By Bobby Narang
Basketball runs in the Cohn family.
So does the Jack Tosh Holiday Tournament.
Let former York High School star point guard, David Cohn, explain the long-running Tournament’s worth to his family.
“My uncle is a huge high school sports fan,” Cohn said. “He went to York games a lot, and brought me and my cousin along. We loved it. As 10-year- olds, we wanted nothing more than to star at York in the championship game of the Tosh.
“We would be out in the backyard doing fake starting lineups and fake simulations of the games. We were personally fond of the Joe Acosta and Steve Crane teams.”
Several years later, Cohn helped guide the Dukes to the 2012 Jack Tosh Holiday championship, to end a three-decade long championship drought. Cohn was named the Most Valuable Player for the Tournament, the first time York captured the team championship in 30 years.
“It was things coming full circle for me and my cousin, my uncle, and dad,” Cohn said. “We had watched it and wanted to achieve it, and fortunately we were able to actually live that out. I’m pretty sentimental, so those types of things are really important to me and I cherish times like that.”
His younger brother, Erik, experienced winning the Tournament in 2018, in the midst of one of the best seasons in the storied York’s basketball history.
“My dad was the head of the concession for the tournament and I would help him get Gatorade, coke, and other stuff for the Tournament, and then we would watch my brother play,” Erik Cohn said. “The Tournament is so unique to York, and it’s an amazing tournament. Winning the Tournament in my senior year was the pinnacle of my career as a Duke.”
The 2020 tournament, though, fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the 47th annual tournament canceled. With the high school basketball season still on pause, York first-year head coach Mike Dunn must wait for his first opportunity to coach in the Tournament.
University of North Dakota freshman guard, Nate Shockey, a 2019 York graduate, scored 23 points in the 2019 championship-game loss to Bolingbrook.
Shockey said he will always cherish his experiences playing in the Jack Tosh Tournament.
“As a player, everyone on the team looked forward to the Tosh because we hosted it and it was a chance to play in front of our fans,” Shockey said. “I will always remember the atmosphere in the gym against Downers Grove South in 2018 (in the championship game) It was New Year’s Eve, and we were able to beat them after going back and forth the whole game. Celebrating with our student section after the game was a fun memory that I’ll always have.”