Superlatives Roll In for Preseason Player of the Year Coby Auslander

Dangerous. Explosive. Do-it-all. Elite. High IQ. Ask a few Division III coaches what they think about Christopher Newport’s Coby Auslander, and the superlatives start rolling in.

The midfielder returns to lead a Captains roster beyond their quarterfinal exit in the NCAA tournament a season ago. In the process, Auslander looks poised to elevate his own game to new heights as the USA Lacrosse Magazine Division III Men’s Preseason Player of the Year.

Last year, Auslander registered 76 points. In the process, he set a new school record for assists (46). Not a record for midfielders, mind you. This was the assists record for all positions. That total also led the conference and was top 25 in the nation.

He set a program record for points in a season by a midfielder, and had the fourth-most productive season in school history. Over the last three seasons, he has appeared in 40 games and registered at least one point in 39 of them. He’s one of four players in school history with over three points per game.

“Coby is such a versatile player,” Christopher Newport head coach Mikey Thompson said. “He’s one of our most competitive players. He’s consistent; he’s dynamic. He does the dirty work and the smart work that really makes the offense go. He is that type of complete player that makes everyone around him better.”

Auslander’s playmaking ability is unique. But it’s not just his lacrosse background that makes him stand out. Auslander was a captain, and earned all-state recognition, in three sports at Princeton Day School. His vision and understanding of defensive schemes allow him to beat his defender, something he does with tremendous consistency, and instantly diagnose both where help is coming from and where the ball needs to go.

“He was a phenomenal hockey player,” Thompson said. “He was between college lacrosse and college hockey, and an all-state soccer player. That well-rounded of an athlete, someone who has taken pieces from other sports, is pretty rare. It’s something we look for in recruiting for sure.”

Now with just one sport on his mind, Auslander’s lacrosse ability has reached another level.

“He has that multi-sport style, where he just sees the game and does things that translate to soccer, hockey and lacrosse,” Thompson said. “Now that he’s focusing on one, he draws on that experience to see the game at another level. The game has slowed down for him.”

As if his offensive QB play wasn’t enough, Auslander impacts the defensive end, too. He caused 10 turnovers and picked up 26 ground balls a year ago.

“We were playing Ursinus, he was out on defense, and got inverted. You could tell the dodger was relaxing a bit,” Thompson recalled. “Coby took the ball from him, ran down the field and made a play on the offensive end.”

Auslander had seven points in that game, including six assists, to lead the team to a 16-5 win.

As for this spring, it’s another evolution for Auslander. No longer just a leader on the stat sheet, Auslander was picked to be captain of a CNU team that has what it takes on paper to get to Championship Weekend.

“He was named a captain, which was well earned. He’s a very vocal leader,” Thompson said. “He sees the game so well. We’re proud of how he uses his voice to get guys organized and figure out where we want to attack from.”

After an All-American season setting school records, Auslander won’t sneak up on anyone. He’ll be at the top of scouting reports all spring. He’ll have plenty of top-tier matchups, as the CNU schedule is loaded. Stevenson, St. John Fisher, RIT, Dickinson, Washington and Lee, Hampden-Sydney, Williams, Lynchburg, Salisbury — that’s just the schedule through the first week of April.

Every week, CNU will take on some of the best teams in the nation. With that many Top 20 opponents, it’ll take more than just on-field production for Auslander to make a deep run.

“With Coby and our captains, I made it clear I wasn’t going to judge their role as a captain based on stats or on the field. It was going to be on leadership,” Thompson said. “The way they bring the other guys around them up. How they set the standard on the practice field. I’m not looking at numbers. The trap is thinking, ‘I had this many points last year, so I need to improve that.’ That’s just not how it works. After a breakout year like that, defenses cue up differently. It impacts how you play.”

As for goals Auslander might be setting for himself, Thompson said all players at that level have the same one in mind.

“I think every kid of that caliber has high expectations. They want to be the best player on the field on the last day of the season,” he said. “Coby just wants to win. He doesn’t care what his role his. He wants to help the team win.”