CPA lacrosse paid tribute to Covenant School all year. On Friday the Lions won state title

NOLENSVILLE – Tripp Lodge proudly displayed the red and white sticker on his shiny gold lacrosse helmet Friday night along with his Christ Presbyterian Academy teammates.

It served in a reminder. As talented as this team is and despite being able to celebrate history, there is more to life than sports.

The sticker read: The Covenant School.

It's been nearly two months since a shooter killed three young students and three adults. CPA is a sister school to the Nashville-based Christian school, as many of the Covenant School's students end up attending CPA.

"We have a lot of families here that have students at Covenant," said Lodge, who said his family was one of those who have been part of the Covenant family. "It hits home a little more."

On Friday night at Nolensville High, CPA's lacrosse team threw their sticks and helmets high into the air to celebrate a 7-4 win over Ensworth in the Tennessee Scholastic Lacrosse Association's Division II Class AA/A state championship game. It marked a third win over the Tigers this season and came in Chris Cudmore's third season as the Lions' coach. And it capped a 13-3 season.

"This is my third year at CPA and we've just been climbing ever since," Cudmore said. "The support from the school and the athletic administration has just been great. We've tried our best to build a program. We've got great buy-in from the school and the team."

Why CPA donned Covenant stickers

Cudmore said the stickers seemed like an obvious way to recognize the school with its close ties to CPA.

"That's a place that has very close ties and close connections to CPA," Cudmore said. "Some things are bigger than lacrosse. Our job as a coaching staff is to try and lead these young men. Fortunately for us, 99% of that is done on the field. This was one of those things you can't plan for.

"That day, it didn't matter what drills we ran. No one's heads were going to be in it. So we took time to talk through some things together."

And out of that meeting came the idea of honoring the school and the victims.

"Basically it was the whole team that came up with it," Cudmore said. "We talked about it and a few guys brought it up. I know (junior) Hayden McKee brought it up initially. We talked through it with our athletic department and they thought it was a no brainer."

Lodge, a team captain, scored the final goal of the game. The team was led by Braden Streeter, the starting quarterback on the football team, added three goals.

"This is just pretty awesome," Lodge said. "To see Coach Cudmore come in. Three years we were winning maybe 50% of our games. We were happy just to have a team really. Now, we've won a state championship."

"I come from a football and a lacrosse family," said Streeter,

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.