Osei Adoma was a third grader playing baseball, mostly as an outfielder when his parents saw a lacrosse practice going on and thought that might be a fun sport to try.

Nine years later, Adoma, now a senior at Highland High School is on the cusp of signing his National Letter of Intent to play Division II men’s lacrosse at Pace University in Westchester County.

Adoma said on Thursday that he had received his letter from Pace and said he was waiting to hear from Highland High School when the signing ceremony would be. He announced his verbal commitment to Pace on Nov. 1.

“I want to major in computer science, and they had a very good computer science program,” Adoma said.

“They have good academic programs to set you up for four years, internships and opportunities after college.”
While Pace came to his attention for its academic program, the ability to play lacrosse also was important.
“I wanted to play more competitively if I wanted to play,” Adoma said.

Adoma will join a Pace team that went 6-7 last year and posted a 5-5 record in Northeast-10 conference play. The Setters reached the conference semifinals where, they suffered a 12-10 loss to top-seeded St. Anselm college.

During his seven years as coach of the Setters, Tom Mariano has compiled a 58-36 record, and the team was ranked nationally in 2018 and 2019. They had their best season ever in 2017 and earned their first-ever berth in the NCAA Division II tournament.

“The coaches were very straight up,” Adoma said. “The program was very competitive and very straight forward.”

On the field, Adoma is a long-stick midfielder that plays primarily on defense but has the speed and the athleticism to also provide offense in transition.

“At any time, he can either shut down an opposing player or he could take the ball, turn ground balls into a fast race going the opposite direction,” Highland boys’ lacrosse coach Tom Schlappich said. “He’s basically instant offense when he’s on the field at any time playing defense.”

Adoma came up to the Highland varsity team as a freshman, playing behind Jack Young, who was the team’s long-stick midfielder at the time, giving him the opportunity to see young play and learn the Huskies system. Adoma performed well enough to earn himself playing time.

“By the end of that season, I was finding ways to get Osei on the field because of his ability and skill,” Schlappich said.

His sophomore year was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic and the spring sports season returned in May and June, and the Huskies made their way to the Section 9 Class C championship, where they suffered a 13-5 loss to the Wallkill Panthers.

This year he wants more.

“I just want to have a lot of fun playing lacrosse,” Adoma said. “And obviously, get the section title this year.”
Adoma is one of a group of recent players that are going on to play the sport at college. Ethan Esposito, who graduated from the Huskies last June, is attending Castleton University, where he intends to join the lacrosse team there, and Adoma’s fellow senior Dean Klotz intends to play at Ithaca College.

“He’s one of a few kids that are going off to play from our program and I think they’re all set up to do quite well in their respective programs,” Schlappich said. “I’m excited for them and I can’t wait to see what they do in the future.”