J.P. Forester Named Warrior Sports Lacrosse Player Of The Year

A senior attackman, J.P. Forester of Birmingham Brother Rice High School, was named as the inaugural winner of the Warrior Sports Michigan High School Lacrosse Player of the Year Award. The contest and award, which is sponsored by Warrior Sports and hosted by State Champs! Network, recognized Forester as the state's top boy's high school lacrosse player this year in the announcement on this morning's State Champs! High School Sports Show on CW50 Detroit and WOTV4 in Western Michigan.

Forester won the award over fellow finalists David Stafford of Mattawan, Connor Ward of Clarkston, and Brother Rice teammate Sergio Perkovic. Forester and Perkovic helped lead another strong Brother Rice team to its ninth straight Division 1 State Championship this season. Since Lacrosse became a sanctioned MHSAA sport in 2005, Brother Rice has won every Division 1 State Championship and had not lost a game in the state of Michigan in 11 years. They also won the two previous state finals prior to Lacrosse being an official sport with the MHSAA, marking their current streak at 11 straight State finals victories.

Forester finished as the top goal scorer for Brother Rice with 70 and was 2nd overall in points with 92. He scored a goal and an assist in Brother Rice's State Finals victory over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern and finished 4th in online voting for the award (6,617 votes) to make it to the contest finals. Forester will take his talents to Virginia in the Fall to play lacrosse at Division 1 Richmond.

"I think this is well deserved. J.P. was the highest scorer on the team and was an extremely hard worker" said Brother Rice Assistant Coach Ajay Chawla. "The ultimate test of the player of the year is stepping up in the biggest games, and J.P. had his best performances against some of the best competition."

"I was excited just to be a candidate, but to win it is just awesome. All of the guys in the running this year are deserving, for me to win, it's just great. 11 state titles and 11 straight years of not losing in Michigan, what an incredible tradition and I'm so thankful to have been a part of that. " said Forester

Warrior Sports and State Champs! Network also extend congratulations to David Stafford of Mattawan who won the fan voting segment of the contest with 9,502 votes. Candidates received a total of nearly 40 thousand votes in this season-long competition.

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