Ridgefield's Chris Colsey, a North Carolina lacrosse commit, is one of CT's best football receivers

It sort of feels like destiny.

Ridgefield's Chris Colsey, a senior standout on the Tigers' football and lacrosse teams, will be joining North Carolina men's lacrosse next year, becoming the fourth member of his family to play for an ACC school.

His dad Roy, the former Ridgefield lacrosse coach, was a four-time All-American at Syracuse, older brother Ryan is in his final year at Virginia, and Kyle is a junior at Duke.

Chris will face Kyle next season, and he has a suspicion as to how the rooting interests will go.

"The entire ACC doesn't really like Duke, so I think they'll be taking my side," Chris said with a smile. "But it'll be fun playing against my brother. He's awesome, he's been a great brother to me and I look up to him."

Lacrosse is the next level, but for the time being, Colsey is one of the state's top wide receivers on a Ridgefield team that's ranked No. 8 in the GametimeCT Top 10 poll. The Tigers (3-1) will play at No. 6 Ludlowe (4-0) on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Having had two older brothers excel in Ridgefield's lacrosse and football programs could put some added pressure on the younger sibling, but football coach Jamie Reed is impressed with the way Colsey has responded.

"I can't imagine the pressure that comes with being the youngest Colsey, but I think he shoulders the expectations in a really healthy way," Reed said. "He's a terrific person, he's friendly and he looks out for people who may be lower on the social totem pole and that's nice to see. It makes me proud."

Choosing to play lacrosse over football in college wasn't difficult, Colsey said, simply because of the opportunities that existed in lacrosse. But he will miss the gridiron.

"Obviously I love football, but lacrosse has always been what I was born to play," Colsey said. "I was always at the field. My dad was coaching here and I was always talking with lacrosse kids and was surrounded by people who played and loved lacrosse."

And North Carolina? The Tar Heel blue has plenty of fans, and Colsey is among those.

"I just love the colors and everything, and the university is such a cool place," he said. "It was honestly a childhood dream."

In Ridgefield, there's plenty of crossover between lacrosse and football. The Tigers' rosters on the CIAC website show 15 players who are members of both teams. Two seasons ago, the lacrosse team won an FCIAC championship and reached the Class LL semifinals.

That group includes Colsey, who has 21 catches for 379 yards and eight touchdowns, and quarterback Connor Chojnacki, a Boston University lacrosse commit. Chojnacki has passed for 759 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Colsey said he and Chojnacki have had a connection since they were kids, and it shows as high school seniors.

The pair even connected on a school-record 99-yard touchdown reception against Danbury, with Chojnacki throwing a pass off his back foot from the back of the end zone and connecting with Colsey at the 25-yard line. Colsey then went the distance for the score in an eventual 42-22 Ridgefield win.

"We've been playing together honestly since flag football going back to first grade," Chojnacki said. "So we have 12 years under our belts playing together. I have the trust in him all the time to make the big play when we need it.

"Our whole team of seniors, the guys who are making the biggest impact this year, and the guys who have been with us the longest."

Reed took over the football program in 2024, a year after the Tigers were 2-8 when the current seniors were freshmen. They were 5-5 in his first year and 8-4 last season, earning their first winning record and first postseason berth since 2019. Ridgefield also defeated Newtown 24-13 in the Class L quarterfinals, its first playoff win since 2016.

This year's seniors, Reed said, have played big roles in the improvement.

"They've been here for the journey," Reed said. "We talked about last year's seniors, who were part of a 2-8 team (in 2023), and that culture needed to be fixed. These guys have been along for that ride, they've seen the work the guys before them did. I think that's all really cumulative."

Chojnacki pointed to the 2024 season as a turning point.

"We kind of realized that we could just keep going on the downhill path or we could kind of reroute it," Chojnacki said. "That senior class (in 2024) put us back on the path for the success that we had last year and you can see it is boosting us even more this year."

Ridgefield has plenty of work left to do. Following Ludlowe, the remainder of its schedule includes some of the FCIAC's traditional powers, including Greenwich and Darien, along with rival Wilton, in a meeting that is finally during Thanksgiving week.

Confidence is helping the Tigers get through those tough stretches.

"We're not the team that comes out and wins the hype battle," Chojnacki said. "We're the team that comes in confident. That's all the more rewarding for us. Going in confident into these high stakes games is benefiting us. We know we've changed the culture and we're a great team and that's helped us a lot."

From Colsey's perspective, being part of the upturn has been a goal for the seniors.

"Historically, Ridgefield is a great football program," Colsey said. "So when we were 2-8 my freshman year, we all wanted to be part of the class that helped turn things around."

While Colsey's future lies with lacrosse, Reed said he has no doubt that the senior would stand out if he ever decided to play college football.

"I'd love to see him do it," Reed said. "I don't know what level he'd project at but he'd make some program really, really happy."

This article originally published at Ridgefield's Chris Colsey, a North Carolina lacrosse commit, is one of CT's best football receivers.