Often, high school athletes focus their time and energy on more than just one sport. For many hockey players in the Fed, hockey is something they do when it isn’t football season, soccer season, lacrosse season, or baseball season.
Williamsville South’s Mason Cool is passionate about hockey, but his other passion isn’t sports at all. Cool has been playing trombone since he was 10, and in the fall he plans to attend Ohio University. Both of his parents are graduates of the university’s music program.
Cool wasn’t always so passionate about music. Growing up with a musician for a father who encouraged Cool to practice as much as possible gave him mixed feelings sometimes.
“My dad always just wanted me to play,” Cool said. “It didn’t matter if it was the band music or just something I looked up on the Internet that I wanted to play. He just always wanted me to play something. And he would sit down with me for 30 minutes every day and practice with me. Sometimes I would hate it; sometimes I wouldn’t mind it. But it was just fun. That’s me and my dad: we do music together. He likes to watch my sports, but [music] is fun bonding time for us.”
Cool attended St. Christopher’s for middle school and spent his first quarter of high school at Kenmore East. Neither school cultivated his love for music, but when he transferred to Williamsville South during his freshman year of high school, Cool gained a new band director — his father — and eventually a love for music.
“In middle school, I joined the band in our middle school, St. Christopher’s,” Cool said. “It was more just for fun, and I didn’t really like it that much. And then when I first got to high school, I went to Kenmore East, actually, for my first quarter, and I didn’t really like it there. And then I went to Williamsville South, and my dad’s my band director, so he really helped me enjoy it more, and I made a lot of friends through the band, and some of my greatest memories are from band throughout high school.”
Cool made the all-county band for the first time in his junior year at South, and he’s made it every time since then. This past year, he even made the all-state band and missed a hockey game to make the trip.
As he was surrounded by other passionate and skilled musicians who were certain about their future plans, he eventually made up his own mind.
“It was just really different because I wasn’t used to it and everyone else already knew what they wanted to do,” Cool explained. “And I was just like, ‘This is fun, but I don’t know if I want to do this the rest of my life,’ and I guess I do.”
Now, Cool has a love for music and everything that goes into it, especially when playing together with other musicians.
“It definitely brings a big group of people together because you have to listen to everyone in the group and make sure you’re all in tune and make sure you’re at the same pace,” Cool explained. “There’s a lot that goes into it that people don’t realize, and I think it’s cool.”
Many of Cool’s memories of music and hockey from growing up go hand-in-hand.
“A lot of times, it would be me rushing from our major concerts to a hockey game at Leisure or somewhere far away,” Cool said.
“Williamsville South hockey and band are two of my favorite parts of high school. All of my friends are in one of those two things, and hockey and music go together very well because they just make you more of a well rounded person.”
And just like music, Cool had a breakthrough once he reached high school. He started skating at age 2, and others noticed his skill from a young age and encouraged his parents to sign their son up for a hockey league. But while his skating might have been something that people noticed, his hockey skill — by Cool’s own admission — was not, at least not at first.
“I started skating when I was like 2 with my parents because they did skating lessons through the town of Tonawanda,” Cool said. “I would just skate around with them, and parents would tell them, ‘Oh, you gotta get him into a hockey league. He can skate pretty well.’ So I did, and I just loved it, like everything I wanna do is hockey. I made my parents buy me all the stuff, like plastic sheets so I could use my stick in the street and stuff. I was really bad at hockey, like I didn’t develop at all until I got in high school and grew into myself because I used to be short and stumpy.”
But from there, Cool did grow into himself and was even named to the Bowman Cup team as a junior. And it was his time at South that made the difference, just as it was with music.
“I came into my freshman year — I transferred from Kenmore East after the first quarter, and that’s right when hockey tryouts were,” Cool explained. “I knew the coach at South, so I talked to him and he said I could try out late because he knew me, and then he let me play. I didn’t really get that much time — I got like maybe two shifts a game. And that summer, I went to a lot of Kevin Quick hockey camps, and that’s what really got me into shape because he helped me a lot. I played for Wheatfield that summer, and that was when I started becoming better and realizing I could do better things. And then South came around, and that was just my year.”
Now, the hockey season is just a few months past, and already Cool would go back if he could.
“South hockey — the funnest moments,” Cool said. “I don’t even know what to say about it. I miss it already. It’s crazy. All we did was have fun — practices, games. All we wanted to do was have fun and do well. So if someone was not doing that, we would make sure they would. It was just a crazy season for us.”
The Billies’ season ended with an overtime loss to the eventual state champion Kenmore East after defeating rival West Seneca West. Cool won’t forget either game anytime soon.
“First memory is beating West Seneca West in playoffs,” Cool said. “That was my favorite part about the whole season; that just made my year. And then the second one was walking out of the tunnel for the game against Ken East, and everyone was chanting for us. That feeling was just crazy; there’s nothing like it.”
Although skating and scoring goals in hockey might not have any obvious connections to playing notes on a trombone, Cool learned similar lessons from each.
“There’s not like correlation, but they’re definitely like, if you put the time and work in both, you’ll do well — stuff like that,” Cool explained. “You just have to work at both of them, because neither of them are gonna come easy. And like skating, not everyone can just get on two thin blades and go skate around; and playing instruments, not everyone can play music — it doesn’t come naturally to them.”
And both music and hockey made Cool’s transition to South more than just smooth.
“It helped me make friends right away,” he said. “Everyone was talking to me; they just wanted to be my friend. Especially if you play hockey, people think you’re cool, I guess. It just really helped me out with making friends and being sociable with people.”
Cool hopes to join his cousin on Ohio University’s D2 club hockey team next year. He’s already talked to the coach and hopes that at least for the next few years, he can continue to devote his time to both of his passions.
In high school, it was those experiences and his leaders in each that Cool credits for his positive experiences and all he’s been able to accomplish.
“My coaches and my band directors are the people that guided me to where I am today,” Cool said. “Without them, I wouldn’t have done anything because they’re the ones that pushed me and made me do things, and [South hockey coach Sean] Green helped me get on the Amherst team with [Jeff] Browne and Al [Fix]. So it was all them, basically.”
His most influential band director was his father, of course, and the two shared a moment in Cool’s senior year that neither will forget.
“Just recently, me and my dad played a duet together at my senior farewell concert. It was us with the band accompaniment, so that was cool,” Cool said. “That was the best thing. It was fun. He started crying and stuff.”
Did Mason cry, or just his dad?
“He did,” Cool said quickly. “I don’t cry.”