Decatur Coach Joins Ga. Lacrosse Hall of Fame

Don Rigger, the man who introduced lacrosse to Decatur, was inducted into the Georgia Lacrosse Hall of Fame Jan. 27 during a banquet at the Atlanta Marriott Northwest at the Galleria.

Rigger created lacrosse leagues for the Decatur Recreation Department and started the Decatur High varsity team in 2007. He's now the head coach for the Decatur High team.

In a May 2012 interview with Decatur/Avondale Estates Patch, Rigger said he  played lacrosse as a kid in Maryland and while attending Washington and Lee in Virginia.

He found few youth lacrosse teams when he moved to the Atlanta area in the mid-1980s. He started the Decatur recreation lacrosse leagues in the early 2000s, with those young players growing into the players on the high school team. He said,

If I'd stayed in the Baltimore area I would have been one of a thousand dads who know something about lacrosse. Here it's kind of special. I love building something -- that's what's fun.

The Decatur Bulldog Boosters email newsletter said Decatur High students and lacrosse players DeAngelo Watkins and Nick Bentley introduced Rigger.

According to the newsletter, Watkins said,  “He is the reason I am playing lacrosse for Decatur High School. Something I have looked forward to my entire ten years living in Decatur. He is not only my coach but a father figure to me."

When asked for a comment, Rigger said in an email that he wanted to thank "Greg White at Decatur Active Living and Carter Wilson at DHS for believing in me enough to give lacrosse a chance in Decatur. Both of them took a risk--the easy way out would have been to say no and they would have had sound justification--too much money, not enough field space, will hurt other sports, etc."

The Georgia Lacrosse Foundation began its Hall of Fame in 2005, with a maximum of four people inducted every two years.