Roberta Cozad tried to make the Geneva softball team into a family in her two years at the helm.

After some careful consideration, Cozad is stepping away from the team for her family.

Her daughter, Joslin, who will be a year old on Tuesday, was born with shoulder dissocia and her left arm was left temporarily paralyzed. She had surgery to move a nerve from her foot to her shoulder and March 20 and is required to undergo therapy two or three times a week.

“I was missing therapy,” Cozad said. “We’d schedule an appointment and a game would get rescheduled and rescheduled again.

“(The decision) was easy in that I knew what I had to do for my family. It was difficult to walk away from the program that we as coaches were trying to build.”

The need of a mother to do everything she can for her daughter is Cozad’s only reason for walking away.

“I want to focus on Joslin,” Cozad said. “I don’t want to look back and say, ‘If only I’d done this or been there for that, it would’ve made a difference.’ The doctors say on the far extreme, she might be able to lift her arm to brush her hair.”

Cozad, who compiled a 20-27 record over her two seasons, regarded her tenure at Geneva as a success.

“Maybe I’m wrong, but my philosophy is that I don’t think you have to have a good won-loss record to have a successful season. I know that’s old fashioned. I saw the kids grow by leaps and bounds from the first day of practice two years ago to the last day this year.”

Those leaps and bounds included the Eagles reaching heights they themselves never knew possible, though Cozad and her staff believed they would.

“(The best part of coaching) was getting the girls to reach goals they didn’t think were achievable. They would reach one of those goals and look at and be just shocked. I’d look at them and I say I’d known the whole time it would happen, just like the rest of the coaches, you just had to believe.”

One of those goals was securing a sectional championship win, 1-0, over Northeastern Conference power Edgewood at the Warriors home field following a seventh-inning double by Jennie Avsec in 2008.

“Those moments are special, not because I’m coaching and get a win,” Cozad said. “It’s the looks on their faces. You look at them and see the pleasure on their faces. That’s what it’s all about. You watch all the hard work and dedication pay off, like when they’re outside fielding fly balls in a parking lot in the snow. At the end of the season, the payoff is what it’s all about for me.”

Cozad enjoyed the relationships she formed with her girls.

“It’s such a cliché, but you form bonds with the kids. I’ll feel a little twinge of jealousy when I see them start to form those bonds with another coach.”

Those attachments between coach and player were part of what Cozad tried to do as a coach. She wanted her players and coaches to become like a family. She treated them as if they were her own daughters.

“One thing I’ve always been big on is the safety of the kids and their well-being,” Cozad said. “Athletics breeds kids to be well-mannered. One thing I’ve always tried impress upon is sportsmanship.

“Brittany Powers hurt her knee. She wanted to play the next game. I said under no circumstances was I going to let her play. She wanted to play through it. As much as I want to win, I don’t want to take a chance and ruin the rest of her life. I look after them like a mother hen.”

Speaking of family, Cozad’s could be found at the field with her and the team nearly every day. Her husband, Kyle, served as an assistant coach and Joslin and older brother Benjamin were there, too.

“I love to coach sports in general,” Cozad said. “When Kyle and I were discussing me walking away from the basketball job at Richmond Heights because I had Benjamin, he said to me that I didn’t want to lose who I was because we have children.

“That stayed with me. I want my children to see what I do, see what I love and be a part of it. It’s easier to see their face from across the field than at home at while they’re asleep at 8 or 9 o’clock.”

Kyle Cozad may have liked being a part of the program every bit as much as Roberta did. And with her resigning the post, he, too, will be affected.

“Kyle and I had a lot of late talks about it,” Roberta Cozad said. “There were times I’d say, ‘I just can’t do it anymore.’ ” The next night I’d come back and say that I come back and say I couldn’t give it up. He let me make my decision.

“It was the program I chose. He helped. He loves it just as much as I do. It was a decision we definitely had to make together. It’s something that I’m now taking away from him, as well.”

Cozad believes she will be back coaching. And she’ll probably be back sooner rather than later.

“Kyle and I talked a lot about it a lot,” Cozad said. “I don’t see myself staying away too long. Kyle and I are very sports-minded people. It’s going to be really difficult not to be involved.”

Though she is no longer the softball coach, Cozad will keep her position as the seventh-grade basketball coach for varsity coach Nancy Barbo’s Eagles.

“I’ll still coach basketball,” Cozad said. “I love basketball. It’s a little easier to deal with — scheduled games don’t typically change much. I can work around that with Joslin’s therapy.”

But when she is ready to return, Cozad will be mindful of whoever is currently coaching the Eagles.

“If someone’s coaching, I won’t come in and try to take the program away. I won’t be trying to come in and push somebody out.”

The timetable for a possible return will coincide with the success of Joslin’s therapy.

“The doctors said she has to have about two years of pretty intense therapy,” Cozad said. “After two years, from the day of the surgery, we’ll see how she’s going to peak out in regard to the movement she’ll have in her arm for the rest of her life.”

Cozad’s players, mostly underclassmen, won’t be glad to see her go.

“They were pretty sad,” Cozad said. “They wished me well. They understand. They were there. They knew I missed several practices for Joslin’s surgery. They were concerned. They sent me text messages while I was gone.

“They were an awesome group of kids since I’ve been here. You start to build a family with them. As a coach, you spend more time with those kids than you do your own family. It’s hard to walk away that.”

The successes Cozad had with the Eagles were not all her own. She says her predecessor, Tony Markijohn, and her assistants played big roles.

“I do want to give credit for the success of the last two season to Tony and the kids,” Cozad said. “I had a lot of good kids and players to work with. I can’t take credit for all of the wins we got last year. Someone had to help build them before I got there.

“I couldn’t have completed this season without all of my assistants. Eleshia Pitcher did a great job when I wasn’t there. Jeff Stevenson and Randy Brookes both helped tremendously. Not only when I wasn’t there, but in the dugout when I was, too. It was good to have different viewpoints.”

Cozad wants her players to take some memories with them. Though some of them won’t be pleasant ones.

“I want them to remember those 20-minute runs,” Cozad joked. “I’m sure they’ll never forget those runs. They hated them.”

In turning serious, Cozad added some more.

“You don’t remember season records or scores of games unless you go undefeated,” Cozad said. “You remember the things you did that were fun. That’s what’s important.

“We took a picture of all the girls after the Edgewood game at home. It was pouring rain. Every one of the seniors dove into home plate head first. They covered in mud from head to toe. It was muddy and gross.

“They won’t remember if they won or lost 10 years from now. They’ll remember sliding into home. I want them to make the best of the seasons they get. You don’t get too many more after the one you’re in.”

As for Cozad, she’ll take those same memories with her.

“If you ask me what the scores of half our games were, I’d tell you I had no idea,” Cozad said. “But, honestly, I’ll remember the major things that happened, like Jennie hitting that double. You asked how many innings that game went and I don’t know. I don’t care.

“I just remember winning that game.”