Congratulations to the Shuma Sports Player of the Week, Archer’s Mikaela Carlsen, who is a member of the varsity lacrosse team! Mikaela is a senior at Archer where she is competing for the varsity lacrosse team under the direction of coach Leslie Stuart.

Mikaela joined the varsity lacrosse team her sophomore year. Coach Stuart described her as bright-eyed, full of spunk, and an attitude that would make any coach happy. In Mikaela’s senior season she was the 2^nd leading scorer for Archer with 31 goals and she has the most assists with 12. Additionally, Mikaela is a member of the 2019 Gwinnett County 2^nd team for Attack. But Mikaela’s road to high school graduation has been very different than most high school students.

On March 14, 2017, Mikaela took a blow to the head which kept her out of school and lacrosse for 10 months. Mikaela suffered a traumatic brain injury and the doctors have equaled Mikaela’s blow to the head with hitting a brick wall at the speed of 60mph. During the 10 months she could not talk to friends, go out of the house, go to school, and most importantly of all, Mikaela could not play the sport that she loves. The straight A student fell behind in school and because of her condition she could not make up the missed work. After fighting to take her life back, Mikaela came back to the lacrosse field in the spring of 2018. Coach Stuart said that although Mikaela was no longer the fearless player she had been, every minute she was on that field was a victory.

This fairytale story comes full circle on March 14, 2019 when Archer packed up their team and went to play Parkview, the team they had played two years earlier to the day when Mikaela suffered her concussion. Mikaela struggled to get off the bus when they arrived at Parkview and she broke down on the sidelines without being able to step on the field. Coach Stuart told Mikaela that she did not have to play, and that she was even there was a huge victory. But Mikaela collected herself, went into the game, and scored 4 goals.

Mikaela has been playing catch up in school for the past year and this week she finally passed all of her tests and is now eligible to graduate. Coach Stuart said that she is incredible proud of Mikaela and seeing her get her spunk back that she had her sophomore year is one of the greatest joys. Mikaela is expected to commit to play college lacrosse sometime in the upcoming week.

Keep up the excellent work Mikaela! We cannot wait to see what your future academic and athletic career has in store for you!