Courtesy of Milton High School

Milton girls lacrosse coach Tim Godby is a relative newcomer to the sport he coaches. A native of the basketball hotbed of Kentucky, Godby played and coached hoops before even knowing the first thing about lacrosse.

But while teaching middle school in the Milton district, Godby was asked if he would coach lacrosse at Milton.

"It was something new," said the coach of the No. 1 girls team in Georgia (according to LaxPower.com). "So I gave it a shot."

After learning more about the game, lacrosse became very familiar to Godby.

"It's very similar to basketball," said the graduate of Berea College. "X's and O's-wise it's nearly identical."

Once familiar with the sport, Godby began developing his program into one of the state's best. In fact, the Eagles became so good, so fast that they won the first GHSA state title in 2005 and have won state in six of the last seven years.

And, despite their unparalleled success, the Eagles have not cut corners. All of the players on the team were brought up in the school district minus a couple girls whose families moved into the area from out of state. Godby attributed the middle school feeder program and the continued development of players to his team's dominance.

"We just work harder (than other programs)" said Godby. "It's just development of our players and the girls who come up from the feeder program."

"We have tremendous support and try to do everything we can to help our players be successful."

That support and development has been evident yet again this season, as the Eagles are the top-ranked club in the state regardless of classification. LaxPower.com has Godby's team ranked No. 17 in the nation.

The Eagles just returned from Florida where they took their first loss of the year in a narrow 15-13 defeat to Vero Beach, the top-ranked team in Florida. In two other matches at the AmLax Challenge, one of the most prestigious lacrosse tournaments in the nation, Milton defeated two solid teams from the lacrosse hotbed of Philadelphia.

In their first match of the tourney, the Eagles took down Mt. St. Joseph 13-9. Following the Vero Beach setback, Milton won its last game of the tournament in a dramatic 19-18 win over Archbishop Carroll.

With some tough out-of-state competition out of the way, Milton looks forward to taking care of business in state. Future opponents Alpharetta (No. 6), Roswell (No. 5) and Lassiter (No. 2) are each ranked in the state's top 10.