He’s among North Carolina’s best prep athletes, and he enjoys a little chaos

Cole Stankavage enjoys the chaos.

Sticks are swinging, a hard ball is whizzing at 90 mph, elbows are flying ... and it’s all happening in a small amount of space.

And Cole Stankavage enjoys it.

“I like it down there,” he said earlier this week, taking a break from practice with the Ardrey Kell High boys’ lacrosse team. “There’s a lot happening down there, but I enjoy it.”

Could it be described as controlled chaos, Stankavage is asked. He smiled and nodded.

“Down there” means in front of the net, and it’s the place where Stankavage is at his best.

Football and basketball prospects get more publicity, but Cole Stankavage is among the highest-ranked athletes in any sport in North Carolina.

A 5-10 left-handed junior attacker, Stankavage has been ranked No. 13 in the Class of 2027 by one major lacrosse scouting service and 16th by another.

He already has put the recruiting drama to rest. Last September, Stankavage committed to North Carolina. In the meantime, he’s keeping busy by dominating the sport locally.

Could play anywhere

In less than 2 1/2 seasons, he has scored 165 goals and added 44 assists. When he needs to play defense, he can do that. He totaled 30 ground balls last season, despite being mostly an offensive player.

His coach, Tim Price, is a former Division I coach at Quinnipiac University and has directed the Ardrey Kell program since the school opened in 2006. He has seen many good lacrosse players.

“Cole is so good that he would be an outstanding defender too,” Price said. “I’m tempted to put him on defense some times, but we need his scoring.”

He comes from an athletic family. His dad, Bruce, played basketball at Lafayette College, and his mom, Liz, was a lacrosse player there. Two older brothers played football, basketball and lacrosse at Ardrey Kell, and one of the brothers, Brooks, plays lacrosse currently at Queens University.

Cole Stankavage has played basketball all three years at Ardrey Kell, and he spent some time playing in Charlotte’s youth ice hockey league.

“The whole family is super-athletic,” Price said.

But lacrosse is king in Cole Stankavage’s world.

“I love the speed of the game,” he said. “It’s super-fast. It requires quick thinking. There’s a lot of strategy.”

A crossover sport

Stankavage knows he excels in a sport that many people aren’t familiar with. But, he said, there are parallels between lacrosse and other more popular sports.

“There is a lot of cross-over with hockey,” he said. “In fact, I thought it was super-similar. The goal is not really that big, there is a lot of movement, and passing is important.”

“And it pairs well with basketball, too,” he added. “You’re setting screens in both sports, for example.”

Price said there also are parallels with football.

“We have two quarterbacks from the football team on our roster,” he said. “And we regularly get football players on the team.”

Stankavage started playing lacrosse around age 8 or 9, competing in the Charlotte-area youth program. he joined a club program, Team Carolina, around eighth grade. For the past two years, he has played with Sweet Lax Upstate, a team based in Rochester, N.Y., during the summer.

He was recruited by a number of schools but whittled the choices down to North Carolina and Maryland. He decided to make his choice during his junior season, in part to help college coaches plan ahead.

“Carolina was the place for me,” he said. “I’m a North Carolina kid. I was born in Durham. I grew up in Charlotte. It felt like home to me. And it has great academics.”

Multisport athlete

But while lacrosse is his favorite sport, Stankavage said he didn’t want to be a one-sport athlete.

“That’s why I’ve stuck with basketball,” he said. “I get plenty of lacrosse-playing time the rest of the year. I also enjoy the competitive part of basketball too.”

Stankavage missed the first few lacrosse games this season because the Ardrey Kell boys’ basketball team made a deep run in the Class 8A state playoffs. Price said that was fine — he encourages lacrosse players to compete in other sports.

“Cole told me, ‘I’m going to play basketball,’ and I told him, ‘Great’’ ” Price said. “When these guys play other sports, they come back to lacrosse with more energy.”

As might be expected for someone ranked among the best nationally in the sport, Stankavage gets a lot of attention from opponents on the field. He’s often double-teamed and has learned to be elusive.

“It can get congested down there near the goal,” he said. “So we try to spread things out. I try to pass the ball. That ball moves a lot faster than I do.”

And about that chaos in front of the goal.

“Defenders are allowed to use their sticks on my hands, to knock the ball loose,” he said. “It’s a really physical sport. And if you get hit by that ball, you feel it. The ball is really hard, and it’s flying!”

So evasion is part of being an effective attacker. Stankavage said attackers are taught the saying, “Pass, Pass, Dodge.” The idea is to pass the ball, rather than try to dodge a defender. In his case, he’s learned to swoop in from the side, take a pass, and score.

“Or I pass to a teammate,” he said. “If I’m getting too much attention, someone else can score.”

As is the case with most Charlotte-area high school lacrosse teams, Ardrey Kell has a few players who are veterans of the sport, mixed with newcomers. Midfielder Henry Urban and goalkeeper Luke Napier have committed to college programs and, along with Stankavage, form the veteran nucleus of the squad.

Stankavage said part of his job is being a teacher.

“I’m a captain,” he said. “Part of my job is to help my teammates. Those of us who are experienced in the sport can help the newer players in a lot of ways.”

The Knights took an 8-2 record into Thursday night’s game against Myers Park and are among the area’s better teams.

“Cole is a dream to coach,” Price said. “With players like Cole, Henry (Urban) and Luke (Napier), we have the foundation of a good team. Ardrey Kell is always better in May than in February. I expect that this year too.”