Over the past four years, Cade Christopher has put himself among the notable multi-sport athletes at Northwestern Lehigh High School. He has been a leader on the football field and then moved seamlessly onto the basketball court, having success in both sports. Come spring, Christopher took to the lacrosse field and helped lead the fledgling program to its first district championship in just their fourth season.

He capped his high school career with his best seasons and is taking his skills to East Stroudsburg University where he will continue his playing days on the football field.

The football and basketball programs have had different paths over the past few years. Christopher had the coaching stability of the football program that under Josh Snyder has had a consistent winning atmosphere. In basketball, the past four seasons have seen three different coaches hold the reins to the program.

With football as his first love, Christopher came into varsity football looking to have an impact with an already successful program. His goal was to finish his high school career with 1,000 yards passing receiving, and rushing. The course to his goal took a big hit in his freshman season when an injury kept him off the field for the entire season.

When he was healthy the following season, Christopher had not lowered his expectations and went after his goal while learning about the varsity game.

“It’s a lot faster. Everything happens fast and you have to adjust or you’re going to get lost and not be able to make plays,” said Christopher. “I was able to pick up the system and adjust to the speed of the game pretty quickly and that helped a lot.”

In his first varsity game, Christopher put himself on the path toward his goal with a big game, including two touchdown catches. In his junior season, Christopher pulled in 670 yards worth of passes and put a check mark next to his goal of 1,000 receiving yards after compiling 370 yards in his sophomore season.

In his senior season, Christopher moved to the quarterback position and rushed for over 1,800 yards in that season alone as his ability to use his speed to aid the Northwestern ground game was a large part of the team’s success. In the two previous seasons, Christopher had limited time as the team’s quarterback and had 182 yards of passing as he looked to add the final piece of his goal.

When the dust settled, Christopher threw for 799 yards to put himself at 981 yards of total passing, just shy of the number he needed.

“Playing high school sports teaches you that the team is more important than the individual achievements and we had four great years and I got to play in a lot of big games,” said Christopher, who will be used as a receiver at ESU. “Another goal was for the team to win districts and we did that last year and I got to play in a game at states and that was a great feeling. Overall, I had a great time and was able to play with guys that I had spent my youth playing football with and we got to experience that thrill together.”

In looking back, the times that he spent playing sports with friends he had known for years will be a standout memory for Christopher in his days at Northwestern Lehigh High School. When Christopher looks ahead, he sees how his playing days will help him.

“The coaches that I had not only taught me the game and helped make me a better athlete, they passed along great life advice that I will be able to use. [Boys basketball head coach] Radocha and [Tiger football head coach Josh] Snyder and the other football coaches talked to us about things we will have to face down the road and helped prepare us,” said Christopher. “As a freshman, you don’t understand some of the things they are trying to prepare you for but as you get older, you start to see what they were talking about. That’s the big thing that sports did for me.”