Metro Atlanta Is A Fast Growing Lacrosse Region

Few North American metropolitan areas are growing faster than the sprawling 11-county expanse known as Metro Atlanta. With a combined population of 6.3 million, this vast region of urban, suburban and rural landscape is the sixth most inhabited in the United States, adding one million residents in the last decade, while more than doubling in size over the previous 30 years. The state of Georgia stands as the eighth most populous in the US.

This meteoric upsurge in residents (many of which relocated from the Northeastern US), combined with the arrival of the Georgia Swarm in 2016, and the expanding southward reach of the game, has resulted in a significant uptick in lacrosse participation, beginning with field lacrosse, with box gaining steam.

Perhaps the two individuals best positioned to access the past, present and future standing of lacrosse throughout the Peach Tree State is Swarm Lacrosse Community Relations Coordinator, Tommy Hixon, and former Swarm player turned prominent local coach Drew Petkoff.

Hixon was born and raised in the Atlanta area, playing field lacrosse at Norcross High School, during a period when the sport was living in its local infancy. In his current role, he leads the logistical side of the Swarm Box League and Junior Swarm program, while representing the franchise at regional lacrosse-related events. The native Georgian also works as a youth coach.

Petkoff grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, electing to settle in the region after an NLL career that included stints with the Toronto Rock, Buffalo Bandits, New England Black Wolves and finally the Swarm. In the years since officially hanging up his stick, the 39-year-old initially made appearances on behalf of the team, before moving into coaching several local club and recreation entities, while also overseeing a lacrosse-based charitable effort. Petkoff currently serves as a color commentator for Swarm television broadcasts.

The lefty transition player’s nearly decade-long investment in his new place of residence came at the urging of Swarm owner John Arlotta, who was determined to grow the game and league at the grassroots levels in the wake of the organization’s mid-2010’s migration from Minnesota.

Hixon and Petkoff’s distinct backgrounds and varied exposure to the game provide a unique perspective regarding the state of the game in a locale far more synonymous with football and basketball.

“The biggest thing that I noticed is opportunity,” explains Hixon. “When I was in high school, unless you were really good, you did not have a lot of options for travel ball around here, or if you did, they were not very good options. Now, there are several good programs. They aren’t necessarily the best in the country, but overall, there are several very good options for local kids to play in.”

Hixon later added, “Lacrosse has really only been played here for around 25 years.  So, I think what you’re starting to see is for those first few generations, those guys are the ones who are now coaching and have kids who are now playing. It’s a natural progression that comes with more opportunity. Many more kids are being introduced to the game.”

“It was a perfect storm of the Northeast transplants meeting a hungry sports culture in the southeast,” proclaims Petkoff. “While the transplants really helped, it wouldn’t be sustained and maintained if not for the second generation of local players that are really buying in. When I started coaching in 2016, there was better lacrosse than I thought it was going to be when I first moved here. It’s still behind growing up in Canada, Long Island or Maryland. But, it was a lot further along than I thought, so it’s been fun to work with these guys and see it progress.”

For the University of Windsor alum turned NLL player, ambassador and broadcaster, the sudden influx of major college talent in the area is a clear indication that his many years of sprouting a local connection to the sport, amid mentoring its next generation of talent, is paying off.

“The first team I coached was rising eighth or ninth graders, and that was a pretty special team,” gleams Petkoff. There was a Yale commit on that team, Princeton and Bellarmine University commits, and two guys that went to Cleveland State, so at least five Division One players. D1 scholarships in the southeast had kind of been few and far between. Fast-forward to today, two kids that I coached just committed to St Joseph’s, another to Bellarmine, one to Ohio State. One of the kids that I’m working with is looking at Ohio State and Hampton. So, those division one scholarships are growing, which is a clear sign that Georgia is producing some really good lacrosse athletes.”

Hixon, Petloff and other local sources estimate that as many as 50 Atlanta area players are now members of division one programs, a striking statistic for a municipality that was first introduced to the game not long after the world was first introduced to email.

Hixon, who coaches lacrosse at his alma mater, has been struck by students deciding to travel the lacrosse route, as opposed to the more traditional Georgia athletic avenues of football and basketball. This scenario is especially noteworthy at Norcross High School, which has produced a slew of high-level athletic alumni including New Orleans Saints All-Pro RB Alvin Kamara, former Detroit Lions offensive tackle Jeff Backus and retired NBA shooting guard Jodie Meeks.

“I actually had a conversation with a backup wide receiver on our football team,” confides Hixon. Our football team is traditionally very good. We’ve been nationally ranked, won state championships and had pro players. It can be very tough to get on to the field in Gwinnett County. There are several teams that have D1 players, several teams that graduate pro players and regularly contend for state titles. After not getting a lot of playing time, he just started playing lacrosse last year. He’s such a great athlete that he’s taken to lacrosse naturally. And he’s had two schools call him and show interest. He was very excited. I told him you need to start taking this seriously because if you put in enough work during the next year, you can have a scholarship by the end of that spring season.”

Hixon also notes a change in thinking from parents who were previously far more focused on the traditional Georgia pathways to athletic glory but have now been awakening to the unique opportunities afforded those who choose a more lacrosse-fixated way of life.

“People are starting to think about lacrosse in a different manner. People are realizing you don’t necessarily have to go D1 to have a future in lacrosse. There are several pro players who went D2. Plus, many lacrosse schools are very good academic schools,” opines the Georgia lacrosse trailblazer.

The epicenters of lacrosse culture in the Atlanta metro have long been the northern suburban counties of Gwinnett and Cobb. Gwinnett is home to Duluth, the location of Gas South Arena, which of course plays host to the Swarm. Gwinnett is also the site of the aforementioned Norcross High School. Cobb lays claim to Truist Park, the northwest Atlanta setting for the MLB’s Atlanta Braves. From a Swarm-centric perspective, the Swarm Box League is headquartered out of Silverbacks Suwanee Indoor (Gwinnett) and Marietta’s Northwest Cobb YMCA (Cobb), with the Junior Swarm also based out of the Suwanee Indoor complex.

The traditional and growing presence of field, and more recently box lacrosse, in these locales exists due to an array of factors such as population, financial wherewithal, along with being the eventual destination of many of the migrating northern citizens who settle in this area. While acknowledging lacrosse’s outsized prominence in this particular geography, both Hixon and Petkoff are working hard to spread exposure to the fastest game on two feet, while conceding some of the challenges involved with growing the game in other parts of the state.

“It’s very tough for outside of Metro Atlanta schools to get lacrosse teams and keep them because lacrosse in general is a very expensive sport,” discusses Hixon. “When you’re looking at things like equipment and helmets, that is a huge barrier. For example, Macon is about two hours south of Atlanta (without traffic), which never happens here. If they want to start a team, they either have to drive three hours south to Savannah to play at one of the private schools down there, or they have to drive two to three hours north to Gwinnett or Cobb to find someone to play. There are some schools that have made it happen. Newnan, Peachtree City and Carrollton, which is a big football school, has in the last three or four years invested into lacrosse, and they actually have a really good team now. So, it’s definitely growing.”

“I run a nonprofit at the Boys and Girls Club of Walton County, right in the middle of Monroe, Georgia, about an hour east of Atlanta,” expounds Petkoff.  I work with six kids right now, very intensely, to push them to achieve. Two of them are basketball guys. One of them was a football guy. One of them was an every sports guy. And then the other two are kids that football, and specifically basketball, in their communities were the two major sports that everyone played, and they wanted nothing to do with those sports. What seems really cool to me about lacrosse, and specifically box lacrosse, because it is technically a niche sport, not everyone in Georgia knows about it and certainly in that community, not hardly anybody knew about it. I think it really drew them in because the sport has a huge skill ceiling. It’s a ton of fun, and at the same time, it’s kind of under the radar. So, I think it really speaks to those kids who view traditional sports as maybe not for them.”

Metro Atlanta is projected to add an additional 1.5 million occupants in the next 25 years. With a continually evolving lacrosse infrastructure exposing more and more Georgians to the game, this longtime haven of football and basketball talent may very well morph into one of the prime destinations for college coaches and professional scouts looking to add the next generation of talent to their rosters.

The capital of the American South may one day serve as a North American capital for both the indoor and outdoor approaches to the great sport of lacrosse.