Freshman Johnny Costello: A Bulldog from the Beginning

Photo by Mike Dickie

If you were to walk into Arrington Ice Arena in August of 2012 and walk back to the locker room to get dressed for a sticks and puck session, you more than likely would’ve found eleven year old Johnny Costello getting ready to hit the ice for more than likely the second time that day. He kept his gear in a locker over the summer after one of the zamboni drivers gave him a lock and key for him to lock his gear up in because he was skating everyday anyway. A normal day would usually entail at least one two hour open skate and another two hour sticks and pucks session. If he wasn't skating, you could find him tormenting the student workers at the front desk (we even had a Nerf war one summer in the rink lobby) And if he had it his way, he’d get to skate six hours a day.

You could probably say that Johnny had become a staple at Arrington Ice Arena throughout the years, often times the only skater on the ice for sticks and pucks and famously skating everyday for at least four hours a day from around July 9th when the rink opened back up until labor day weekend when his hockey season would begin. And after that, you would find him in seat 1 of row A in section C watching his beloved Bulldogs take the ice every weekend.

Where did it all begin? Well, it, naturally, all began at Arrington Ice Arena when players from the D3 Gold and Black teams decided to help coach his youth hockey team. He insisted on going to all of their games to support them because they supported him and coached his team.

And that’s where it all began.

From Thursday night D1 games to watching his beloved Gold Squad win nationals three times in a row over FastHockey when he couldn’t make the trek across the country for the tournament, Johnny’s love for hockey was nurtured and grew over the years because of Adrian College hockey and the players and coaches. that have passed through the program. Adrian College is the most amazing place to have the opportunity to play hockey as a youth player. His team would attend NCAA and ACHA D1 games and get to go into the locker rooms after games where each player would sign a team photo, photos he still has hanging on his wall in his room.

The zamboni drivers joked that they were going to build him a bunk in the zam room so he could just spend all of his time at Arrington Ice Arena. When he went to his first all-day camp at ten years old, it was Coach Berger and the rest of the coaches at the rink who made him feel less homesick by sneaking him cookies at lunch when they saw him and giving him piggyback rides to and from the rink throughout the day.

When his bag was stolen from the locker room in 2012, Stavros Paskaris, the Men’s NCAA assistant coach, gave him his old hockey bag he had carried when he played pro hockey. Johnny carried the blue Reebok bag until earlier this year when it finally fell apart.

Back in 2011, when the Gold Squad brought home Adrian College’s first national championship in any sport, senior Andrew Connelly handed the national championship trophy to then ten year old Johnny (who almost dropped it).

In 2013, the first year he played youth hockey away from Adrian, he returned to Arrington Ice Arena with his new team to play against Adrian and the boards were lined with Adrian College Hockey players there to cheer him on. They'd done the same the year prior when his team hosted the first ever playoff game in their youth hockey. association's history (in which he scored the first playoff goal). After the game, one of the Gold Squad players, Colin, asked Johnny for his autograph. Johnny signed a slip of paper that Colin later told him after the season was over that he kept in his glove while he played all the way through the 2013 National Championship game.

In 2015 when former MD1 Bulldog Max Gavin took over Johnny’s beloved Gold Squad, he came to Johnny and told him it was time for him to have a role on the team and made Johnny his equipment manager and the next season Johnny filled the same role for the D1 team when Coach Gary Astalos took over for the Bulldogs. From then on, you could find Johnny next to the bench in his khakis and Adrian College Hockey polo shirt and Bauer jacket.

In the 2017-18 season when the MD1 team won the national championship, Johnny was this time there in person, on the bench as the buzzer rang. You can find him in the team photo hanging behind the bleachers at Arrington Ice Arena and he even had his own “moment” with the trophy when it got passed around through the team.

You could imagine his surprise when he arrived at the National Championship Banquet a few weeks later to find his name engraved on the trophy. On gamedays, you can find him next to the bench wearing his 2018 National Championship ring.

Needless to say, Johnny has dreamed of being a Bulldog since he first stepped foot on the ice at Arrington Ice Arena at six years old when he played his first of many games on AIA’s ice.

Even after playing three years in Ann Arbor, three years in Chelsea and one in Lansing, his heart has been in Adrian with the goal of being a Bulldog in the 2020-21 season. He still spends his summers (save for this one thanks to COVID) at Arrington Ice Arena, but now he has his own following of younger kids who spend hours chasing after him and skating with him at sticks and pucks.

So when he was told this summer that the official recruiting process would begin soon, he was ecstatic.

December 19th, 2019, after over ten years of dreaming, Johnny was officially accepted at Adrian College and on January 23rd, he signed a commitment letter to play ACHA Hockey at Adrian College, just like the people who had become the biggest part of his life in the past decade. And some of the first people he texted and called after he got the news were the very same guys who had coached him as a nine year old, people who had coached for Adrian when he was little and looked up to and the zamboni drivers who looked after him like he was their own kid through the years. If I were to try to list every person who had had a profound impact on him, I would more than likely forget a few and this post would be way too long.

Today, August 16th, 2020, if you were to walk into the locker rooms of Arrington Ice Arena, you would once again find Johnny’s gear (although COVID sort of ruined the whole skating forty hours a week all summer thing), this time, finding a permanent home behind the yellow locker doors.

And this season, on gamedays, you’ll find him (hopefully) on the ice and on the bench, this time wearing a Bulldog sweater and in the same shoes as the guys who inspired his love for the game over ten years ago.

Back where it all began.