In the first three years of his high school lacrosse career, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a player more snakebit than Mountain Ridge’s J.T. Rigby. All three seasons were cut short by lacrosse injuries, each occurring at a completely different point in the year.
Read more What we learned from Tuesday’s primary in Utah
A fractured back from a cross check ended his freshman season midway through the year. His sophomore season was just a blip after tearing his ACL less than 10 minutes into the first game — after scoring three goals.
His junior season ended with a broken clavicle in the final game of the regular season, forcing Mountain Ridge’s 100-point scorer to miss both playoff games.
Playoff lacrosse hits a bit different, and in his first three seasons, Rigby missed all six of them.
The University of Utah commit went into his senior season really, really, really hoping for a different narrative.
“I harped a lot on my health this season so I could play for the full season,” said Rigby.
The result was a magical senior season that allowed him to finally experience playoff lacrosse, leading the Sentinels deeper into the playoffs than ever before.
“It was my first time ever playing a playoff game this year. It was a lot of fun. We obviously got killed by Corner Canyon (in the semis), but it was still exciting to make it to playoffs and the farthest the school’s ever gone,” said Rigby.
Rigby finished the year with a state-best 132 points (89 goals, 43 assists) and has been named the Deseret News 2026 Mr. Lacrosse recipient.
The 132 points were just five short of the 137 combined points he tallied during his injury-riddled first three seasons.
Mountain Ridge coach Justin Rigby, who is also J.T.’s father, said it was a thrill to see his son finally get the experience of playoff lacrosse, and thrive doing it.
He tallied 13 points in a second-round win over Syracuse and then seven points in the school’s first-ever quarterfinal win.
“The way he took over our playoff games, especially that game against Bingham, really kind of established what our attitude for that game would be,” said coach Rigby. “That was kind of exciting for him, really knowing he could take a game over or really be a big factor in a playoff game, and taking the team to a place it had never been before.”
A huge benefit of Rigby staying healthy all season was it allowed him to really develop camaraderie with his teammates and get everyone involved in the attack.
He’s always been a really good scorer, as his quickness off the dodge allows him to get by defenders pretty regularly. Early on, his teammates learned to get out of his way.
During much of his junior year and then this season, he became smarter in how he dodged to benefit the entire team.
Read more Jazz fans celebrate the selection of Darryn Peterson at draft party
“I think the biggest jump that I saw is his ability to involve his teammates more. This year, I think he learned how to dodge to places that made his teammates better,” said coach Rigby. “His assists went way up this year, and I think he learned how to be the leader of an offense instead of just being like the guy that everybody goes to and looks to score.
“He didn’t have to be just a one-on-one guy, he could direct and lead the offense. It made him more open, but it also made his teammates more open, and there’s a lot of guys that benefited from that.”
Teammate Gavin Gurr increased his point total from 55 to 105 from last season to this, while Trace Hook tallied 68 points in his first varsity season after playing JV a year ago.
“Coaches would make sure to face-guard me or that type of thing, but it also opened up a lot of opportunities for my teammates,” said J.T.
Rigby grew up playing all kinds of sports, and one of his first loves was hockey, which he started playing when he was 5. He never stopped playing, either, suiting up for Mountain Ridge’s club hockey team when healthy.
Hockey gradually took a back seat throughout the years as he decided to focus more on lacrosse, but Rigby said he’s benefited from the crossover similarities of the two sports.
“The IQ of the game is all kind of the same in a certain aspect. Box lacrosse is a lot more similar to hockey. … I enjoy playing box lacrosse, but just the hand-eye coordination was one big thing that like helped in lacrosse, I definitely could tell,” said Rigby.
His agility on the field has always separated Rigby from his peers.
“It’s my first couple of steps. Coaches always tell their team to like slide early because I’m most likely going to beat the first player, but they always want to send a double team as quick as they can or already have a double team on me,” said Rigby when asked about how opponents view him.
You don’t score 89 goals without countless hours of shooting drills, something Rigby said he’s done a lot through the years — including recently on his middle school-age little brother, who is a goalie. Rigby jokes that he’s broken his brother’s stick a few times with his shots.
Lacrosse is certainly a family affair for the Rigbys, as J.T.’s sister, Lucy, just wrapped up her sophomore lacrosse season at Mountain Ridge, and was voted first team all-state after scoring 90 goals.
Coach Rigby said his oldest son has always loved to compete in all sports, but laughs when reminiscing about what an absurd level it reached one 98-degree summer day when J.T. was in middle school. He played six tournament games with a couple of different teams in a single day.
“As a parent, we were like, you know, you don’t have to do this, but to him, that’s just what he did. He’s like, ‘I just wanted to play,’” said coach Rigby. “He would get mad when I’d pull him out. When we were up by a few and I’d rotate guys in, he’s like, ‘If the opportunity’s there to play, I’m just going to play.’ So I think that’s just what kind of drives him, is that he just wants to play, and he loves the opportunity to be able to have a game that he can play and do it at a high level.”
After serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Syracuse, New York, Rigby will continue to get that opportunity to play at a high level for the University of Utah.
“It’s obviously super nice to be close to home, all my family lives in Utah, so that’ll be cool to just have them at games and stuff like that. But, just growing up, I’ve always been a University of Utah fan, so just being able to play at the school is going to be super exciting,” said Rigby.
“I just really like the values that the University of Utah had, like the coaches there and everything. And then also kind of it being a newer program just seemed exciting, and I just love the nature of the culture of the team.”
Read more JD Vance’s 2 religions
Past Deseret News Mr. Lacrosse winners
- 2025 — Austin Taylor, Brighton
- 2024 — Mason Fray, Brighton
- 2023 — Chase Beyer, Park City
- 2022 — Mason Quick, Corner Canyon
- 2021 — Garrett Haas, Lone Peak