Recent Chattahoochee High School graduate Greg Gehrhardt will be remembered fondly as a four-year defensive starter for the Cougars varsity lacrosse team. But it is Gehrhardt’s huge off-field contributions that will leave an indelible mark on the community, especially local sports teams.

Over the years, Gehrhardt and his Cougar teammates had become accustomed to chasing lacrosse balls down a steep embankment at the Taylor Road Middle School field, where the lacrosse team and many others practiced. The drop-off was not only a physical nuisance, it cost the team countless lacrosse balls that were lost in the cavalcade of trees, among muck and brush.

As a junior in 2009, Gehrhardt — a Boy Scout since the first grade — had the perfect idea for his Eagle Scout project.

“Balls just kept going down there,” Gehrhardt said of the daunting decline at the middle school. “We’d lose about 10 per practice.

“At first I was planning on making a bounce-back wall at [Newtown Park], but I felt this would benefit my school more and help out the program.”

So Gehrhardt got to work doing online research and seeking the advice of his friend’s father, Jim Frost, a fence professional. He was determined to erect a barricade to help out 2010 and future Cougar teams.

In January, Gehrhardt and roughly 25 friends spent a couple of weekends building a 350-foot long by four-foot high vinyl chain-link fence at the fore of the drop-off. Thanks to the man hours and $2,400 worth of generous donations from community organizations, the embankment is an athletics black hole no longer.

“Greg did an outstanding job on this project,” said TRMS Principal Ed Williamson. “His planning, execution and finished project are outstanding. Everyone who uses our field, both here at Taylor Road and from Chattahoochee, will benefit.”

On June 24, Gehrhardt was approved for Eagle Scout status, due primarily to his fence project and years of devotion as a scout for Troop 629, based out of Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church.

On Sunday, the church will honor Gehrhardt at an Eagle Court ceremony, one last show of thanks before he heads to Auburn University in the fall to pursue an engineering degree.

“Now I definitely feel like I’m respected in a good way. I gave back,” said Gehrhardt.