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Boys’ lacrosse: Things are looking up for Chaminade’s Perkins

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

We don’t get too much lacrosse posted on the blog, but this feel-good tidbit on Chaminade’s Cory Perkins was too good for me to pass up.

While manning the prep phones last week, I received a call from Chaminade Coach J.D. Lopez, who told me about how Perkins became the first Chaminade boys’ lacrosse player to sign with a Division I school when he inked a letter of intent to attend Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y. last November. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who follows local lacrosse -- after all, the four-year starter entered his final season last week as the Eagles’ all-time leading scorer with 137 goals and 111 assists over 45 games.

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What surprised me, though, is how much lacrosse has played in motivating Perkins to do better in the classroom.

Perkins has always been into sports, but his grades didn’t always play along when he was in junior high. While in sixth and seventh grade at Chaminade middle school, Perkins’ 1.7 GPA prevented him from playing full seasons of football, soccer and golf. As you can imagine, he became really depressed and felt as if there was no way he could turn things around.

But everything changed once Lopez introduced him to lacrosse in the eighth grade. ‘I never fell so much in love with a sport until I started playing lacrosse,’ said Perkins, whose team is off to a 1-1 start. ‘It helped me find my way and made me feel good about myself again.’

Seeing how starstruck and dedicated Perkins became to lacrosse, Lopez convinced Chaminade’s middle-school principal to temporarily lift the academic ban on Perkins so he could play. And Perkins didn’t disappoint -- not only did his grades shoot up, but he quickly established himself as one of the most talented players on the team.

Since then, Perkins hasn’t run into any academic snags and will be graduating this June with a cumulative GPA over 3.0. He’ll also go out as one of the best HS lacrosse players ever to grace SoCal turf.

‘I’m loving life right now and lacrosse is a big reason why everything is going great,’ Perkins said. ‘I’m really looking forward to playing at Wagner and the future, in general.’

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By the way, here’s a quick YouTube video of Perkins doing what he loves best:

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Special thanks to Cory for the photo

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