The name Tom Rixey was known at Norfolk Academy long before the Bulldogs’ current lacrosse standout started attending the school.

“I’ve always seen the sign and people ask if that’s me,” Rixey said of the Thomas C. Rixey scoreboard that adorns the lacrosse field at Norfolk Academy. “I like the fact that I can point out that’s my uncle.”

Rixey, a senior attackman, said his uncle starred at the school in the 1970s, then played at the University of Virginia before he died in 1986 after an asthma attack.

Rixey picked up the game from his brother Jay, a 2003 Norfolk Academy graduate.

“My brother started playing young, and I started pretty young as well ...” he said. “ All my friends were playing it.’’

He played on a Hampton Roads youth lacrosse team while in second grade.

Rixey started attending Norfolk Academy in the seventh grade and two years later made the varsity He has been a starter ever since.

“He learned the game as a little guy, and now he’s one of the big guys on the field,” Bulldogs coach Tom Duquette said. Rixey, a U.S. Lacrosse high school All-American in 2007, worked to bulk up his frame, get stronger and increase his speed in the offseason.

Logging all those field minutes the past four years has helped in developing Rixey’s mental side of the game, too.

“He understands the ebb and flow of the game —when it’s time to push and when it’s time to let the defense rest a little,” Duquette said. “That stuff you learn by playing. It’s not something you get by just being told that."

Rixey has committed to play at Washington College in Maryland, a perennial Division III power. But he still feels there is some unfinished business at the high school level.

“The past two years we’ve lost in the state championship, and we’ve only lost four games in the past two years,” Rixey said.

The Bulldogs lost twice to Collegiate of Richmond in 2006 — once in the regular season, then in the Division I state final. In both games, Collegiate was ranked No. 1 in the state, with Norfolk Academy No. 2.

The same story line played out in 2007, except the state’s top team that year was St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes.

This year, though, the Bulldogs are the state’s top dog and already have defeated second-ranked Collegiate 9-8.

“Anything short of a championship is not where we want to be,” Rixey said.