{"id":369275,"date":"2022-05-27T06:06:51","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=369275"},"modified":"2022-05-27T06:06:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T20:06:51","slug":"ed-big-easy-cosino-bids-saipan-adieu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ed-big-easy-cosino-bids-saipan-adieu\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed \u2018Big Easy\u2019 Cosino bids Saipan adieu"},"content":{"rendered":"
Vedasto \u201cEd\u201d Cosino poses with, from left, his son Tyrone, wife Rowena, and daughter Trixy at the Sugar King Park in Garapan. The veteran center and his family will leave Saipan this Saturday, May 28. (MARK RABAGO )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veteran center Vedasto \u201cEd\u201d Cosino is bidding adieu to Saipan after making the island his home for the past 33 years.<\/p>\n

.\u201cWe want to try living in the U.S. mainland for a change. We\u2019ve lived here more than three decades already so we\u2019re moving to San Leandro first then to San Diego, California,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cosino will relocate to California with his wife Rowena and three of their children\u2014Troy (23 years old), Tyrone (16), and Trixy (11). Two of their elder children\u2014Tristan (30) and Terrence (29)\u2014are based in Cosino\u2019s native Manila, Philippines.<\/p>\n

Asked what he\u2019ll miss most about island life, the many time champion and mythical team member of local leagues said it will be Saipan\u2019s tropical year-round climate and, of course, his close friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is so simple here and I have a lot of good friends here. Almost every day on Saipan is happy and problem-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cosino, who was the starting center of runner-up Eagle Construction in the just concluded masters division of the Inaugural SCLC Basketball League, said his most unforgettable moment on the hardcourts of Saipan happened nearly 30 years ago.
\n

Ed Cosino, who arrived on Saipan in 1989, said he\u2019ll miss the island\u2019s tropical year-round climate and his close friends the most as he relocates to California this Saturday. (MARK RABAGO )
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was when we played the CNMI nationals in a best-of-three championship in 1993. In Game 2, I dominated the inside and outside but in Game 3 we lost because they really won\u2019t let their national teams lose here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Just some of the players in that 1993 CNMI national team were Ray Lizama, Edsel Mendoza, and brothers Tony and Ed Diaz and Peter and Abong Camacho.<\/p>\n

Former CNMI national basketball coach Elias Rangamar said Cosino is one of the smartest players he has known and is the consummate team player. \u201cHe\u2019s always about how he can help his team win. I wish we could\u2019ve played more but all of us have creaking knees now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Division of Sports & Recreation staff said he\u2019ll definitely miss Cosino\u2019s friendship because every time they meet they always talk about the old days of playing basketball at the sauna-like conditions of the old Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to call him the \u2018Big Easy\u2019 because he\u2019s one of the best passing big men and he can shoot outside and he can play inside. I enjoy playing with him as we played together in some leagues. But at the beginning our teams played against each other but there\u2019s always respect. I wish him luck on his future endeavors,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Former Northern Marianas Sports Association president Michael White said Cosino was one heck of a competitor when he squared up against him in the \u201890s.<\/p>\n

\u201cEd was always a tough opponent. I wish him well in whatever the future may hold for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

His coach at Eagle Construction, Boy Garcia, said the 6\u20193\u201d Cosino was one of the most dominant centers on island during his prime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWish him good luck in the next episode of his journey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bong Malasarte, who played with and against Cosino in the past, said the former Philippine Amateur Basketball League player was one of the best players to have come from the Philippines and played on Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWishing you all the best in your new journey. We will miss you in the basketball courts of Saipan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cosino moved to Saipan in 1989 after injuries forced him to quit semi-pro basketball in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

He initially was employed by RB Construction, where he juggled work during the day and played for the company\u2019s team in the evenings and weekends.<\/p>\n

Cosino suited up for champion teams FT-SNE and Toyota Wheels of the early 1990s. <\/p>\n

He would also play for the Tony Sablan-coached Verizon teams in the late 1990s and early 2000. That team went on to dominate the 35-and-over masters league with the likes of Richard \u201cDoc\u201d Brostrom, Dado Vistal, Frank Iglecias, Elmer Pineda, Jack Palacios, and the late Felix Palacios in its lineup.<\/p>\n

Other teams he suited up for in the course of a 33-year basketball career on Saipan were SMF Shell, Visminda, and other notable teams in the UFO Inter-Organizational Basketball League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran center Vedasto \u201cEd\u201d Cosino is bidding adieu to Saipan after making the island his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":369283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}