Globe South Sports

Ready to play

with the big girls

Griffin built skills against brothers

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / June 11, 2009

Casey Griffin was willing to cut her hair in the third grade to play on older brother Corey's youth lacrosse team in Hingham. She even posted a sign on her bedroom door that proclaimed, "No girls allowed."

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"I thought I was a boy," recalled Griffin.

She may have had no interest in playing with girls at an early age. But these days, the 18-year-old is pretty excited that she will be able to reunite with two of her closest friends, Ellie Clayton and Kelsey Johnson, on the women's lacrosse team at Dartmouth College this fall.

The last four years, the Hingham Youth Lacrosse alums were rivals, Clayton and Johnson suiting up for Thayer Academy in Braintree, while Griffin played for Noble & Greenough School, a Independent School League foe in Dedham.

"We hated the end of the game because one person had to lose," said Griffin, a four-year varsity player who helped Nobles win all four meetings against Thayer.

"It never feels good," she said. "I remember the last game this year we were so excited to play them and when the game ended they were just so bummed. I was saying, 'I'd be happy to play on their team and not against them.' "

Even though the three girls played for the Revolution Lacrosse Club throughout high school, Johnson and Clayton, both midfielders, couldn't be more thrilled about joining forces full time.

"She's definitely not someone who's fun to play against, I'm very relieved to be playing on her side," said Clayton, who contantly reminded her Thayer teammates never to think they had Griffin pinned down defensively.

"I was guarding her . . . and she just wound up and shot and it went in" from the 8-yard line, said Clayton. "I had her guarded as well as I could. You have to always be ready and on your toes because she'll surprise you. She's such a good person and deserves everything she's getting."

Griffin's resume is pretty impressive, with one common thread: success.

At Noble & Greenough, she was a member of 10 ISL championship teams, covering three sports, including unbeaten lacrosse seasons as a sophomore and junior. The Bulldogs lost just once this spring (13-11 to Buckingham, Browne & Nichols), but Griffin netted the winner in overtime of a 9-8 victory against Governor's Academy to secure the program's third straight league title.

The ISL girls' lacrosse MVP this spring, and a two-time high school All-American, Griffin finished her extraordinary career with 181 goals and 132 assists.

Griffin, who also captained the field hockey and ice hockey teams this year, said giving up hockey will be the hardest part of her transition to college.

"I was worried I'd be bored," she said of only playing one sport. "But going to Dartmouth and playing in a Division 1 program all year long, playing lacrosse every season, I will not have a big break. I think I'll be fine."

Crediting hockey for helping hone her lacrosse skills, Griffin also wields her stick so well because of all those years playing and practicing with the boys - especially her older brothers Corey, now 21, and 20-year-old Mike, who play hockey for Babson and Brown, respectively.

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When Griffin was in elementary school, Hingham Youth Lacrosse only fielded a boys' team for her age group, so the coach told her and her dad, Robert, that if she cut her hair she could play. The coach didn't reveal her gender until after she scored six goals against rival Duxbury.

"I think I wanted to do it, honestly," Griffin said. "I was just willing to do whatever it took to play because there wasn't a girls' team. I loved playing with the boys."

That didn't last forever.

Robert Griffin said that when his daughter reached middle school, she noticed that the boys no longer liked pairing off with her during drills.

"Then she said 'Dad, I just want to go with my own' " team, he said. "But she still practiced with the boys, even in high school."

In seventh grade, playing with Johnson and Clayton for the first time, Griffin had immediate credibility.

"Everybody thought she was so cool because she played with the boys," said Johnson, an Under Armour High School All-American this year. "I wanted to be just like that."

"She was relentless," added Clayton, who also captained Thayer's cross-country team.

Now Griffin is passing those skills on, for a fee: She is charging roughly $40 an hour for lacrosse clinics in her backyard, using nothing but a net, a pitch-back, and her know-how.

"I have tons of little cousins and they always come over and I teach them to throw and pass," Griffin said. "They seemed to love doing it. I was sort of doing it my whole life without realizing it but I never charged for it. This summer I was looking for a job so I put up a flier and thought it would be a good idea."

In three weeks, Griffin, Johnson, and Clayton will head to Hanover, N.H., for the Big Green's rookie camp. Playing with Nobles graduates Sarah Plumb and Broghan Cully, the Hingham girls will start working toward the NCAA championship they always talked about as little girls.

"They're just such great kids," Griffin said of Johnson and Clayton. "I'm just looking forward to going to practice with them and hanging out every day. That will be the best part."

Justin Rice can be reached at rice.ju@gmail.com.

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