MILTON, Ga. — What started as a centuries old sport invented by Native Americans has now become one of the fastest growing competitive sports in the country. No longer just popular in the Northeast, North American Indian Stickball, now known as lacrosse, is bouncing across the South.

As King’s Ridge Lacrosse Coach, Jamie Davidson, prepares for what could be his dream season. He’s teaching these boys, sometimes it’s not how good you are, it’s how bad you want it.

Davidson started coaching lacrosse in 2002. In 2019, King’s Ridge Christian School tapped him to coach the inaugural season of boys’ varsity lacrosse, where he was determined to bring his Northeast style of coaching down to the South.

“What is most challenging about coaching the sport of lacrosse is how dynamic and fast moving the sport is,” says Davidson. “The sport is known as “the fastest game on two feet.” With the combination of speed, physicality, and stick skills, it takes a lot of commitment from each player on the team in order for us to perform at a high level collectively.”

A native of Syracuse, New York, Coach Davidson played lacrosse at Fayetteville-Manilus High School, then West Point recruited him to play lacrosse for Army.

Growing up, Davidson played football, basketball, and lacrosse, passing on his passion for sports to his three sons, James, a sophomore, Christian, a freshman, and Zach, an 8th grader at King’s Ridge Christian School. Wide open spaces, great restaurants, and a variety of activities drew Coach Davidson and his wife, Kristin, to Milton. You may see them around town, dining at their local favorite, Casa Nuova, or taking their cavapoo, Olivia, for a golf cart ride through their neighborhood.

“I love also that King’s Ridge Christian School is located here in the area and that the boys are able to attend school in such a terrific academic environment,” says Davidson.

And while lacrosse may be relatively new at King’s Ridge, the roar of the KR Tigers can be heard around Georgia. The past two seasons, King’s Ridge has been ranked the #1 1A school in the state (and top 10 in all 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A schools). Even the pandemic couldn’t put a stop to the Tigers, ranking as high as #2 in 1A schools during the 2021 season.

“I’m really excited for the upcoming season as we look to compete for a state championship,” says Davidson. We have an incredible group of dedicated and talented players led by our seven amazing seniors, Jack Deady, Asher Deady, Dean Giacobbe, Ethan Joseph, Nolan Raines, Cole Dresher, and Brant Satterly.”

It’s a special group of seniors since four years ago, they all signed on for KR’s first season of varsity lacrosse. Now some of these athletes, like senior, Dean Giacobbe, earned a spot on colle-giate rosters.

“Coach Jamie continues to push us to be our best on and off the field,” says Giacobbe. “He has a passion for lacrosse and is always 100% committed to help us get better as a team.”

The athletes enjoy playing for Davidson, as much as he loves coaching them.

“During one game, one of our midfielders, Grant Roth, turned the ball over against one of our toughest opponents, and Holy Innocents went racing down the field with the ball towards our goal. Grant began hustling back running by the bench and I called out, “Grant you need to make that up.” Moments later, Grant caught up with the player and checked his opponents stick so hard the player’s stick with the ball still in it went flying out of his hands onto the ground (which is very rare). We got the ball back and went down and scored. Grant came to the sideline with a big smile on face and said, ‘Coach, I heard you say I needed to make up for it. How did I do?’ I was like, ‘Um, very good’ with a big smile. It was an incredible play by Grant.”

With King’s Ridge starting its 4th year of varsity lacrosse, the school already has multiple commitments at the college level and several more committing this year.

“I take pride in not just helping our players be successful on the field, but I really care a lot about helping them get into the top colleges of their choice whether that is to play D1, D2, D3, club lacrosse, or not.”

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