Sara Holland is a Sports Anchor/Reporter at News 4. Follow her on Twitter @SaraaHolland and see more of her work here.
May scholar-athlete: Clarence's Cory Cummins comes from a strong lacrosse family
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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- The sport of lacrosse runs in the Cummins family.
Cory Cummins, a senior at Clarence High School, first played the sport at age 3. The early start was largely due to his father, who played the sport at the collegiate level before transitioning to coaching. It’s safe to say Cummins was destined to become a lacrosse player.
"(My dad) jokes, I was born with a stick in my hand. I was born over at Millard Fillmore suburban hospital looking over the fields at Maple East Elementary, so that’s really where it all started, and it’s been love for the game ever since," Cummins said.
Off the field, Cummins maintains a 3.7 GPA. He'll continue his academic and athletic career at Lake Forest College in Illinois, where he plans to study finance. But Cummins is not going to just play lacrosse; he’ll also be a member of their football team. It wasn't his original plan to be a dual-sport athlete in college, but after a historic season for Clarence football, he changed his mind.
"We had this great 11-0 football season and at the end of it, I just wasn't ready to put it down," Cummins said.
The head coach of the Clarence boys lacrosse and Cory's father, Ken Cummins, is proud to watch his son follow in his footsteps. He's also grateful to have been there throughout all the practices, games and work Cory’s put in to get to this point.
"Every day is just a dream; it's fun; the talk at home is always fun; and it’s just been great", Ken said.
Kevin Sheedy, the assistant coach at Clarence, said that Cummins is a leader.
"He's the captain, he has set the tone, he's set the culture for this team, and he will be tremendously missed," Sheedy said. "The guys rely on him heavily."