Player turns whim into fame
John Kenyon admits he didn’t know much about lacrosse when he first saw some friends playing it at a local YMCA when he was in fifth grade.
Kenyon had grown up playing football, and admits he was intrigued by how different the game looked.
“One of my friends started talking to me about it and I got all excited because I’m so used to football and I wanted to try something different,” Kenyon said.
“He was like ‘dude,’ come play with me.”
Kenyon did just that, and in eight years, he’s emerged as one of the top area players at his level.
The recent Santa Fe Christian grad was a high school All-American his senior year, and is headed to Div. I Towson State of Baltimore on a lacrosse scholarship.
Kenyon became the first player in school history to land a Div. I lacrosse scholarship when he signed with Towson earlier this year.
He is among three players from a team earlier this year that made the school’s deepest playoff run ever headed to a four-year program.
Former teammates Taylor Gilbert and Ben Prutter are the others. Midfielder Gilbert is headed to Div. I University of Delaware. Defender Prutter is headed to Div. III Chapman University of Orange.
Kenyon, a physical and athletic defender, led Santa Fe Christian to the section semifinals, where they lost to perennial state power and eventual section champion La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad 12-6 on May 24.
Santa Fe Christian led that game 6-5 at halftime and had beaten LCC five weeks earlier, 7-6.
“It was awesome,” Kenyon said of his team’s playoff run. “Obviously our goal was to go to the championships, but we were really one of the only teams that gave them a run.
“They beat Coronado by 11 goals (in the championship game).”
La Costa Canyon is a public school with much larger enrollment numbers and much greater depth on the lacrosse team. That depth eventually wore out the Eagles in the semifinals.
“I was just glad that we went down with a fight,” Kenyon said. “We don’t have the numbers, we’re just a bunch of kids who want to go out there and play hard.”
Kenyon, also a football standout who was an All-CIF.