Between the 6-foot-by-6-foot pipes on the lacrosse field, you'll find Kevin Mondy Jr. in goal for Hillcrest High School.
The game is fast, it's physical and Mondy loves it.
"It’s just so fun playing the game," he said.
Now Mondy is playing in his final year at the high school level. He's moving on to play Division 1 lacrosse for Hampton University in Virginia.
"At this point in seventh grade, [I was] dreaming about being an engineer and playing lacrosse," he said. "I just did my passion, what I love, and I’m here now. Just wow."
Hampton will become the first historically black college to compete in lacrosse at the Division 1 level this season. Before this year, the university competed at the club level.
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"Just stepping on the field is like a national championship for Hampton University," Kevin Mondy Sr. said. "To see where they started to where they are now, they already won."
Mondy Sr. knows how special this is in a sport where only 3 percent of Division 1 players are black, according to the NCAA. He also knows the sacrifice it takes to get his son there.
"It’s been many of days you take a nap in your car or trying to leave work early," he said.
Mondy Jr. attends the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy in Oak Cliff. They don't have a lacrosse team, so Mondy Jr. makes a 45-mile round-trip drive to Hillcrest High School in Preston Hollow five days per week during the season.
And he manages to keep a 3.7 grade point average.
"If you stick to something, anything is possible," he said.
It's been no easy fight for Mondy Jr., who was born prematurely and with serious breathing problems. Tubes and tests were common when he was a baby.
"Just to see that is very emotional," Mondy Sr. said. "We go back and look at that from time to time."
But there is no such thing as an excuse in the Mondy family. Mondy Jr. is proof of that.
