Park City Senior Charlie Cusimano Credits Coaches for Multisport Success

Charlie Cusimano started hockey in first grade already behind most of his peers. He had picked up the sport later than many of his friends and knew he had ground to make up. The gap would close, though, through years of practice that tested his willingness to push through discomfort before results arrived.

By seventh grade, Cusimano made the A team for his age bracket. The coach waiting for him there would prove to be among the most influential figures in his athletic development. Matt Long, who led Cusimano's teams through seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, ran an older-school program built on conditioning and repetition beyond anything the young player had previously encountered. More conditioning sessions, more drills than ever seemed necessary. Cusimano admits he hated the grind during those practices. The results, however, showed up in the win column: his team started winning more games than losing, a first. One moment anchors that stretch more than any other. His first overtime shootout gave Park City the win, and the memory has stayed with him since.

The work ethic Long instilled carried Cusimano well beyond the rink. Now a senior at Park City High School, he has grown into a multisport athlete whose competitive involvement spans nearly everything the school and community offer. On cold winter days he is on the mountain skiing; when that snow thaws into the rivers of Utah, he trades skis for a fly rod. He may as well have participated in all the team sports Park City has to offer, and his senior year suggests that description is not far off.

That attachment to the town runs through his family as well. Carey and Andy Cusimano each moved separately to Park City in the '90s, found each other there, and fell for the active mountain culture. They settled down, started a family, and Charlie grew to love the same town his parents first loved.

He is described as a driven, thoughtful young man, shaped by the coaches and community sports programs that define athletic development in the valley. The arc of his career backs that portrait: a late starter who absorbed the demands of a hard-nosed coach, emerged with a durable work ethic, and built one of the more complete athletic profiles in Park City High School's senior class.