Gone are the days when most high school athletes transitioned from sport to sport with each change of season. In this era of showcases and specialization, many elite athletes lock into one sport to maximize college scholarship potential...but some kids at Lake Highland Prep are bucking that trend.
The Highlanders polished off Benjamin to capture their 3rd state lacrosse championship in 4 seasons, last spring.
For 6 members of the squad, offseason lacrosse cross training means trading in the sticks for shinguards on the varsity soccer team. These aren’t just run of the mill players, virtually all these young men, are key starters and will be playing high level NCAA lacrosse.
“ I think these are the leaders of the team, most of them have been on the team," says head boys lacrosse coach Chris Spaulding. "Most of them have been on the team since their freshman year, if not they’ve been three year contributors to our team. Reid was our leading scorer. Kyle was second in scoring. Don is one of the biggest players between the lines. It is our best guys, Jackson did what he did last year as sophomore. I think he might have been in the top 4 scoring if not the top 3, so yeah, it’s our best guys!”
And they are among the best on the pitch as well. All have had starting roles…and the groundwork was laid by the first few lacrosse players who crossed over 4 years ago.
Highlanders head boys soccer coach Chris Mills says, “It’s these kids that are here now that kind of saw that and they really…Jackson, Don, Reid, Griff, Kyle, Tiger (Graham) they saw that and they said hey let’s start playing soccer so. I think they were all eighth graders at the time, playing on the eighth grade team. They won the championship, had a good year. It kind of translated, they had a good year so they just kept playing, and we’ve had them ever since. They’ve been great assets to the program”
“Soccer is a really fun sport," says Jackson Colling, a Lake Highland junior. "We’re all lacrosse players we’ve just tried to transition over to soccer to get an extra sport under our belt. As a kid, I played soccer, and quit in 6th grade and decided to pick it back up because I had a few friends on the team, so I thought I’d give it a try a few years ago”
“I’ve got the full support of Chris (Spauding). Obviously without that we wouldn’t have these guys," adds Mills. "I think he also knows that I understand their first sport is lacrosse. So there are times when they miss things because of showcases on the weekends or whatever. Similar to the soccer guys as well, but we’ve got a hgood relationship. I’ll text him, hey so and so had a good night tonight, and he loves it. He loves to see those guys involved with the school support and everything that we do here.”
Reid Thedford a goalscorer in lacrosse, and a goalkeeper in soccer says Spaulding is supportive of dual sports athletes," If we aren’t playing two sports he wants us to hit the gym, and stay in shape, but he loves the fact that we play soccer, it really helps our lacrosse game.”
“It makes them better," explains Spaulding. "I think the most important thing is that you are allowing kids to be kids and just to have fun playing. I think in our day and age growing up, you played everything and just wanted to play everything, you went from season to season and now, I don’t know the reason for it but there is all the colleges, and opportunities to go get scholarships and stuff like that, now there is just a lot more specialization”
While the skillsets feature obvious differences, lacrosse and soccer do have similarities, according to Highlanders junior Don Eidson,“It’s really similar for me. Because in lacrosse I play midfielder it’s just a ton of running, I sprint on the field, and off the field. It’s the same for playing center back in soccer, if the ball goes over your head it’s a sprint down to it passing to one of your teammates”
Senior Kyle Richbourg adds, "Running is more straight is soccer, it’s more like I will go through on a through-ball or something but definitley when I’m reading a defender. Like in lacrosse, i’ll dodge him, i’ll read his hips or his feet, but in soccer I will look at the same aspects, and use my quickness to get around them.”
“The pace of play and the fluidity of it is a big one," says Mills. We’ve seen a few little things that we’ve had to tweak that don’t necessarily translate, one of which is the physicality of the game. I think in lacrosse you can hit the man almost (laughs) …exactly…can’t do that in soccer, so we’ve had to reign in these guys a little bit””
Spaulding has a different take, “I think what coach Mills would say is that our guys bring to that team a little bit of toughness, coming from lacrosse which is more of a contact sport than soccer”
In addition to that tough,physical presence, these lads bring something far more valuable to the soccer program: Their championship pedigree.
“They don’t know how to lose, and that’s something you can’t teach, you can’t coach, says Mills. "Winning is habit, and becomes a habit, and for these guys it is, because they don’t lose a lot in lacrosse, they’ve won state championships, and I often draw on that and their leadership from that.”
“That’s the one thing I can say about Reid Thedford, Griff Caliguri, Don Eidson, Jackson Colling those guys, is that they are, they’re winners," says Spaulding. "They’re guys you want on your team. There’s guys that when the going gets tough, they figure out a way to win, and they figure out a way to get it done and hopefully if they’re bringing that kind of attitude and swagger to the soccer team…then great!”
“We hate losing" admits Richbourg. "We never lost a state championship. I don’t expect to lose one this year and it definitely carries on to soccer. Nobody is going to outwork us I can guarantee you that.”
Senior Griff Caligiuri, a physical senior defender in lacrosse, but a hard-nosed striker in soccer adds, “It’s different in soccer because we have draws too and draws feel like a loss to us too. We never draw in lacrosse, you either win or lose so we take it personal. We are trying to go far this year both in soccer in lacrosse.”
These Highlanders rule the “fastest game on two feet”, but relish their involvement with the “beautiful game”
"They really do love it," says Mills. "Whether it’s FIFA (video game) or watching the EPL games on the weekend they love it get into it, they all have fantasy teams. I think for them a lot of them lacrosse is such a specialized thing for them, that soccer is almost the thing they get to go out there and have fun, there’s no pressure on them, they don’t have to worry about getting into college Wfor it because they’re playing college lacrosse.”
Spaulding adds: “ I just think they have a love for the game. I think its great, I.m big in support of it, and if it helps the team and those guys enjoy doing it it’s great. I think they are going to get enough of me, and lacrosse in the spring. This is a good break for them.”
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