By John Hepokoski
UWRF Sports Information

The Falcon men's basketball team is having a tough year in the win-loss column, but have many good players, including guard Eric Kossoris, who has the talents and skills to help the team improve.

Kossoris started playing youth basketball in second grade and loved the game right away.

He grew up in Waukesha, Wis., with his parents and his sister who helped Kossoris throughout his basketball career.

Kossoris played high school ball at Waukesha South High School where he averaged 15 points his senior season.

Kossoris earned many high school accolades including three varsity letters and a second team all-conference award.

"Our team was not really good my senior year but we were able to make a nice run in the playoffs and we won three consecutive games."

Kossoris also participated in football in high school and played the occasional recreation volleyball match.

River Falls was Kossoris? college of choice because it gave him the best opportunity to play a lot of minutes on the basketball court.

In his freshman season, Kossoris was red-shirted but was definitely a future asset for the Falcons.

His second season is River Falls brought Kossoris his first minutes of playing time. In 21 appearances Kossoris averaged 10 minutes a game and played a huge roll defensively. His defensive talents helped the Falcons win the 2004 WIAC title.

In his sophomore season, Kossoris increased his offensive production by scoring just over 9 points a game and played the fourth most minutes on the team.

This season Kossoris has kept his scoring average up and is second on the team averaging 8.8 s game, second on the team.

Kossoris remembers most the conference championship run the Falcons made a couple years back and noted it as a very fun year.

"I really do not have any goals for myself, it is pretty much all about the team making the playoffs and hopefully going on a winning streak."

The Falcons always have a tough match up each night because of the balance in the WIAC.

"We've have a pretty rough first half of the season but I think that we are starting to come together. The second half of the season is all conference games so we'll take it from there, hopefully get some wins, and get a nice seed in the playoffs."

Kossoris plans on spending the break playing a lot of basketball and just enjoying the time off from school.

In his spare time Kossoris stays concentrated on school balanced with spending time with his friends. He is also an avid movie fan and likes to watch them whenever possible.

Kossoris is major in elementary education and looks forward to finishing both his basketball career and studies.

Eric Kossoris