Senior Abdul­lah Mohamed has been selected as athlete of the issue.

As a three-sport athlete, Mohamed has been a member of the Justice High School wrestling and lacrosse teams since his fresh­man year and later joined the foot­ball team during his sopho­more year. This fall, Mohamed, in his role as captain, led the foot­ball team to their first district cham­pi­onship since 1994. 

Mohamed started his foot­ball career in his sopho­more year on the junior varsity team. His dedi­ca­tion and work ethic led to him being awarded first team All-District and All-Region, as well as Offen­sive Player of the Year in the district and runner-up in the region in his senior year. Over the course of the season, he rushed over 1,000 yards and scored 22 touchdowns. 

Head varsity lacrosse coach Robale Namen, who has coached Mohamed for the past three years, speaks of Mohamed’s passion to improve himself as a player. 

“During COVID when every­thing was shut down and every­one was stay­ing home, he was actu­ally in the gym every single day,” said Namen. “People can make excuses that COVID prevented them from doing anything but he took that oppor­tu­nity to be in the weight room.” 

Mohamed embod­ies what it means to be a student-athlete, as sports keep him occu­pied year round. Not only is Mohamed constantly work­ing to better himself as a player, his coaches have also spoken on his abil­i­ties as a team­mate and leader. “He brings a sense of lead­er­ship and never misses a prac­tice,” said Namen. “Your best player is your best role model, and he sets an exam­ple for the rest of the team.” 

As a junior, Mohamed was awarded National District Defen­sive Player of the Year in lacrosse, in addi­tion to being selected as first team All-Region and All-District. Also during his junior year, Mohamed won the Class 6 state wrestling cham­pi­onship, becom­ing the first Justice wrestling state cham­pion in 37 years. Concern­ing this year’s wrestling season, Mohamed already has goals set for himself. 

“This season, I’m look­ing forward to going unde­feated through­out the whole season, winning districts, winning the region again, and defend­ing my state title from last year, which will make me Justice’s first ever two time state cham­pion,” said Mohamed.

Reflect­ing on his time here at Justice and being a member of these teams, Mohamed speaks about his devel­op­ment as both a player and person. 

“During my time at Justice, I defi­nitely became a better team player and learned that the sport doesn’t only revolve around me- it revolves around the team’s abil­ity to work together as a whole,” said Mohamed. “Watch­ing the upper­class­men in their lead­er­ship roles the past three years has allowed me to improve my own skills and become an effec­tive leader on and off the field.”

Mohamed plans to further his foot­ball career at Wash­ing­ton and Lee Univer­sity in the fall of 2022.