By: Jake Wilson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPlaying Basketball here at Cortland might be the best decision I\u2019ve ever made because I made a family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Aaron Coston, basketball has always been a part of his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGrowing up, my whole family was into basketball and I have three brothers, and they all played basketball, and I was just surrounded by basketball. Said Coston, \u201cMy father played. My mom was an athlete in high school too, and she loved basketball, so I\u2019ve just been surrounded by basketball my whole life, and like my first steps were to go pick up a basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the lifelong and familial connection to the game, his path to Cortland wasn\u2019t so simple. Aaron is from Kerhonkson, a small town in Ulster County, NY.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy recruitment process was kind of tough because I was from an area where I didn\u2019t get much notoriety\u201d, Coston said. \u201cBut I got some people to reach out to me, but it wasn\u2019t like they were that serious about me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That changed when Aaron\u2019s brother, Avery Coston, who was a member of the Cortland basketball team, reached out to Coach Maurice Kearny, often referred to as Coach Mo.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a hard process, but my oldest brother went here as well, and he played on the basketball team,\u201d Coston said. \u201cAnd he knew Coach Mo from being on the team. And he reached out to Mo for me. Coach Mo drove six hours up to my playoff game. He came to one of my biggest games and it was actually my 1,000th point game and he watched me get my 1,000th point and asked me if I could stay in touch with him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From then on, Aaron was secured as a Red Dragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as the 6-foot-7 inch 230 pound forward made it on to the court as a Red Dragon it was hard to miss him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coston was named Rookie of the Year his Freshman Season, earned First-Team All-SUNYAC honors as a sophomore, and repeated as a First-Team All-SUNYAC honors as a junior while also being selected to the NABC All-District Three Second Team. This season he scored his 1,000th point, was named the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Division III National Player of the Week, and earned SUNYAC Tournament MVP honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On top of all of that, Coston helped lead Cortland to back-to-back SUNYAC Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet despite all of his accomplishments across his career Coston said he remains unfulfilled.
\u201cI have very high expectations for myself,\u201d Coston said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I accomplished everything that I\u2019ve wanted to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Aaron however, individual success was never his priority. He always wanted to strive for a bigger goal: changing the program.
\u201cMy biggest thing I wanted to do was change the program.\u201d Coston said, \u201cThat\u2019s what me and Coach Mo always talked about was to come in and make an impact and make a change because Cortland basketball hasn\u2019t really made a lot of noise in many years. And I feel like that was the biggest one to check off the list, and I feel like I\u2019ve done that, and I have no regrets for what I\u2019ve done here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This mindset of his hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior forward and fellow team captain Kendall Arcuri, Coston\u2019s longtime roommate and close friend, described Coston as a leader both on and off the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s practice or just helping other dudes off the court, like, anytime anyone needs a ride he\u2019ll be there anytime anyone needs, you know, to be picked up or needs on the court a pickup as well,\u201d Said Arcuri. “He’s definitely the first one to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior guard and fellow team captain Gaige Armbrewster echoed similar statements, pointing to another strong point of Aaron\u2019s character, his drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFirst guy to practice, last guy to leave, getting in the extra work,\u201d Said Armbrewster. \u201cAlways trying to make himself better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with his work ethic and supportive attitude towards his teammates, Armbrewster also noted Aaron\u2019s skill with a basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe can shoot the ball at will,\u201d Armbrewster said. \u201cIf people are running at him, he\u2019s gonna go by you, and he\u2019s gonna dunk on you. If you want to get him down in the post, people send a double team out, and he\u2019s either gonna to score or he\u2019s gonna pass out to the open guy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arcuri emphasized those same sentiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna have to say his ability to do everything,\u201d Arcuri said. \u201cHe shot very well this year, and um you have a really big dude who is phenomenal in the post, also spacing out the floor and being able to shoot the three. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Aaron\u2019s time is up, his achievements will forever be cemented in Cortland\u2019s legacy, both his individual accolades and the success the team had during his years in the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Jake Wilson \u201cPlaying Basketball here at Cortland might be the best decision I\u2019ve ever made because I made a family.\u201d For Aaron Coston, basketball has always been a part of his life. \u201cGrowing up, my whole family was into basketball and I have three brothers, and they all played basketball, and I was just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":496,"featured_media":10378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/2023DSC_7032-600x400.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2026\/04\/2023DSC_7032-600x600.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"jake.wilson","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/jake-wilson\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}