On the advice of a friend, Kris Stone decided to turn out for lacrosse tryouts at Male High School as a freshman.
Three years later, he’s been voted the state’s top player.
During Friday’s Kentucky Scholastic Lacrosse League state final between St. Xavier and Trinity, Stone was named the 2016 Kentucky Mr. Lacrosse, putting the finishing touches on a tremendous four-year career. Stone, who will continue his lacrosse career at Transylvania University, scored 22 goals and 13 assists this season, along with a nearly 75 percent win rate on faceoffs.
“His attitude and demeanor (stand out),” Male coach Joe Palazzo said. “He’s a fantastic young man, in academics as well. He’s a hard worker. He’s just a very determined young man. His freshman year of high school he had never head of lacrosse. He came out because a friend had invited him and he’s been competing ever since.”
Thanks to Stone, Male had one of their best seasons in program history, going 9-10 overall and making the postseason. They also defeated local power Collegiate twice, including in the playoffs,
One of the reasons for Male’s success was the play of Stone in the faceoff circle. Stone won 201 faceoffs and lost just 75, for a win percentage of 72.9 percent.
“He blew everyone out of the water (in the faceoff circle),” Palazzo said. “That’s what made us so successful as a team. We’d score goals and get the ball back. It gave us a huge advantage over other teams.”
In spite of Stone’s lack of experience in the sport before high school, Palazzo explained that his natural athletic ability and strong work ethic helped him rise to the level of a future college athlete.
“He’s a very built, stocky athletic player,” Palazzo said. “He’s very fast. With him having a lower center of gravity, he was very difficult to guard. On offense he would always get drawn against the opposing team’s best defender and he was always successful. He would force defenses to slide and he could move to the ball to an open player.”
Palazzo also complimented Stone for his intelligence on the field.
“I would say he’s very intelligent,” Palazzo said. “You can tell he had never played before. When I was a senior playing on the team he was a freshman. You could tell he didn’t have the stick skills but he quickly understood the sport.
“For the time he lost he played a lot of summer lacrosse and (played on) summer travel teams. He was playing almost year round in the fall and summer. He just wanted it more than everybody. When other kids were out partying and hanging with friends, he was playing and practicing. He had to sacrifice a lot but he did what he had to do to make up for that.”