There are many strong players on this year’s high-achieving boys lacrosse team, but coaches and players alike would agree the true power behind the team is the squad’s most valuable player, Powers Carpenter. The two-year captain is the true backbone of the team and is also a high-achieveing student as evidenced by his acceptance and future academic career at Georgia Tech, the prestigious school where he plans on majoring in mechical engineering. Both skilled lacrosse play and academic excellence come easy to the talented Carpenter.  

Let’s look at the number: Among Class of 2023 members, Carpenter holds a top ten academic ranking. To achieve this distinction, he conquered countless AP and IB classes. On top of those classes, he takes the school’s highest level math class, a Georgia Tech class taught by both Tech professors on an online basis and North Atlanta math teacher David Ehrman. Only a handful of high school students manage to take, then pass. Even with this extremely difficult schedule, he has achieved a 4.5 grade point average. Holding such an impressive application, Carpenter was admitted into the highly exclusive and competitive engineering program at Georgia Tech, a school with a top five strongest and highest rated engineering program. To make this accomplishment even more impressive, Carpenter will major in mechanical engineering, one of the school’s hardest majors. These accomplishments can be accredited to his extreme work ethic and natural genius. “Actually one of the hardest workers I have ever met,” said teammate and classmate Charlie Long, “Powers will continue to be successful in anything he faces because of it.”

Paired with the brainpower of Carpenter is the high athletic ability. The backbone of the lacrosse team has led NAHS boys to a runner up status in the tough 6A Region. The senior defender is relied on to lock down the opposing team’s best player. He is widely known for being the best and most consistent player on the team. From being a varsity player for four years and a captain for two, Carpenter is a seasoned veteran. He has played for Thunder National lacrosse team, a highly competitive club that plays the best talent in the country, and was even ranked second in the nation at a time. With such experience bring the talent he has worked extremely hard to develop. Carpenter’s work ethic has rubbed off on teammates to create a competitive practice environment. He has been the ideal captain and leader to continue the strong lacrosse legacy to further classes. “I wake up every morning and think how I can be like Powers,” said teammate Ryan Hohenstein, “He encapsulates what I want to be as a lacrosse player and a man.”

Carpenter has found a perfect balance between high levels of both school and lacrosse. A player at his level could have played collegiate-level lacrosse, but Carpenter intends to lay down his lacrosse stick while at Tech to exclusively focus on academics. 

A true “power” in every sense of the word, Carpenter is the complete man and as strong a representative of the Class of 2023 as there is.