HELENA -- You can find Helena High's Dexter Tedesco on the football field in the fall and on the basketball court in the winter, but he's playing lacrosse in the spring and summer.
On Wednesday, Tedesco signed his national letter of intent to play lacrosse for Adams State in Alamosa, Colorado, and study marketing, despite the sport not being sanctioned by the Montana High School Association. After he got the call from his new coach that he would get the chance to play in college, Tedesco said he was speechless.
"I didn't really speak for about five minutes. My dad was just like, 'Congrats!' And then I was just sitting there, really in disbelief," said Tedesco. "I just didn't really expect it to happen so fast."
Tedesco said he got his start late in elementary school alongside his teammate and friend Raef Miller, and lacrosse quickly became his favorite sport to play.
"We decided to try it out. Both loved it when we started playing, and ever since then it just really started growing for me. I worked on it pretty much every day and I started liking it more than basketball and football," said Tedesco. "I just kept getting better at it and it started to become like a second nature to me."
Despite lacrosse not being an MHSA-sanctioned sport, there is a Montana High School Lacrosse Association and various clubs outside of the scope of school athletics where Tedesco honed his craft. One of Tedesco’s coaches in the Treasure State Lacrosse League, Kevin Flynn, said, though Tedesco has gotten over the first hurdle of getting scouted, he will have to work even harder at the next level.
"He's going to have to put in time. It'll definitely be a step up for him," said Flynn. "As long as he can keep working and stuff, he'll find time and he'll be able to contribute when he gets on the field."
Though with the time three sports take up now, Tedesco feels he'll have plenty of time to work when he's solely focused on lacrosse.
"It'll just be nice to be able to play the sport that I would like to focus on mostly," said Tedesco.
