As the Green Hope football team rushes onto the field on Friday, they will now be led by a future collegiate player. On Sept. 23, Lucas Mullins (‘24) committed to play for Washington and Lee University football to continue his academic and athletic career.

In an interview with the GH Falcon, Mullins discussed his journey from a young football player to a future college player. When discussing his drive to play in college, Mullins said, “Ever since I started playing football when I was 8, I wanted to take it to the next level, whether that was college or just high school.”

However, after a successful sophomore year as captain and starting quarterback, Mullins began to look at a future in football beyond high school. He continued, “Once I got into high school I knew I wanted to play college football.”

Mullins also spoke about the importance of truly being a student-athlete, with Washington and Lee being the 21st-best liberal arts college in the country per U.S News & World Report. “Academics have always been a priority over football even at a young age, and that carried on into high school. Having those habits helped me to be blessed with the opportunity to attend a higher academic school, and football really gave me the chance to get in.”

For many prospective college athletes, the recruiting journey is very challenging, it involves a lot of emails, camps and phone calls. For Mullins, the journey to Washington and Lee began at a camp in June.

Mullins stated, “I went to a Davidson football camp in Charlotte, and there were coaches from other schools; Washington and Lee being one of them. One of their coaches saw me and from there I started to be in contact with them.”

From there, Washington and Lee had to make sure that Mullins would get accepted into the school, a critical step for all student-athletes hoping to attend high academic colleges and universities.

On that topic, Mullins said, “We stayed in contact for the next couple of months, and then they asked for my transcript to see if I would get through the application process. Once I did get through that process they sent me an offer.”

After receiving the offer, Mullins went to the Washington and Lee campus to see if he thought it would be a good fit.

“The second weekend in September I went and visited them. It was a perfect experience and all I needed to commit.” He also added, “Everyone I met was super nice, the coaches were really good to me, and it felt like a family. After that, I knew that’s where I wanted to be and decided to commit.”

As Mullins finishes out his senior year, he credits his parents for assisting him throughout his journey to becoming a college football player.