Friends Remember Fallen WHS Grad as Fierce Competitor, Fun Person

Mary Kostikian’s soccer and basketball jerseys will be presented to her family today when family and friends will gather today to pay remember .

The tribute is fitting for the two-sport captain at Watertown High School, who is remembered as a fierce competitor who also had a great sense of humor. She graduated from WHS in 2009 and was a sophomore at Assumption College.

Kostikian was a coach’s dream, said Stacie Marino, who was her soccer coach for four years. She was one of the team’s captains her senior year.

“She was he type of player, as a coach, you want,” Marino said. “She was a fierce competitor and she had the personality that could bring a group together.

“She could bring comic relief, too. She could always make someone smile.”

News of Kostikian’s death shook her friends at the high school and her former teammates, said John Rimas, who was her basketball coach. People talked about the fun times they spent with her.

“Teachers and student who knew her shared funny stories about Mary,” Rimas said. “That’s what Mary would have wanted, remembering the good times.”

When her teammates on the basketball team chose Kostikian as captain, Rimas said he thought it was the right choice.

The summer before her senior year, Kostikian encouraged her teammates to continue working out in the off season, but it might have been something she did off the court the previous year that really made the team take notice, Rimas said.

“Her junior year she had a really bad flu, and she was wiped out and missed a lot of the season,” Rimas said. “She would come to games and sit in the stands with her mom and cheer the team on. I think that got a lot of attention.”

News spread quickly about Kostikian, Rimas said.

“I heard from a lot of former players,” Rimas said. “We reconnected.”

Marino hopes to put in a plaque at the soccer field in memory of Kostikian. Tuesday, she plans to go to the wake with the girls’ soccer team to pay tribute to their friend and teammate.

“She was just a tremendous athlete, an amazing girl,” Marino said. “She was so full of life. It’s a huge loss for the community and the school.”

Funeral Service will be held at , 465 Mt. Auburn St. in Watertown on Wednesday, April 13 at 11 a.m. Visiting hours will be held in Saint James on Tuesday, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.