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Life on the sidelines is not just about the football players. Coaches, athletic trainers, ball boys, and many others play crucial roles on game day. Lucas Purdy was one of those people on the Callaway sideline the last several years, serving as the team manager and then as a student-athletic trainer. Purdy’s hard work and determination did not go unnoticed as he was selected by the Touchdown Club of Atlanta as the Scholar Student Manager with the award reading “Congratulations on your outstanding commitment to academic excellence, athletic performance and community involvement.

“I was proud of myself to even be nominated for this,” Purdy said. “I don’t think it has really hit me yet that I won this. The whole thing really was a great experience.”

It was a long journey to this point for Purdy, who actually started his journey on the sideline as a player. He quickly realized that was not the best fit for him.

“I quickly realized if I hit them I would bounce off and if they hit me I may die because I was a small kid,” Purdy said. “Some of the coaches and I talked about it and I became the manager for the first year before taking on more responsibilities my sophomore year.”

Purdy eventually carved out his legacy on the sideline. He found his home assisting the athletic trainers at Callaway over the years, whether it was Brooke Jackson or Rob Dicks. Both had a monumental impact on Purdy, but he built an extremely strong connection with Dicks, the current athletic trainer at Callaway, who was also in attendance at the award ceremony last week.

“Honestly, he was one of the best things that ever happened to me as a trainer,” Purdy said. “He helped me evolve to where I am now.

It was not just athletic training skills he learned on the sidelines, he learned communication skills and learned a lot about life from the athletic trainers, coaches, and everybody he crossed paths with on the sideline. Learning how to deal with the fast-paced nature of a football Friday night might just have been the most rewarding life skill he took out of this experience.

“It was definitely very hectic, but I wouldn’t say it was overwhelming,” Purdy said. “Every game has its challenges and it was a different experience each week

Callaway and sports medicine have been a major part of Purdy’s life up until now. But he has closed the book on the former and could see his time roaming the sidelines come to an end. Purdy plans to attend Berry College and major in psychology but is open to the return to athletic training someday.

“I’m not trying to get a degree in anything like sports medicine, but I may decide to pursue a job in the field after college using the experiences I have had,” Purdy said.

Purdy is a Cavalier through and through and looks fondly on his time walking the halls of Callaway High, especially not that he has walked the halls as a student for the final time just a couple of short weeks ago. For Purdy, it is once a Cavalier, always a Cavalier.

“When they say Callaway is a family it really is,” Purdy said. “It is not just a saying, we live it.”