April 5, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Griffin puts forth Nobles effort

by Brian Lowe/

Casey Griffin learned the game from playing against — and with — her two older brothers.

Casey Griffin learned the game from playing against — and with — her two older brothers.

Of all the decisions Noble and Greenough lacrosse captain Casey Griffin has had to make in her burgeoning athletic career, the one involving her hair nearly a decade ago was by far the easiest.

The dilemma was straightforward enough: Cut your hair, and you can suit up. The decision proved to be simple: done deal.

As a third-grader in Hingham, Mass., Griffin was a sports enthusiast, with lacrosse being one of her early passions, but her town offered only a boys program at that age. With two older brothers who played lacrosse, she was exposed to that sport as well as many others, and one of her brothers’ lacrosse coaches offered her a deal.

“The coach said, ‘If you cut her hair, and stick her hair under her helmet, she can play,’ ” said Griffin’s father, Rob.

Griffin played — and dominated — even scoring six goals in a game against a rival town before her coach divulged to the opposition that a girl played a decisive role in the win.

“I would do whatever it takes to play,” Griffin recalled. “I played every sport you could imagine. The boys would treat me as any other teammate.”

Experiences such as those helped shape an athletic star-in-the-making, one who is prepared to lead the Nobles lacrosse squad this spring before heading to Dartmouth in the fall.

In fact, Griffin, 18, has been a stellar athlete for the Bulldogs in three sports, with field hockey and ice hockey part of her repertoire, and she is a captain in all three. Growing up in a family of athletes, she gained a competitive streak early on, helped in large part by having brothers Corey (now 21 and a hockey player at Babson) and Mike (now 20 and a hockey player at Brown) stick her in net and shoot hockey pucks at her repeatedly.

“She’d always try to keep up with them,” said Rob, who played hockey at Boston College.

These days, it’s a challenge for anyone to keep up with her. The Nobles lacrosse team is coming off consecutive undefeated seasons and consecutive Independent School League titles, with Griffin scoring 139 goals and adding 105 assists in her first three years.

“I think one of my biggest strengths is a capacity to work hard,” she said. “I’m always trying to be faster, quicker and have better stick work. I just love to work hard and set an example by doing that.”

And to find ways to be a leader. Her coach, Meghan Cleary, saw an example of her leadership abilities in a game that went into overtime last year against Governor’s Academy.

“It was Casey who took the reins of the team and motivated people to dig deep,” said Cleary, who arrived at Nobles as an assistant the same year Griffin entered the school as a freshman, then took over as head coach in 2006. “She huddled the girls together and really inspired them.”

Cleary says that Griffin is a “triple threat” in that she has three essential qualities for lacrosse success: knowledge of the game, excellent stickwork and competitiveness.

“The thing about Casey that I love is that she works really hard and she hates to lose,” Cleary said. “She always has fun. She has a big, big smile and makes everyone around her better and makes everybody enjoy what they’re doing, which is special.”

Her love for lacrosse has been tested by chronic shin splints, which she has dealt with since her freshman year, and a concussion she suffered last December in a Nobles ice hockey game against Pomfret.

“I was out for the rest of the hockey season,” Griffin said. “And going into my last lacrosse season I couldn’t work out.”

But her competitive instincts have ensured that she’ll be primed and ready for this spring, not to mention the 2009-10 academic and athletic calendar when she takes her act north to Hanover, N.H. She’ll join a Big Green lacrosse team that includes Griffin’s friends and former Nobles teammates Sarah Plumb, who is currently a freshman, and Broghan Cully, a sophomore.

“They have definitely made me feel comfortable,” Griffin said about her college search experience and the decision to choose Dartmouth. “I was interested in a lot of schools, but what drew me to Dartmouth was the special tradition there.”

It’s a tradition that Cleary expects Griffin to enhance, if their shared experiences over the last four years are any indication.

“From the first day I saw her play, she impressed me with her knowledge of the game,” said Cleary, who also serves as Griffin’s advisor at Nobles. “She’s really smart and she sort of has a never-say-die attitude.”

It’s an attitude that grew from being challenged by her older brothers, from competing with and against boys at an early age and from being a significant part of a highly successful athletic program at Nobles.

For Casey Griffin, the sky is the limit as she continues her career. And best of all, she can let her hair flow freely in the process.

E-MAIL PRINT