As a whole, Gwinnett County was slower to adopt lacrosse at the high school level than some other counties, which has shown in the results thus far.
It’s why Gwinnett prep lacrosse teams aren’t competing for and winning state championships yet in the sport, instead they’re trying to close the gap on the best Class AAAAAA teams from north Fulton and Cobb. Gwinnett will win state championships in lacrosse, but it’s not quite at that level.
Certain programs have fared better than others in the introduction to high school lacrosse, and schools with stronger club programs have experienced success more quickly. Others have added the sport even more recently, but it’s starting to take hold all over the county.
Maybe the most inspiring of those high school lacrosse programs is the brand-new one at Meadowcreek.
The school isn’t exactly situated in a lacrosse hotbed, with most of the diverse student body leaning more toward soccer as a primary sport. Traditional American sports like basketball and football also draw major interest from the student body.
But lacrosse? It was tough not to wonder how the introduction of that sport would fare at Meadowcreek, with many in the community not familiar with the game.
After the debut season, the Mustangs’ lacrosse program is doing very well. Sure, it only had one victory overall and the rest losses. But a bunch of kids are competing and learning a new sport, one that’s growing in popularity.
And a few are turning the opportunity into a shot at college lacrosse.
Meadowcreek will have two recent graduates join men’s lacrosse programs later this year — Adedotun Adewumi to Howard Community College in Maryland and Austin Johnson to Lynn University in Florida.
College lacrosse wasn’t completely off the radar for Johnson, who had some experience in the sport before playing in high school. The same can’t be said for Adewumi, who is the perfect example of why lacrosse at Meadowcreek is a good thing.
Adewumi moved into the area from Alabama, hoping that he could play football at the college level. Football didn’t work out, so he gave lacrosse a shot for the first time this spring.
Based on his lacrosse highlights from Meadowcreek — and his athletic, 6-foot-1, 210-pound frame — he earned a spot at Howard Community College, a strong junior college program.
“It is interesting how I got here,” Adewumi said. “I’m not nervous about college lacrosse. I really do love lacrosse now and I don’t struggle with it. … I spoke to the coach yesterday and he likes what he sees on my highlight tape. My high school coach recommended me playing club lacrosse this summer to keep my skills sharp. I’m looking forward to that.”
I’m looking forward to hearing more stories like his out of Meadowcreek in the coming years. Those will be as fun to write as the ones sure to come about Gwinnett teams winning high school lacrosse titles.
Comments are closed.