BIDDEFORD — The signature was the easy part.
It was all the effort that led up to it that was the toughie.
All the practices, all the games, all the throws.
And all those nettlesome decisions, too.
Which sport? Which college?
Which is a nice problem for Keila Grigware to have to sort out.
She did just that officially, Monday, with a stroke of her pen, when she signed her Letter of Intent to attend the University of New Hampshire as a track and field athlete.
“It was definitely difficult,” said Grigware, who has yet to settle on a major. “A lot of stressful nights. Some more stressful than others. Thinking, ”˜aw, I might never play basketball again.’ It ended up being right with all the key components. I had to look beyond sports to the academic programs that they had.”
The brief ceremony took place before a gathering of family and well-wishers at Steve White Gym, the scene of many of Grigware’s athletic achievements in volleyball and basketball.
Chief among those was the free throw that made her the fifth member of Biddeford’s 1,000 club.
“They wanted me to have it in the cafeteria,” Grigware said. “But I said, ”˜no, it needs to be in Steve White Gym.”
Flanked by her parents Mike and Pat, and older sister Alyssa, Grigware put pen to paper, and put to rest all the questions regarding her near-term future.
Needless to say, the weight lifted from her shoulders was akin to several shot puts.
“It’s definitely huge,” said Grigware, who is the two-time reigning Class A javelin state champion, and the defending champ in the shot put. “Comparing different schools. Different sports and programs. It just feels good to see it in a new way.”
Which is to see it in the rear view mirror.
“This is definitely a good fit for me,” she said. “Now I’m just looking forward to getting to UNH, and excited for what I’m going to be doing.”
A Journal Tribune Athlete of the Year honoree in all three of her sports, Grigware began to zero in on throws after making a surprising, and successful showing at the state meet two years ago.
She won the javelin title with a hurl of 122-1, which exceeded her personal best prior to the meet by a full 10 feet.
“Definitely having success early as a first year athlete in the sport,” said Grigware, “made me think that I might have a bright future in this. It definitely opened the doors to exploring more options.
“It was a decision as a sophomore to focus on (an) individual sport. I think doing that was less stressful. It was just a fun time.”
Grigware repeated as state champion last year with a 126-0 throw, and added the shot put title (38-9) to her resume, to boot.
She hopes to cap her Tiger career in resounding fashion.
“Now that this is out of the way and I’m certainly going to UNH, I can ease off thinking about college and focus on each task at hand,” she said. “Set more short-term goals for this season. Then see what happens.”
— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com, or follow on Twitter @DanHickling.
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