite level of competition.
He graduated in 2014 and had decided to return to Texas to begin a career with ExxonMobil in Houston. Cox said he was planning to leave basketball and establish an engineering career, even though he was eligible to play one more season of college sport. He said basketball opportunities for players like him "were not great" once their college playing career had finished. He said he thought he would have a more secure future as an engineer, rather than perhaps as a player in overseas basketball competitions in countries such as Australia or Spain, "even if he did make that grade in basketball". Unbeknownst to Cox, Australian Football League scouts had seen Cox playing for the OSU Cowboys in a NCAA tournament game against Gonzaga. The Cowboys lost, but Cox had played 10 minutes and the AFL scouts were impressed enough to ask him to attend an AFL combine in Los Angeles. Clearly his athletic ability and size got their attention; as well as his probable lack of a pro-basketball career, which made him a strong prospect. To build his knowledge of Australian football before the combine, Cox did his bit by studying numerous YouTube clips of the game.
Against 20 other participants, he won the combine's 3K time trial in 11:59, which perhaps swayed the scouts more than his ability to source videos of the game. A sub-four-minute time trial indicates the endurance potential required to play AFL. This, combined with his six foot eleven frame and 235 pounds convinced the Australians to invite him to head "downunder" to talk to some clubs. ExxonMobil agreed to release him so that he could follow his "crazy sporting dream". Cox said he appreciated ExxonMobil's cooperation; and that working for them as an engineer is still his "dream job". But for now, that dream is on hold, as he said, "it seems to be the right time to to give 4 years to see if I can make it or not". He has played his first two games of AFL to gather 20 disposals, take 10 marks (catches), win 16 ruck taps - and kick 3 goals (6 points) and 2 behinds (single points). He has averaged 83% of available game time on the field. A long way from being a college team walk-on getting garbage minutes at the end of a contest already decided. To cope with the increased endurance demands he has worked on his running. To cope with the physical buffeting of playing as ruckman, he has added 12 pounds since his basketball days. The first part of his journey has just ended, the major part is about to begin. And what journey it is!
AFANA thanks Mason for taking the time to speak to us.
Article last changed on Monday, June 13, 2016 - 9:35 AM EDT
Comments
Posted by davidwilly on November 09, 2023
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Mason Cox's journey seems quite amazing if you ask me. I'm glad that not everyone started out by looking to buy a fake degree. At least some people have their life straight.
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