Making a high school varsity sport is a tough feat to accomplish for any athlete, and for a freshman, it may seem impossible. Although, this claim was inevitably proven wrong when 2028 Freshman and Indiana Allstars lacrosse prodigy Cohen O’Grady made the HSE Boys Varsity Lacrosse team ahead of the ‘24/’25 season. Cohen is without a doubt an exceptional player and his love for the game is prominent.

When asked about what exactly was going through his head when he found out he had a spot on the varsity roster, O’Grady states that “I was shocked at first, but then after a little while I was extremely happy and excited for new opportunities”. Which is understandable when achieving an accomplishment like that. A huge part of being on a varsity team is teamwork. Especially when it comes to lacrosse. You need to be able to rely on and trust your teammates to win games, but in order to do that, you need to get to know them. The only issue is, becoming good friends with your teammates may be hard considering most athletes that make up a varsity team are upperclassmen, and generally would not connect well with a freshman.

Cohen was not bothered by this differentiation. When asked about how he felt playing with/against older players, he claimed that he felt good about playing with upperclassmen because it gives him the opportunity to become faster and more aggressive, while also learning to understand how the pace of a varsity game should be played at. O’Grady states that he has learned a lot from the older players so far, one of them being that you must work really hard to earn your playing time and nothing is guaranteed.

Aside from Lacrosse, Cohen takes his academics equally as serious as his athletics. O’Grady noted that he uses pathways and study halls to get all his work done so he doesn’t have to stress about it later. As in terms for the future, He claims that he wants to pursue his dream of lacrosse going forward into his college years at a school where he can also further his education.